Darksiders 2

[wholehole]

I'm about 3-4 hours in now and it's every bit as good as expected, a vast improvement over the excellent first game. It actually feels like a reimagining of Soul Reaver, even down to Deaths look. He could be Raziel in all but name.

The work they've done on the RPG side of things is very welcome. There's a couple of talent trees to fill out as you level up, and it's nice to finally have some meaningful stats on your equipment. The weapons and armor look awesome, and there's been a good variety in models so far. Haven't come across any possessed weapons yet unsurprisingly, but I'm looking forward to getting stuck into the weapon leveling system they've implemented.

It sticks to the series MO, pilfering tasty bits from Zelda, God of War, Prince of Persia etc. I poked my nose into the first dungeon and everything seems to be present and correct in terms of progression through it. It feels slightly more open world than before as although I'm currently blocked off from certain areas Metroid styley, I did manage to explorinate my way to a big boss creature that I couldn't damage effectively and who consequently kicked my ass, which was actually quite cool.

I'm still a bit shocked that this actually exists as I didn't think the first game did well enough for them to spend the money on a sequel. I just hope this one does as well so we get to see the rest of the Horsemen.

[Nag]

Started playing last night, not really done enough to comment on (just got Strife's pistol) looks lovely (no screen tear this time out, thank fuck), controls well and i'm looking forward to getting hold of some more combo moves for the combat.

I agree completely about your Soul Reaver comment, Wholehole.... and thats not a bad thing.

Its a shame this didn't come out a week or two earlier as its going to be sidelined when FoC drops in a couple of days.

[wholehole]

The Soul Reaver thing is coming across more and more. I picked up a torn cloak that wrapped around the bottom of Death's face, the resemblance was uncanny. The way he scrabbles up the walls is very reminiscent as well. May have to replay Soul Reaver again i'm done with this.

There's a few really nice touches in this game. The first is the title screen. It has the camera panning around Death where you saved, you press A to continue, the menu fades away and you're playing immediately. It's a small thing and doesn't really add anything to the gameplay, but I thought it was cool.

You can teleport out of the dungeon and back to a waypoint to purchase extra potions, abilities armor or weapons then port back in to exactly where you were. No more porting out then having to retrace your steps through the dungeon to get to the point you left off.

Aaaaand a couple of bad things as well:

It's nice to see the green and red numbers telling you whether the stat is an up or downgrade, but I would've preferred to see the current values as well to see what the difference actually is. Sometimes you need to take a small hit on one stat to improve another, it just depends how much.

Also, Make sure your controller batteries are fully charged as it doesn't pause the game if the controller dies. I was in the middle of a boss fight when this happened and had to start all over again

[AndyKurosaki]

Picked this up the other day, seeing as how it's scored good reviews. Currently I'm proper into Sleeping Dogs, once I finish that I'll be all over this.

[wholehole]

The sheer size of this game is ridiculous. The massive map you're running around at the start? That's about a quarter of what the game has to offer going by where I'm up to so far. That first map is probably only a touch smaller than the whole map of the first game. Those guys at Vigil are fucking Wizards, they have to be.

Tried The Crucible, got owned. Don't think it's meant to be tackled too early on in the game. Should be alot of fun once I'm all powered up though.

[AndyKurosaki]

Think the size overwhelmed me a bit in the original Darksiders, seem to remember the first dungeon taking a while to get through.

Not played much more of this yet, not because it's bad, I'm just knackered from work.

[OCH]

I recently had a clear out of some old/unplayed games and got this, El Shaddai and FoC - all for £30 too- and I want to finish the latter two first as I know this will be the longer game and so I want to give it my full attention.

[radiofloyd]

THQ and Vigil Games have announced the release date and price point of Darksiders II's first DLC, Argul's Tomb, which will be available free to all those that pre-ordered the title. The DLC will be released on September 25th for all players with the exception of the European owners of a PlayStation 3, who'll have to wait until the 26th, for 560 Microsoft Points/$6.99.

