Darksiders II review and opinion roundup

After clocking up about 4 or 5 hours in game so far I can honestly say that this game is well worth it. Much more fun than the original. Mounted combat, weapon system, mobility and much more fluid combat mechanics make this one of the best games I have played so far this year. I would say the only let down in it is the low res textures but we have consoles to blame for that.
 
I've also done about 4 hours to check it out and I honestly could not get myself to play any longer. On console it will probably be acceptable, but on PC it is horrid. The textures looks terrible, even for a PS3/360 nevermind a PC. Probably on par with Wii graphics. The character model in inventory screen is downright laughable. The world is 3 times as big as the first one, but it's filled with big wide bland open spaces. The feel of the game just feels wrong. It's the apocalypse and you play as the most scary and feared horseman of them all Death. Yet it has a real, Nintendo/kiddies feel to it, nothing dark and gloomy here. You can take out the blood and it can marketed for kids. After playing this, I can say I enjoyed the linear, dark feeling of the first one more. The combat is fun though, but not that fun for me to spend hours completing this trash.
 
Tarka said:
I've also done about 4 hours to check it out and I honestly could not get myself to play any longer. On console it will probably be acceptable, but on PC it is horrid. The textures looks terrible, even for a PS3/360 nevermind a PC. Probably on par with Wii graphics. The character model in inventory screen is downright laughable. The world is 3 times as big as the first one, but it's filled with big wide bland open spaces.
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Maybe because you're playing a pirated copy of the game?
 
Azimuth said:
Maybe because you're playing a pirated copy of the game?
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It launched on US steam on the 14th all ready. I thought the same thing when I saw the comments. Granted a pirate copy could still be the case.

I do find it a little funny to hear people whine about this, I mean its not like you didn't know. Surely you should have expected this, play it on console or skip it.

EDIT: And it turns out you where right.
 
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Azimuth said:
Maybe because you're playing a pirated copy of the game?
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Maybe, but sometime I believe in trying before buying. If theres usually a demo of the game, I'll play that, if not, I'll "acquire" a "demo". If I enjoy it, I'll buy it, if I don't, I delete it. This is actually a good example of developers pushing crap out the door and expecting you pay R500 for the game. But that is different topic altogether.
 
Tarka said:
Maybe, but sometime I believe in trying before buying. If theres usually a demo of the game, I'll play that, if not, I'll "acquire" a "demo". If I enjoy it, I'll buy it, if I don't, I delete it. This is actually a good example of developers pushing crap out the door and expecting you pay R500 for the game. But that is different topic altogether.
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Fine, but IMHO you forfeit your right to complain the moment you fail to pay for something.
 
Luckily going to play this on console so shouldn't be too bad by my standards, only getting it on Wednesday. Loved the first one and probably will really enjoy this too
 
I have seen the what the pirated version looks like on PC and I have to disagree with Tarka. While it is pretty obvious that it is a direct port from console, it really does not look bad. I was actually impressed by the visuals, especially the colourful visual style. FYI: I am not a pirate, I just happened to come across it on a friend's hard drive over the weekend and I couldn't help myself, curiosity got the better of me.

@Tarka: Honestly? "A good example of developers pushing crap out the door?" LOL, you obviously don't know what you are talking about. Maybe you don't like it because they use more than one colour, or you can't wrap your head around the puzzles or something. I played it for 15 minutes or so and knew that it would be well worth the R879 the CE is costing me. Would you have been more satisfied if it was a brown shooter?

I already had my CE in my hand today (the mask is AWESOME, btw), but due to the release embargo I can only get it and take it home with me tomorrow. I cannot wait to put some serious time into this, although I'll probably only get to play it after the 1st of September when I have finished moving into my new flat.
 
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Uhm, this is kinda awkward. Does WAGE really not have an issue with their game server admins openly admitting to piracy on public forums?
 
OmegaFenix said:
Fine, but IMHO you forfeit your right to complain the moment you fail to pay for something.
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Not complaining, just giving my opinion and maybe save somebody else the possible disappointment.

