With this particular game, I have a special relationship. Back when I was a proud little pirate because my parents didn't consider paying for games a good investment, I managed to download a copy of this game after infecting my computer with every existent virus at the time. Literally, when a new virus entered the computer, the others were like: "Get back in line buddy! You're not the first one here!" Anyway, because I didn't have a controller, with mouse and keyboard the second boss of the game wiped the floor with me so hard that I just gave up.
But that was a long time ago, now it was the time to actually buy a copy and get my revenge. Be aware, I'll try my best, but there will be spoilers!
Graphics
I really don't understand why some people are complaining about games not having the most realistic graphics. I simply love the graphical style of this series, simply because it creates atmosphere in his simplicity. The use of light, shadows and disproportionated objects is giving an authentic feeling to the game that is hard to reproduce.
The thing about pushing the graphics to look realistic is not reliable in the long term, because better graphics will always be pushed, and the existing games will remain behind, looking ugly by comparison, meanwhile a game with a cartoonish vibe will last much longer.
Story
The story from the first game was pretty complex and promised an interesting continuation, which was expected in the second part, of course. But this series seems to offer a parallel view from the eyes of each one of the horseman's. The timeline is pretty complex, I'm not even sure at what point in time they will intersect, even if I finished both games, maybe after the 3rd will all make sense.
Anyway, the plot sounds like this: After the tutorial part of the first game, when War rides alone to Earth, and it's chained by the Council for it, War starts a journey to find a way to fix War's mistake and win its freedom.
And there we have it, Death, besides the fact that he is, you know, Death, he's a memorable protagonist, way more memorable than War, at least for me. By comparison, Death is more charismatic than War, its dialogue lines are better written creating an interesting perspective, another side of the horseman that only comes to collect your soul, making you to sympathize with him, to wish that the story makes him succeed at the end; And yeah, it's a game, not a movie, of course you will get to a certain point, but the idea remains that he's build very nicely.
Progression
If you quit the game at any point, when you load it again you have this short scene, in the same style as the intro, narrated by the same character from the start of the game, The Crowfather. As well as the Slayer's Testaments from Doom 2016, these are also some memorable lines that give atmosphere to the game, and their purpose is only to remind you what you did last time in the game.
Gameplay
Comparing again with its predecessor, Darksiders 2 comes with a much more flexible gameplay, a new set of movements and improved interactions with the environment. All of it is demonstrated right in the tutorial of the game, where you face The Crowfather disguised as War.
The battle is shaping the differences between the fighting style of the brothers, showing the fact that War was more of a brawler, brute force dashing directly into enemy's, meanwhile, Death is much more mobile, more flexible in abilities. To be honest, there are some combos that I used only accidentally, because there are too many, and I get used to some that worked for my play style and that was it.
Besides the combo that can be unlocked by "training" (buying) from skilled characters along the way, the game comes with a level based skill tree that is letting the player chose his own path.
The Harbinger is the one focused more on close combat, dashing and increased force, while The Necromancer is playing the summoner with skeletons that will fight alongside you for a time and crows that will deal damage to the enemies and heal you in the process. Don't get your hopes high because the screenshot is from level 30 which can only be achieved in new game plus, the first playthrough being locked at max lvl 23. So the first time, you don't actually have enough skill point to finish a single tree the first time. The good part, you can reset your skills for only 1000 coins, insignificant amount if you ask me, because I finished the game with 1,500,000 coins remaining.
The gameplay can't be completely described without taking a look at the arsenal of weapons.
From my understanding, since Death isn't on a quest given by the Council, he can't actually use his scythes, and this give use the opportunity to experience a lot of weapons that can be categorised by primary (scythe) and secondary (fast or powerful).
The secondary weapon can be either a slow but powerful weapon, like a hammer, mace or axe, that will hit your enemy with a charged strike in 2-3 business days, but the damage will also get to their feelings when it's finally done. Or you can go fast and scratchy like an angry cat and use claws, bucklers or hooks. I went only with the second option because I wanted my enemies to feel bad about skipping cardio, and also I couldn't afford the damage taken during the charge, cause I was a big boy and played on Deathinitive difficulty; yes, they named the difficulty as the game version.
The loot is randomized, so you can expect some random weapon found in whatever crate to have better stats than a unique weapon obtained after beating a boss. And don't expect this to stop here, as the entire armor is composed by 4 different parts besides some talismans. Did I say that the armor and weapons stats influence the skills and must comply with your fighting style? Oh well, I'm sure you can figure it out by yourself, if you remember this aspect.
Bosses
From smaller but agile to big but slow, the game is full of them. And rightfully so, every encounter is unique. The usual mobs found around the levels might be an upgraded version of the ones from the previous world, with slightly different moves and new abilities, but the bosses battles are authentic.
Camera tricks, different tactics, the use of environment and other aspects make every boss fight to have its individuality, even through some are more memorable than others, you still get that feeling of accomplishment after all of them, especially since every boss fight ends in a cutscene, most of them with Death in its real form.
Puzzles
To say this game is just and hack and slash would be just wrong, simply because the game is full of puzzles, from basic to advanced, required and optional, there are entire dungeons that form a big puzzle on multiple levels.
Some are just to open a door behind which you will find a crate, some are actually to complete the dungeon, puzzles are an important part of the game, but I can't really talk too much about them, can I? Let's get further.
Collectibles
Taking a different perspective from the first game, where you just sold all of them to Vulgrim for currency, in this case there are more types, 3 to be more exactly, and you get them as secondary missions, and guess what, you want to do them, because you will get bonus stats, skill points, and rooms of loot. Oh yeah, and 2 pieces of the Abyssal Armor.
The bad part about them, is the fact that there are at least double the amount from the first game, without any special abilities to make them magically appear on the map as in the first game, or any order whatsoever. If you finished the game and missing one of each, good luck going back through each location again using a guide, because the game shows no mercy, if you finish the game and start new game plus, everything except your inventory stats and level is reset, so you'll have to finish the game again if you want all the achievements.
Speaking of achievements, I don't really feel the need to make an entire section about them since there aren't really hard to get, except for 'The Triple Lindy' cause you don't know what to do, but a quick search on the internet will do. Meanwhile admire how I completed another game as an hungry achievement whore that I am.
The Crucible
Last but not least, The Crucible is a fighting arena where you can go against waves of enemies for gold and experience.
It is worth mentioning for more than one reason. The first would be the fact that there are multiple achievements related to it. More exactly for defeating wave 100. Don't worry you can take 25 at a time, meaning you can start at 25, 50, 75 once you unlock them.
The second would be the fact that that you receive the other parts of the Abyssal Armor, but good luck pulling that out before reaching level 30 on the last difficulty. Also, thanks game, for giving me the best armor after finishing the game....
I couldv'e talked more about this game since there's a lot of stuff in it, but I'm finishing with just some advice if you're playing it on PC, because the game is unstable otherwise:
- Limit it to 60 fps
- Don't minimize the game
- Remove the damage indicators from settings
Final impression
This game is a combination between a hack and slash and puzzle genre nicely combined. The game has much more content than the previous one, side missions that will derive from the main ones, taking another hours to complete and even require visiting optional dungeons. in my eyes this game it's a beauty, I'm not putting it on a pedestal as one of the best games I've played, but it's still a very good one.
Info
All the images were captured during my gameplay.
If you enjoyed what I'm writing, you should also check out: @vladalexan, @enjar, @andvoinoiu
Cheers,
@cm0isa
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