Darksiders II review (MyGaming)

Dan is sad no one commented on his review :( He threatened to Instagram his suicide note.
 
I'm going to start writing more controversial reviews. Maybe instigate a few platform wars or do a spot of women bashing.
 
Having now spent 17 hours in Darksider 2 I feel I can finally comment on this. Just to be clear I haven't finished it yet.

If I am totally honest... its losing me. As Dan said in the review alot of its is heavily borrowed from what came before it, however unlike Dan I dont think what is borrowed is as good as the original.

The combat is weighty but if you have more than 3 enemies around you prepare to spam the health potion quick use key (especially on Apocalyptic Difficulty). The lock on mechanism is useless with multiple enemies and can be vomit inducing if you start flick switching between enemies. The copious amounts of useless loot thrown out is also stupid, I have in excess of 250 000 gold and not one of the items for sale by any of the vendors can improve my stats significantly (or my damage at all) more often than not you will also purchase a 70K pair of new pants only to have the first enemies you smash drop a better pair. As for the stat comparison window.. dont even get me started. Its completely useless. On more than one occasion it has shown me in bright green letters than my dps will go on only to have it drop due to the strength modifier on the old weapon. I've taken to picking everything up and then slowly going through them in my inventory to see exactly what effect it will have. The platforming is fun and the environmental puzzles smart and well thought out, most of the time. Too bad then that its let down by Death getting stuck in the enviroments or failing to grasp the ledge instead plummeting down. The tedious back and forth collecting of 3 pairs of this or that (and its always 3 pairs) also gets old and while the world is "pretty" as far as art direction is concerned I find myself simply quick travelling.
Skill tree is better than the one in Sleeping Dogs (which isn't really saying much since the one in SD was nothing more than a linear path) But the abilities still feel useless and cumbersome to trigger, except for the reaper harvest move, which is excellent for when you are surrounded.

I went into Darksiders 2 hoping to come out saying I had misjudge the series back when I said Darksiders 1 sucked but this, to me anyways, has the exact same issue as the original... it simply has no staying power. At no point did I feel compelled to just explore a little further, it was entirely too easy to simply switch it off and rather Grind Levels in Pokemon Black... that is saying something.
 
I am busy playing it now...and I really don't like it...Having played around 5 hours of it I can honestly say I won't ever play it again..its a shame because I really wanted to like it..I also feel that its an IP with insane potential if done right...
 
OmegaFenix said:
Having now spent 17 hours in Darksider 2 I feel I can finally comment on this. Just to be clear I haven't finished it yet.

If I am totally honest... its losing me. As Dan said in the review alot of its is heavily borrowed from what came before it, however unlike Dan I dont think what is borrowed is as good as the original.

The combat is weighty but if you have more than 3 enemies around you prepare to spam the health potion quick use key (especially on Apocalyptic Difficulty). The lock on mechanism is useless with multiple enemies and can be vomit inducing if you start flick switching between enemies. The copious amounts of useless loot thrown out is also stupid, I have in excess of 250 000 gold and not one of the items for sale by any of the vendors can improve my stats significantly (or my damage at all) more often than not you will also purchase a 70K pair of new pants only to have the first enemies you smash drop a better pair. As for the stat comparison window.. dont even get me started. Its completely useless. On more than one occasion it has shown me in bright green letters than my dps will go on only to have it drop due to the strength modifier on the old weapon. I've taken to picking everything up and then slowly going through them in my inventory to see exactly what effect it will have. The platforming is fun and the environmental puzzles smart and well thought out, most of the time. Too bad then that its let down by Death getting stuck in the enviroments or failing to grasp the ledge instead plummeting down. The tedious back and forth collecting of 3 pairs of this or that (and its always 3 pairs) also gets old and while the world is "pretty" as far as art direction is concerned I find myself simply quick travelling.
Skill tree is better than the one in Sleeping Dogs (which isn't really saying much since the one in SD was nothing more than a linear path) But the abilities still feel useless and cumbersome to trigger, except for the reaper harvest move, which is excellent for when you are surrounded.

I went into Darksiders 2 hoping to come out saying I had misjudge the series back when I said Darksiders 1 sucked but this, to me anyways, has the exact same issue as the original... it simply has no staying power. At no point did I feel compelled to just explore a little further, it was entirely too easy to simply switch it off and rather Grind Levels in Pokemon Black... that is saying something.
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The Joker said:
I am busy playing it now...and I really don't like it...Having played around 5 hours of it I can honestly say I won't ever play it again..its a shame because I really wanted to like it..I also feel that its an IP with insane potential if done right...
Click to expand...

Fanx - that's $49.99 saved for me.
 
OmegaFenix said:
Having now spent 17 hours in Darksider 2 I feel I can finally comment on this. Just to be clear I haven't finished it yet.

If I am totally honest... its losing me. As Dan said in the review alot of its is heavily borrowed from what came before it, however unlike Dan I dont think what is borrowed is as good as the original.