Wlad said:
I have seen the what the pirated version looks like on PC and I have to disagree with Tarka. While it is pretty obvious that it is a direct port from console, it really does not look bad. I was actually impressed by the visuals, especially the colourful visual style.

@Tarka: Honestly? "A good example of developers pushing crap out the door?" LOL, you obviously don't know what you are talking about. Maybe you don't like it because they use more than one colour, or you can't wrap your head around the puzzles or something. I played it for 15 minutes or so and knew that it would be well worth the R879 the CE is costing me. Would you have been more satisfied if it was a brown shooter?
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To each his own I guess, I own the PS3 version of Darksiders 1 which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I was expecting the second one to be even more "dark", since you are playing as Death. The general graphic quality also looks terrible in my opinion, comparable to something you might find on the Wii, or back in 2005. The game world is 3x bigger, but yet actual game size is half the original. 10GB vs 5GB.
 
Tarka said:
Not complaining, just giving my opinion and maybe save somebody else the possible disappointment.



To each his own I guess, I own the PS3 version of Darksiders 1 which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I was expecting the second one to be even more "dark", since you are playing as Death. The general graphic quality also looks terrible in my opinion, comparable to something you might find on the Wii, or back in 2005. The game world is 3x bigger, but yet actual game size is half the original. 10GB vs 5GB.
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Comparable to Wii? I'm sorry, I cannot take you serious anymore.
 
Wlad said:
I have seen the what the pirated version looks like on PC and I have to disagree with Tarka. While it is pretty obvious that it is a direct port from console, it really does not look bad. I was actually impressed by the visuals, especially the colourful visual style. FYI: I am not a pirate, I just happened to come across it on a friend's hard drive over the weekend and I couldn't help myself, curiosity got the better of me.

@Tarka: Honestly? "A good example of developers pushing crap out the door?" LOL, you obviously don't know what you are talking about. Maybe you don't like it because they use more than one colour, or you can't wrap your head around the puzzles or something. I played it for 15 minutes or so and knew that it would be well worth the R879 the CE is costing me. Would you have been more satisfied if it was a brown shooter?

I already had my CE in my hand today (the mask is AWESOME, btw), but due to the release embargo I can only get it and take it home with me tomorrow. I cannot wait to put some serious time into this, although I'll probably only get to play it after the 1st of September when I have finished moving into my new flat.
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Thats a good price for the CE, mine was £80 but worth it. Are we going to post pix of the masks? :p
 
Wlad said:
Comparable to Wii? I'm sorry, I cannot take you serious anymore.
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From the IGN review:
Unfortunately, the graphics aren’t quite up to snuff with the current generation of hardware. Some of the textures are so pixilated they look like they belong on a Wii, such as the oft-used skull and bones pattern (which is alarmingly flat, and thereby entirely unconvincing). It’s a shame, as the mediocre graphics undermine the game’s inspired art design. The animations are also quite choppy, as the game suffers from some fairly frequent framerate issues. There’s rarely enough happening onscreen to justify these MMO-like graphics. It looks good enough that it usually won’t distract from the adventure, but compared to similar games like God of War 3, the graphical presentation of Darksiders II is subpar.
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Tarka said:
From the IGN review:
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LOL, I actually find it funny that you quoted IGN on that. (I don't take them seriously most of the time either). It's still just on opinion though. As is mine, obviously, but I cannot see the comparison between the graphics of the average Wii game and this one.

Also, awesome graphics are not needed to make a great game. In the end it's all about the gameplay (IMO), and THQ nailed that.
 
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Darksiders 2
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Conduit 2 [Wii]
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Metroid Prime 3 [Wii]
metroid-prime-3-corruption-20060914022547997_640w.jpg


You see no difference between those images?
 
The fact that IGN slammed the graphics like that instead of simply skimming over them tells me that THQ didn't pay them bucketloads for advertisements. Had THQ not been experiencing financial difficulties, IGN would probably have rated the game 9.0 or higher. :p
 
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