The DLC promises to include new dungeons, and more loot and enemies, and will be included in the Wii U port of the title, which should be available during the console's launch window.

http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/109532-darksiders-ii-arguls-tomb-dlc-release-date-announced.html#disqus_thread

[Nag]

Finally got round to finishing this yesterday, while i enjoyed it i don't think i gave it the attention it deserved due to FoC getting released the same week. Unlike the first game i'm going to attempt an Apocalyptic run through.... i'll save that for quiet spell next summer.

[Bob]

I have just started this, played a few hours and so far it is pretty decent. I love the design of the world and characters, everything is so chunky and colourful. Shame it kind of moves like shit. Death looks good when he is in combat but just running round he looks like he has soiled himself and it all looks a bit cheap and nasty. It's strange though because some of the animation is fantastic, then every now and then it just looks like butts.

In terms of gameplay I am liking it a lot. Quite similar to the first game but all that loot is welcome and the platforming feels very smooth. I find the guided platforming style that is popular now oversimplifies everything but this still feels like I am actually playing it so that is nice. Combat is cool but I am still getting used to the rhythm of attacking and dodging so currently running round with no health potions on the brink of death most of the time.

Story has been really cool as well so far, it was one of the highlights from the first game and the voice cast has been excellent. However no Mark Hamill is uncool. I realise he can't really be in it but that isn't the point. If you can Mark Hamill then you really should Mark Hamill as hard as possible and I think they could have Mark Hamilled but they chose not to so that shit is disappointing.

That is all for now.

[Bob]

After 8 hours the villain has only just been revealed. I really like it when a story does something a bit different and it has really changed the motivation for playing now that the corruption has been given a name and form.

*applause*

[HandsomeDead]

I did some research and I think 'FoC' is Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.  Think of your digital footprint, guys; when talking about a game history won't give a shit about use the full name.

 

I also got this in the recent Humble Bundle (not HB) but I hated this game when I played it on PS3, even as an apologist for the first game.  Funny Lakitu props up the loot as it was the incluision of that is one of the reasons that made me hate it.  Darksiders 2 is a game that does far too many things and is barely average at any of them.  It's like it was designed by a 6 year old; putting in all the shit from cool games but it never meshes.

 

This game just makes me sad because I know a lot of effort went into it but it just doesn't come together.  All I wanted to do is play the games it riffed off during my time with it.

[DisturbedSwan]

Haven't really known what to play since finishing Prey, way too much choice but only a relatively small shortlist I can be bothered to pick up and play, the first of those is this.

 

I'm a fan of the first game, I absolutely loved it and thought it was one of the most underrated games of last Gen, no idea why I hadn't got round to playing this by now, but for some reason I just never got round to it.

 

Played about the first hour, for some reason it just never really resonated at all, everything seemed super generic, the combat I quite enjoyed, but they seem to of put in a light-RPG system that I can't remember being in the first game, including Loot, gear, side-quests and (I'm assuming) a huge open world. It's a very generic setting too, typical high-fantasy world with Scottish accented Dwarf/Troll types and a Norse look to it.

 

What happened to the cool apocalyptic setting of the first game? I know that went into the realms of high-fantasy too at times, but I just loved that mish-mash of worlds, this seems to of gone straight to high-fantasy after a small tutorial section which didn't make a lot of sense.

 

So yeah, didn't think much of it and now I feel sad, I loved the first game and I can't be arsed to go back to this, I feel in some way I should push through the pain barrier and hope it gets better but I haven't been so turned off with a game so early for quite some time.

 

 

[regemond]

Last day in hospital today, so of course I decided to start on a big, epic adventure game.

 

The main motivation was this video I managed to stumble across on YouTube:

 

 

Anyway, I started it on PS3 a while ago and only managed to get up to the first boss you take on while you're on the horse, got stuck there and never went back to it. I've hammered through the first two dungeons today, and I think I'm nearly at the point I got up to last time, so fingers crossed I manage to get the technique down this time.

 

After all the random indie games, and the glorious charm of The Last Guardian, it feels nice and welcoming going back to a slightly generic Western ARPG. I use generic in a positive sense by the way. The combat is loud and fun, if simplistic, the constant supply of loot is hitting those lovely dopamine triggers in my brain, and it looks nice on the PS4 too. Looking forward to seeing what I can get out of this one.

