Darksiders 2 (2012)

"He has always been there. He has shaped our beliefs."

Developed by Vigil Games (now defunct) and published by THQ (ditto), Darksiders 2 is a 2012 action/adventure/RPG that takes place during the events of the original Darksiders. In Darksiders, the End of Days had come to mankind and War rode forth to usher in the Apocalypse but to his dismay the other Horsemen did not ride with him. The Charred Council, given the role of protecting the balance between heaven and hell by the Creator, accuse War of starting the Apocalypse on his own and dooming all mankind. War is given a chance to prove his innocence and finds himself being used as a pawn in a conspiracy that threatens to tip the balance. Death learns of these developments and immediately deduces something is wrong. War is the most honorable of the Four Horsemen and Death knows he would not ride before his appointed time. Darksiders 2 follows Death on his quest to prove War's innocence and bring mankind back from extinction. Unbeknownst to Death he too is being used in a celestial game of chess, but to save War the Pale Rider will reap all of creation if he must.

Darksiders 2 takes a fascinating approach to story-telling which while not inherently new on its own, is something not often done with video games. The narrative in Darksiders 2 is told concurrently with the narrative in Darksiders and this creates a very ambitious story arc for this world which has many implications both thematically and artistically. 

"Death will be our savior."

The Darksiders games have always been good at characterizing a concept or idea and with the first game we saw in War a character motivated by revenge but also possessing a strong sense of honor and adherence to order. The tagline of Darksiders 2 is "Death will be our savior" and this is something the game explores remarkably well without shoehorning in this aspect of Death's character. His quest shows that he will go to any lengths to save his brother and resurrect mankind even if it means going against heaven, hell, and the Charred Council. He's a force of nature who doesn't take sides, and reaping the living is his job. It also helps that Death is given a very different personality from what you might expect given his name and purpose.

Death and his boys coming to collect.

Michael Wincott, best known for playing the role of Top Dollar in The Crow voices Death and he does an absolutely fantastic job at nailing each and every nuance of this character. Death is presented as being an affably neutral party. He doesn't get involved in the battles between heaven and hell and seems content with just doing his job. He has a dry wit and is pretty sarcastic especially when talking to someone who annoys him. He's not big on trash talking but he won't back down from anyone and he can return any verbal or physical offense with more than equal favor. Some of his banter with the other characters is quite amusing particularly when some take jabs at Death despite the grim fact that Death doesn't have to negotiate or really talk to anyone when he can just kill them. 

Death and an Old One.

But there is an honorable and to a certain extent compassionate aspect of his nature which the game explores really well. When Death arrives in the Forge Lands he helps the people there almost unconditionally and with the exception of some snide remarks Death is known for he doesn't really complain. Some of the characters even question if he's as bad as legends claim. What makes this work is that the game doesn't de-fang Death so to speak but merely touches upon various sides of him as a character because make no mistake, Death is the baddest mofo in this game.

Just chilling.

Darksiders 2 has action/adventure/RPG elements. Similar to Zelda or Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver where you travel across enormous worlds fighting monsters, interacting with different characters, and there are numerous side-quests sprinkled across the game as you advance the story and traverse the realms. Some of the environments in the game are stunning and every world you visit has a different feel to it. The Forge Lands have a similar feel to World of Warcraft, while Earth is a literal wasteland thanks to the apocalypse. The game has complex puzzles to solve which really do require some thought and practical thinking and some very fun platforming segments which is something I never thought I'd say in this generation. Death is almost catlike as he jumps across planks, wall runs across lava pits, and jumps from wall-to-wall. It's very Prince of Persia-esque and it's done with like quality.

"Got some rare things on sale stranger."

Death is able to equip different weapons, subweapons, and armor that you find in various dungeons and locales throughout the world. Weapons, equipment, and gold are often found within treasure chests but sometimes enemies drop them upon being killed. You can purchase new weapons and armor in towns or from a travelling merchant who seems to know his way around the realms. Death can use scythes (obviously), but also axes, hammers, gauntlets, spears, and other weapons. He's Death so it makes sense that he's intimately familiar with any weapon he picks up. Scythes are your main weapon and is mapped to the square button while any subweapon is mapped to the triangle button and Death can switch weapons on the fly even during combos. The weapons get better as you go further into the game and you eventually come across elemental weapons that can electrocute your enemies, freeze them, or set them on fire.

Comprehensive inventory information.

