Darksiders II is all about Death, oldest of the Horesmen; loyal brother to War. Taking place after the prologue of Darksiders, where War was accused of starting the Apocalypse early, Death starts his journey in the Veil, unknowing to the Charred Council. This journey leads him to the Crowfather, the Keeper of Secrets, in order to find a way to resurrect the human race to clear his brother's name. His loyalty to his brothers and sister is unquestionable, and you see that he would go to any length to do what he must, but we see that even more when we reach the Crowfather. The Horesmen were created when the four made a bargain with the Council to wipe out the rest of the Nephilim in exchange for untold power. Death sealed the souls of the Nephilim into an amulet, and gave this to the Crowfather. The reason I point all of this out is because, while he gave the amulet to the Keeper of Secrets, you see the guilt that he has for being the "Kinslayer" when the Crowfather requests he take them back. After a quick battle, the amulet is broken and the souls imbed themselves into Death's shoulder; forcing him to wear his burden.
It's all an interesting set-up showing how the Pale Rider's characteristics are very much more than we may have thought from someone named Death. His determination to his Brother and his honor, and the weight he bears for the death of his race. The only sad thing is that while this is a great start, there isn't much payoff after all of this cool build-up. When going with less of a Zelda/God of War style of game and having more of a Diablo set-up, the story beats just hit less frequently and don't connect hard enough to carry some great ideas for this character. Not to say that the story isn't worth playing, but I just feel that they could have gone farther with it. The amulet in his chest is obviously a big deal, and while it will fuel into the story of how Absolom, first of the Nephilim and slayed by Death, turns into the Corruption that is main focus and enemy of the game, it just doesn't feel as strong as it should. Even Corruption/Absolom himself seems less like a big deal when encountering him.
While the story may seem to fall flat in some areas, the improvements to the game-play stand out almost right away. Death is more nimble and swift than War creating for some fast combat and even better platforming. Death's weapon is a shape-shifting scythe named Harvester. He mainly uses it as a dual-scythe lashing out quickly, but it transforms into the picture above when in his true form. You can equip him with two forms of secondary weapons as well; hammers and the like for more slow but powerful attacks, or claws and gauntlets for creating more combos with faster weapons. Taking the Diablo style loot idea into play, enemies will drop all sorts of these weapons, including your scythes, all having not only separate stats, but abilities like fire and ice, or even getting health back. This applies to armor as well. Instead of just the Abyssal armor of Darksiders one, you can all sorts of stuff for Death in this game that will change his appearance quite a bit. Chest pieces, boots, gauntlets, pants, even little capes - it's all here and works great. While the looting isn't super crazy in depth, it works here well and is strengthened by the Possessed Weapons. Getting these will allow you to add other weapons and armor to them to give them abilities and level up their stats, creating a weapon catered to your play-style. Even Vulgrim makes his return to let you gamble on getting better, and even possibly possessed, weapons.
All of this let's you sorta play a little more the way you want when it comes to combat, but that's not the only enhancement. Death doesn't block like War, but instead he flips and doges everywhere. In playing to his swift style, it feels right and works a lot smoother than War's scooting around. The way the platforming feels because of this idea is great as well. Death pretty much runs around like the Prince of Persia and that is always a good thing. You can run along walls, bounding between them in tight corridors, and even run straight up them as well. This gets even a little better when obtaining the Death Grip in the game, which acts basically like the Abyssal Chain except you don't swing around on it like War. Instead it will pull you towards something or even pull lighter enemies to you. It all comes together quite nicely and makes for a faster and more engaging travel for the game.
Now, while the original Darksiders went with the Zelda approach to how you gained more health, Darksiders II sticks with a leveling up system. Death doesn't always play through a dungeon to fight an overall boss like War did, and in turn the same idea wouldn't work as well. When death levels up though, while your normal stats just go up, you do get to get more in depth in how you want Death to pan out.
While I went more to the left-handed side with my playthrough, I know that some also liked the right hand side and put all their points into that. The nice thing is that both will work just fine. I like to get in close and wail on some baddies while others may like the more "spellcaster" feel of the necromancy. On both sides you get to pump points into each ability you unlock (with more abilities unlocking as you level up) and also unlock other skills that tie into those abilities making them have more effects. It's a cool little system that plays it's part effectively.
Of course, I would be silly not to mention one of the first things you'll notice about Darksiders II - the graphics. The style still holds up very well in this sequel, but because of the scope of the game, the game takes a small hit in sharpness and small detail. Not to say it looks bad, it's just a much bigger game. The other thing I'll add is that there is a lot less color in this game. Granted Death travels more in places like the Kingdom of the Dead, but the pallet is a lot more dull this time around. However, I will say that when you get into the dungeons, the lighting and the colors and everything really pop and look much nicer than the previous title.
Overall, the game is another solid entry by Vigil. The combat and abilities are much improved, and while the game is very much a Darksiders game, the play-style is much different than it's predecessor. It's cool to see Vigil and THQ trying to give you the stories of the other Riders in the time between the prologue and ending of the original Darksiders as they plan on going back to War in a final 5th installment (sales permitting of course) once we get the full picture of the Four Horsemen.
-Eddie
No comments:
Post a Comment