Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition

Darksiders 2 was the successful sequel to 2010’s Darksiders, which detailed the downfall and redemption of the horseman “War” when the world ends. Now it’s the turn of his beloved brother Death to prove War’s innocence and stop an invading army in the process. Released back in 2012, Darksiders 2 was at the peak of last gen and showed off a great deal in terms of development of the genre and offered an engrossing RPG experience different from its processor.

The “Deathinitive Edition” showcases an improvement in graphics and additional content for those who might have missed it before. Still with a great focus on furious God of War like combat combined with Zelda inspired dungeon exploration. Dungeons are masterfully crafted and engaging for the most adventure hardened gamer, testing out skills of endurance and lateral thinking. There is a whole world to explore too; in fact there are several highly diverse and wondrous worlds to traverse across on foot or on your trusty stead. Don’t worry if you feel like you’re playing a loner version of World of Warcraft as the game is oddly presented visually with a cartoonish vibe with many elements in the design favouring other great RPG games.

There have been tweaks in ambient lighting and offering a 1080p resolution for higher texture detail. There was however some minor frame rate issues while traveling through some of the larger areas and sadly this revamping was fairly lazy for not pushing the game to do 60fps.

The combat is still simple yet highly satisfying, giving players a series of skill trees to improve and acquire new talents with. We are presented with strong RPG elements for the more lateral adventurer that doesn’t overly complicate matters but it still engaging, bringing players more closer to their protagonist. Great concepts for these RPG elements include sacrificing lesser weapons to more powerful ones, creating vastly deadly instruments of death. The combat combined with its looting, exploration and upgrades provide strong RPG elements in a linear, Zelda like adventure. This helps for overcoming more powerful enemies and grander boss battles, which in return give you higher rewards and better loot for more thrilling combat.

Darksiders 2 has a healthy lifespan of 30 hours to enjoy, but I felt the game needlessly over stayed its welcome in terms of narrative. The ideas with the Tree of Life and the unbroken bond of brotherhood are interesting but are often overshadowed by minor story details which repeat and end up feeling like a painfully chess board narrative of go here, kill that, collect this and go somewhere else to do it all over again. Yet we are treated to a superb cast of voice actors, including the fantastic Michael Wincott (The Crow, Halo 2) who does a grand job as portraying a sinister and sickly sweet sounding Death.

It was neat to play the many dungeons again, obtaining skills that allow you to command robotic like warriors and exploring the beautiful world. But on my second time round, I found this game a slight chore to play again, recommending this for new players instead of old. But for those who’ve not seen the additional content before, it’s worth checking out The Abysmal Forge, The Demon Lord Belial and more for a few more hours of entertaining gameplay.

Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition is definitely a worthy checking out if you missed it the first time round or for those who love a good surreal, fantasy epic. Still, those who have played this before might want to take a rain check on this, as there is nothing new from before (unless you missed all the new content). Even with some minor issues in its transition to next gen, this is still an utter joy to play for its great RPG elements, brutal combat, awesome dungeon exploring and Michael Wincott’s awesome voice acting.

A copy of Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition for Xbox One was provided by Nordic Games