The first Darksiders was warmly received by the players and you can’t deny their good taste in this case. It may not stand out with an extremely complicated combat system, but any shortcomings in this field are more than made up for with interesting themes, the ability to maintain our interest throughout the campaign and perfectly prepared puzzles. The second game is similar to the first in this regard, although I am pleased to say that in some aspects it is even better than its original.
Before we go into the details of the plot of Darksiders II, it’s worth briefly reminding what the previous game of the series was about. In the game, we played War, one of the four biblical horsemen. The aforementioned character was wrongly accused of bringing Armageddon on humanity, and we spent almost the entire game trying to restore the balance under the watchful eye of the Watcher. While the ending of Darksiders: Wrath of War clearly suggested the creation of the second part of the series, it is not a direct continuation of the events of that game. The story of Darksiders II takes place parallel to the events of the first game. While War is trying to get the mighty Destroyer, we play as another member of the riders; Death, who wants to save his brother at all costs . All this, of course, means taking part in a new adventure, and this one, as expected, is long and full of countless adversities.
The plot of Darksiders II was conducted quite efficiently, skilfully justifying the subsequent efforts of the controlled character on the way to saving War. I usually followed the action with great interest and many times I was pleasantly surprised, but still I think that the writers did not do as well as before. Most of all, there were no equally expressive supporting characters as in the previous game of the series. The new heroes of the story are mostly colourless and the authors themselves have probably noticed it, because we are witnessing many returns of old yet familiar faces. The second issue is a fairly average conclusion to the story. The game does not end with such a bang, as it should, and the final boss was a little dissapointing.
Many of the mentioned unique attacks are unlocked from the skill tree. This is not the only accretion from RPG games, because during the game we also find a lot of equipment, which we choose in the inventory according to our own needs. Fans of gathering will be satisfied, because the loot is random, and collecting sets of rare items is quite a challenge. The game, moreover, often forces you to show great dexterity while avoiding the blows of your opponents. This is good news, especially for hardcore fans of “classic” slashers.
When it comes to exploration, we have a division into acrobatic performances with the use of interactive elements of the environment and logical puzzles, just like in the first game. At this point, I would like to focus on the second game, because the puzzles in Darksiders II are one of the strongest points of this game. It starts very innocently, because you have to roll the ball into a giant hole or pull the levers in the appropriate order. Over time, however, the puzzles become more and more complicated and I assure you that you will often stop trying to figure out the next step. It is worth noting that each puzzle has a logical explanation, and as a result, the satisfaction from solving them is enormous.
Darksiders II is no doubt a large game, requiring only 20 hours to finish the main plot. This is undoubtedly due not only to the previously mentioned gifting Death with newer and newer skills, but also a large variety of visited areas, which include both numerous dungeons. I don’t want to reveal too much at this point, but I will mention that we will also have to visit Earth again, with slightly different rules of play than the rest of the stages.