[regemond]

Double post time: that fucker I couldn't get the timings right for all those years ago has just had his ass handed to him first time.

 

Whilst I feel redeemed, I'm also slightly annoyed I managed to do it so quickly this time.

[regemond]

Triple post bitches! Put another few hours in between yesterday and today. There's something been niggling at me for a while now and I think I've figured out just what it is. There's no downtime between dungeons. It just funnels you from one level to the next with no real chill time. I know the fate of humanity is at stake, so a certain amount of haste is to be expected, but somewhere to regroup and call home would be nice.

 

You know how in most open world action games there's a kind of hub where you get a couple of stores, some training, and a few characters to interact with and turn in optional quests? That's missing here. You get it at the start, and it's great, but since the intro I haven't seen it again.

 

Anyway, a few more abilities have been gained, and I'm liking the dilapidated mini castles between the main areas (brings to mind the limited experience I had with BotW), even if there's less than no reason to go exploring right now.

 

I'm really liking the upgrade tree too - I've piled most of my points into a skill that gets me a couple of minions to fight by my side, as well as a few into a teleport slash that regains a little bit of life for damage done. This means that combat is constantly chaos. Like absolutely nuts. One level last night had a room where a skeleton army basically fell out of the walls to attack me. Within 30 seconds my three little minions had racked up a 250+ hit combo (kind of surprised there wasn't a trophy for this, I was struggling to get past 40-odd hits earlier on). 

 

I'm only about 10-ish hours in, but I'm both happy I didn't play this at the time, when I wouldn't have appreciated the things it did right, as well as sad I didn't play it back then when it would have felt a lot fresher and much less generic.

[Nag]

The two Darksider games were really cheap for current gen Xbox a couple of months ago, kind of sad I didn't pull the trigger... didn't because I'm not 100% that I'm gonna go for the third game.

 

Carry on with the updates dude...?

[regemond]

Yeah I think I got them for £16 when they were dropped onto PSN just before the third was announced, so it's been the HD version I'm playing. I ended up getting them because I wanted to support a third instalment, but I've skipped the first seeing as I've finished it before.

 

Will definitely keep with the updates - even if nobody else is reading/enjoying them, it's good to have something to look back at and see if my thoughts change if I ever end up playing it again.

[regemond]

I'm not sure if the entertainment value has dropped off for me, or if I've hit the midway padding section of the game, but in honestly having to force myself to play this right now.

 

I've put another couple of hours on since the last post, and my current story objective is to enlist the help of three souls who'll assist me with the big bad. I think. Some shit like that anyway.

 

So I go to the dungeon with the first soul, and I have to kick his ass. All good, let's go get the next dude. No fight with him this time - now I have to present HIM with three souls (conveniently placed at the top of a trio of towers) in order to prove myself as worthy. Obligatory boss fight at the top of the third one. All good. Second (fifth?) soul enlisted.

 

Now for the third I've been sent to the scene of a previous boss fight then dived into the underworld (but not my underworld, you know, as Death. The god damn horseman of the apocalypse. Fuck it, whatever). The objective in this bit is to 'survive', so I assume it's going to be 5 or 10 waves of bullshit. I just haven't got the energy to put into it at the minute.

 

I'm not done with the game, I want to see the end, but fuck me this section is an absolute chore. Hopefully it improves again as soon as this shit is over.

 

One positive I will give this bit of the game - as I'm collecting these three souls I can then use them to help me with simple puzzles - pressing down pressure pads, pulling switches, that kind of stuff. So with the second one under my command the difficulty has instantly been ramped up and I need to combine the two characters to open up my path to the next room. I do like this, it's not taxing, but it's just a bit different.

[regemond]

Remember in Darksiders 1, it got to a point about 2/3s of the way into the game where you were clambering art around and fighting in a weird destroyed version of Earth? I mean, the whole game could have been like that, I really can't remember, but I have vivid memories of this one area involving a broken freeway and a load of half annihilated buildings.

 

Anyway, I've just hit a point that feels a lot like that, and it's finally clicked the game into place for me. It now feels like a continuation of the series, rather than generic Zelda rip off 846.

 

It's even got the same angel army from the last one to really drive the feeling home. I'm back on board with this one!