Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition | Xbox One

---

Better late than never, as they say, Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition recently popped into our lives - a Zelda-esque, dungeon-exploring, overworld-adventuring treat for us to behold.

---

​
​by Sam
​Sant

---

​@pass_controller

---

Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, Microsoft Windows
Developer: Vigil Games
Publisher: Nordic Games
Players: 1 

You wield the signature scythe - or scythes in this instance - of Death, one of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as you quest to absolve War’s tarnished name. Your brother stands accused of bringing about the end times and with that eradicating humanity, so the player embarks to seek The Tree of Life and restore lifeblood to the decaying world.

You’ll stumble upon a menagerie of exotic locales and locals within them along the way. Whilst none are particularly well fleshed out, they’re one and all a pleasure to engage with thanks to the game’s strong artistic vision, design, writing and voice acting. These inherent strengths paired with the charming soundtrack make it impossible not to warm to your whimsical surroundings. Death is naturally a little sharper than most protagonists, which also makes him oddly endearing, especially when he quips about how ridiculous it is to offer him busy work in the form of sidequests.
​
The real meat of the Darksiders experience lies in exploring its expertly designed and labyrinthine dungeons, from which you couldn’t ask any more. They’re consistently engaging and unfold in boundlessly interesting ways thanks to their balanced mix of head-scratching puzzles, somewhat automated navigational parkour and action-packed combat. They never became so perplexing as to have us throw up our hands and admit defeat, but the experience was challenging enough to keep us on our toes.
​
The aforementioned combat system is competent ‘spectacle fighter’ fare, somewhat akin to Ninja Theory’s DmC: Devil May Cry in the wielding of two separate melee weapons, a ranged pistol, and a devastating true-form transformation. Death’s grim scythes are always your primary, though they can be traded in for any better equivalent you may loot or purchase, whilst the secondary weapon slot is open to wider variation. Equipping anything from a lumbering great axe, to nimble clawed gloves, you can incorporate them into the timing-based combo system with ease.

Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition is excellent from a design standpoint, but technical issues hold it back from being the classic it legitimately could have been.

As you lay waste to your enemies and gain experience, you’ll level up to receive upgrade points, which can be spent on numerous active abilities to incorporate into your arsenal. There’s a wide range to account for many playstyles, examples being a health-regenerating slash attack, a damage-absorbing shield, and the ability to summon necromantic minions to fight by your side. The combat’s at its most satisfying both when you find a loadout that works for you, and when it comes to boss fights.
​
Present in two forms, some of the hulking bosses require a Souls approach; locking-on, circle strafing and dodge rolling to uncover the perfect moment in which to launch your assault. Others pose more of a traditional, multi-staged and puzzle focused fight; the balance stricken once again ensures things never grow tiresome.

Whilst Darksiders II pulls its many systems off well, the kitchen sink style of design makes it somewhat a Jack of all trades, master of none. Numerous technical issues also hold the game back, particularly abundant and significant framerate drops which occur even in empty locations with little to render. There are also needlessly restrictive invisible walls, instances of items falling through the floor, missing sound effects, and even a glitched sidequest that forced a full game restart - whilst it didn’t impede progress, it did negate an achievement we had our eye on.

On the whole, Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition is excellent from a design standpoint, but technical issues hold it back from being the classic it legitimately could have been. It’s a gamer’s game that’s easy to like - a lot - but hard to love. It’s a game we recommend, but most of all, we recommend keeping a keen eye on the upcoming sequel - if it can reach its full potential, we'll have something very special on our hands!

​Pros

• Excellent dungeons
• Rich world & characters
• Exciting boss battles
• Engaging combat system

Cons

• Frame rate can be crippling
• Other technical issues further dampen the experience
• Parkour is highly automated, requiring little skill

8/10