You will also come across at least a couple of possessed weapons during the course of your journey. Possessed weapons actually have the power to EAT your other weapons and equipment and take on their attributes. You can feed your scythes to axes or axes to scythes and the devoured weapon passes on its stats to the other weapon. So you can have a weapon that hits an enemy with two or even three types of elemental type damage instead of just one. You can also feed your possessed weapons to other possessed weapons to make them ridiculously overpowered. Not only does this allow you to change the look of said weapons but you can even name them. I named one monstrously OP scythe DEATHBANE and another one Kinslayer. I would've gone with Mittens and Big Rhonda but that would have been silly. 

Death is rarely the biggest character but he's always the baddest.

Death has a dozen or so different stats including offense, defense, resistance to elemental attacks, exp gain, money gain, critical hits, and others that are all affected by his equipment. This is similar to Diablo and proves equally effective here as it allows you to customize Death in a way you typically can't with characters in a game of this kind. This allows you to change the way Death plays depending on what stats you focus on such as offense, defense, or magic. During my playthrough I gave Death a balance of physical and magical techniques but someone else might go entirely in one direction or another.  Death will get stronger depending on his equipment but his stats also increase when he levels up similar to an RPG. 

Tremunt Malleo

Whenever Death levels up he also gets a skill point which can be used for physical arts or spells. Death can learn various skills such as teleport stabs, defense buffs, offense buffs, and he can even summon crows and ghouls to attack his enemies but it doesn't stop there. Whenever you unlock a new skill, that skill can be further enhanced. Let's say you choose to summon the undead. Initially you can only summon two but you can increase that number to four eventually. You can also make those ghouls stronger by leveling up that skill so they have more health, more offense, and more defense. You can increase their power further by giving them a fire attribute where not only do they do damage with regular attacks but they'll set your enemies on fire as well. And you can even add another attribute to them where they self-destruct upon being defeated to give your enemies a nasty surprise. It might appear to be daunting at first but the menus are very user-friendly. The weapons and equipment all look different depending on their affinity (warrior or warlock) and even your threads will ensure Death looks like he stepped out of a thousand nightmares. 

Death's True Form

Speaking of nightmares, Death also has a Reaper form. Similar to War's Chaos form from the first game, Death is able to take his true form for a short-time by activating Reaper Mode. When Death takes damage and inflicts damage, his Reaper energy accumulates and once it's at maximum you can transform. All stats including offense, defense, and speed increase allowing Death to make quick work of any foe so the form is best saved for boss battles. Death will also transform during some of his finishing moves which is another point for the game's combat and presentation. Death is agile, very quick, and the combat is fast and smooth. Death executes all manner of stylish poses, back flips, spins, and is quite the dance battler which makes every fight an exercise in elegant badassery. Regular enemies aside, Death never kills his foes in the same ways and the battles show that not only is he creative but he knows how to adapt.

Death hands the Archon ultimate power. And no, Death isn't worried.

Death meets numerous characters throughout his adventure including those from the original Darksiders and some new faces as well. What's great is that many of these characters aren't just dropped into the world for the sake of being there. Each of them have some connection to the events that affected War even if it was in some small way. Some also have deeper connections to Death and the universe as a whole. Even if you haven't played Darksiders the game does a good job of making sure the gamer knows what's going on and what's at stake.

Someone is about to have a bad day.

Darksiders 2 isn't entirely flawless. The gameplay is loads of fun but the game occasionally crashes. These aren't the game-breaking bugs we've seen in Arkham Origins mind you. The game autosaves frequently and you can save at any time but it still breaks the momentum when it happens. When you enter a dungeon the game isn't always clear about where you're supposed to go and what you're supposed to do. This was a big problem in the first game and so Death's crow Dust is supposed to be a helper of sorts by giving you hints, similar to the Watcher from the first game. However, Dust does little but prove he's just as inept helping Death as the Watcher was at helping War. It's frustrating at times especially when you get to the larger dungeons which have different objectives for each floor. 

War vs Death

And while this next thing isn't so much as a con I feel that I should address the difficulty. The game is quite challenging in the early goings and I've also heard some gamers say the end sections are brutal. However, aside from the first few hours and some powerful hidden bosses I didn't have that many problems. I completed a number of side-quests and collected some rare equipment and so by the time I made it to the end boss Death was so OP it literally only took two or three minutes (tops) to put down the final boss. Bear in mind it probably depends on your play style too and how you customize Death but it's because of those outliers it's hard for me to say which demographics might find it too difficult or too easy. 

"Is he the end of the all things? Or the beginning?"

Overall Darksiders 2 is a spectacular game and undoubtedly one of the best titles released this generation. It has its flaws but nothing that really detracts from the game. The music, voice acting, boss fights, and gameplay are all solid, and it has one of the best characterizations of death I've ever seen in fiction. If you're looking for a great adventure and you have an Xbox 360 or PS3 this is one game you need to have in your collection.