The combat is weighty but if you have more than 3 enemies around you prepare to spam the health potion quick use key (especially on Apocalyptic Difficulty). The lock on mechanism is useless with multiple enemies and can be vomit inducing if you start flick switching between enemies. The copious amounts of useless loot thrown out is also stupid, I have in excess of 250 000 gold and not one of the items for sale by any of the vendors can improve my stats significantly (or my damage at all) more often than not you will also purchase a 70K pair of new pants only to have the first enemies you smash drop a better pair. As for the stat comparison window.. dont even get me started. Its completely useless. On more than one occasion it has shown me in bright green letters than my dps will go on only to have it drop due to the strength modifier on the old weapon. I've taken to picking everything up and then slowly going through them in my inventory to see exactly what effect it will have. The platforming is fun and the environmental puzzles smart and well thought out, most of the time. Too bad then that its let down by Death getting stuck in the enviroments or failing to grasp the ledge instead plummeting down. The tedious back and forth collecting of 3 pairs of this or that (and its always 3 pairs) also gets old and while the world is "pretty" as far as art direction is concerned I find myself simply quick travelling.
Skill tree is better than the one in Sleeping Dogs (which isn't really saying much since the one in SD was nothing more than a linear path) But the abilities still feel useless and cumbersome to trigger, except for the reaper harvest move, which is excellent for when you are surrounded.

I went into Darksiders 2 hoping to come out saying I had misjudge the series back when I said Darksiders 1 sucked but this, to me anyways, has the exact same issue as the original... it simply has no staying power. At no point did I feel compelled to just explore a little further, it was entirely too easy to simply switch it off and rather Grind Levels in Pokemon Black... that is saying something.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I strongly disagree with you. I am on new game + on Apocalyptic (about 6 hours in now) and I don't think I've used a health potion more than twice. I spent about 26 hours to finish the game the first time around and got Death to level 21 before starting new game +. I dig the loot, even if most it is useless, so much so that I have to drop something everytime I want to pick something else up. I also have about 1 200 000 Gilt. While I will agree with you that the stat comparison window is very limited, I won't go as far as calling it useless. It does serve a purpose, but it is there only for a quick reference and usually just shows the weapons base damage and special properties. You have to go to your inventory and look at the full set of stats that affect dps, e.g. critical chance, etc.

I really didn't have a lot of issues with Death getting stuck or not grasping a ledge, the only problem I encountered was Death sometimes jumping in the wrong direction from a ledge or something. Didn't mind backtracking to collect stuff at all. Loved the addition of the skill tree and I really don't see how you can call the skills useless. The skills are the main reason why I haven't really used any health potions on new game + and I also don't find them cumbersome to trigger at all. I rely very heavily on my 3 flocks of crows to slow down the enemies and bring me health and reaper energy. If I run out of wrath to use the skills I either switch to the gun (which generates wrath rather quickly) or just get critical hits with my scythes to generate the wrath.

I can honestly say that Darksiders II delivered everything I wanted in a sequel and more. The story was great, characters were awesome and the voice acting was top notch as well. I also loved the added RPG elements like the skill tree and the awesome loot (can't wait to get the epic loot in new game +) and I had so much exploring the world(s) and solving the environmental puzzles. I also really didn't use fast travel all that, loved riding Despair everywhere and destroying anything in my path along the way. Really hoping they sell enough copies so THQ greenlights another one. I can't wait to see which horseman/woman we get to play with next.

To each his own, I suppose ...
 
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Wlad said:
Interesting. I strongly disagree with you. I am on new game + on Apocalyptic (about 6 hours in now) and I don't think I've used a health potion more than twice. I spent about 26 hours to finish the game the first time around and got Death to level 21 before starting new game +. I dig the loot, even if most it is useless, so much so that I have to drop something everytime I want to pick something else up. I also have about 1 200 000 Gilt. While I will agree with you that the stat comparison window is very limited, I won't go as far as calling it useless. It does serve a purpose, but it is there only for a quick reference and usually just shows the weapons base damage and special properties. You have to go to your inventory and look at the full set of stats that affect dps, e.g. critical chance, etc.

I really didn't have a lot of issues with Death getting stuck or not grasping a ledge, the only problem I encountered was Death sometimes jumping in the wrong direction from a ledge or something. Didn't mind backtracking to collect stuff at all. Loved the addition of the skill tree and I really don't see how you can call the skills useless. The skills are the main reason why I haven't really used any health potions on new game + and I also don't find them cumbersome to trigger at all. I rely very heavily on my 3 flocks of crows to slow down the enemies and bring me health and reaper energy. If I run out of wrath to use the skills I either switch to the gun (which generates wrath rather quickly) or just get critical hits with my scythes to generate the wrath.

I can honestly say that Darksiders II delivered everything I wanted in a sequel and more. The story was great, characters were awesome and the voice acting was top notch as well. I also loved the added RPG elements like the skill tree and the awesome loot (can't wait to get the epic loot in new game +) and I had so much exploring the world(s) and solving the environmental puzzles. I also really didn't use fast travel all that, loved riding Despair everywhere and destroying anything in my path along the way. Really hoping they sell enough copies so THQ greenlights another one. I can't wait to see which horseman/woman we get to play with next.

To each his own, I suppose ...
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Bah! Now I'm conflicted - dont want to shell out R500 for a game I might not like


Anyone have a 2nd hand copy they're willing to sell me? Cheap!
 
Salt, let me introduce you to wound. Wound, this is Salt. I'm sure you'll have a rubbing good time.
 
Haven't played this is about 3 weeks. Tried got bored. It will lay there on my gaming pile awaiting a gaming slump it seems.
 
wow a real mixed bag of reviews here, oh well I bought it on steam for half price. Quite happy to try it out, never played darksiders 1.
 
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