On A Pale Horse – Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition Review

<p>Many gamers were saddened when THQ went under&comma; and they all feared that Nordic Games would do nothing with Vigil&&num;8217&semi;s lost property&period; Thankfully&comma; they were wrong as Nordic has released the bastard child of <em>The Legend of Zelda<&sol;em> and <em>God of War<&sol;em> on next generation systems&period; <em>Darksiders II&colon; The Deathinitive Edition<&sol;em> can be purchased for the PS4 and the Xbox One&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;11&sol;04115439&sol;untitled&period;png"><img class&equals;"wp-image-94517 aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;11&sol;04115439&sol;untitled-1024x576&period;png" alt&equals;"Darksiders 2" width&equals;"926" height&equals;"521" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This version not only contains the original game&comma; but also all of the DLC&comma; 1080p graphics which have been enhanced using a new rendering engine that makes the shadows and environments look so much better&comma; and a reworked loot and balancing system that evens out some parts of the game&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m planning on opening my still sealed version for the Xbox 360 and popping it in to compare one evening&&num;8211&semi;that will be fun to do&period; Then I can nitpick the old graphics&excl; Console Master Race&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story hasn&&num;8217&semi;t changed any from the original game&semi; you play as War&&num;8217&semi;s brother&comma; Death&comma; and you&&num;8217&semi;re aiming to get him cleared of all charges&period; Problem is finding the proof that the Charred Council will believe&comma; so instead&comma; Death seeks to resurrect humanity so that all charges are dropped&period; The first thing Death must do is find the Keeper of Secrets and after a brief encounter&comma; Death is sent to a world on its last legs&period; This world is slowly dying from the Corruption and to make matters worse&comma; Death must get to the Tree of Life before the planet perishes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This leads Death on a huge series of fetch quests throughout the world&period; First you must free the fire from the belly of the planet&comma; then you must free the tears&period; Thankfully&comma; the fetch quests aren&&num;8217&semi;t like the usual ones&semi; these involve massive dungeons to traverse&comma; enemies to beat&comma; and loot to find&period; Once I was done with one quest I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t wait to get started with another and another&&num;8211&semi;not to save humanity because people suck&comma; but because I was enjoying the hell of out this game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 962px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;gyazo&period;com&sol;356b54cc3b0985c2d3fa0d1f11c12694&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"962" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Darksiders II&colon; Deathinitive Edition&comma; Nordic Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The controls are fairly easy to learn&semi; square is attack with your main weapon&comma; triangle is attack with your secondary weapon&comma; and L1 is dodge&period; Pretty simple&comma; right&quest; Except the dodge being bound to a trigger threw me for a loop&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m use to it being set to the X button&comma; so there were times I took unnecessary damage because I was jamming on the wrong button&period; Unfortunately&comma; this continued with me throughout most of the game&comma; but I persevered and overcame&period; As you progress&comma; you are taught more and more platforming moves and attack moves&period; The platforming controls are very tight and easy to grasp&&num;8211&semi;the tutorial tells you have to jump from beam to beam and it&&num;8217&semi;s natural and easy to remember&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When you need to throw a bomb at a wall to gain entry to a chest&comma; you simply click R3 and you&&num;8217&semi;ll pop into aiming mode&period; Aiming mode is easy to use and can also be used when you find projectile weapons to kill the Corruption&period; I know I&&num;8217&semi;ve not played the original <em>Darksiders<&sol;em> in quite some time&comma; but I don&&num;8217&semi;t remember a button to click on to see where you have to go&period; In <em>Darksiders II&comma;<&sol;em> Death uses his raven&comma; Dust&comma; to show you what path you must take next&period; This was extremely helpful for me since I get lost really easily in these dungeons&comma; especially when I pause for a second to do something&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The new RPG elements that they added to this successor are fun&period; I just have one word for it&colon; loot&period; Everyone loves loot&&num;8211&semi;finding loot&comma; picking it up off of fallen foes&comma; trading and upgrading loot&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s all a blast and it was all added here&period; After you kill a bunch of foes you can run around and pick up all of the loot they&&num;8217&semi;ve dropped&period; They may have dropped armor&comma; weapons&comma; or gold&comma; all of which are very useful&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1419px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;gyazo&period;com&sol;11945f286ee9da8630e0e6e0dc926a0e&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1419" height&equals;"800" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Darksiders II&colon; Deathinitive Edition&comma; Nordic Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I didn&&num;8217&semi;t realize at first that Death was practically naked&comma; so as I slowly picked up new pieces of armor&comma; I would immediately compare them and place them on Death to soak up damage and to gain some perks&period; As is with every RPG&comma; you can only use items that are your level or lower&comma; and some of these items can be upgraded&period; What is neat is that when you upgrade an item&comma; you don&&num;8217&semi;t have to go find a blacksmith or anyone to do it for you&period; You simply &&num;8220&semi;sacrifice&&num;8221&semi; other weapons or armor to increase the item&&num;8217&semi;s level&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a nice addition&comma; I think&period; This way I could have several weapons to fall back on in case I ran into a very tough enemy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Now&comma; I never got a chance to play my copy of this game on the Xbox 360&comma; so I&&num;8217&semi;m yet to really compare the graphics and controls&comma; etc&period;&period; What I can say&comma; though&comma; is that this game looks amazing on my television&period; Joe Madureria&&num;8217&semi;s character designs really look amazing&comma; and it makes me hope that Nordic signs him up to design <em>Darksiders III<&sol;em> when that finally comes to fruition&period; I use to follow Madureria when he was drawing comic books in the late 90&&num;8217&semi;s&comma; and I&&num;8217&semi;m glad that he&&num;8217&semi;s found his niche in gaming&period; The voice acting is great&comma; each character has a distinct voice and the actors really take hold of their roles&period; The music adds to the ambiance of the game&comma; too&semi; when you&&num;8217&semi;re in a desolate place&comma; the music makes you feel that&period; When you are in more of calm&comma; natured filled area&comma; the music calms you and makes you want to stay in that area&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1420px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;gyazo&period;com&sol;1069b233c43e4eea084cb72e5082cfba&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1420" height&equals;"799" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Darksiders II&colon; Deathinitive Edition&comma; Nordic Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I&&num;8217&semi;m one of those gamers that kind of rolls his eyes when he hears about another &&num;8220&semi;Remastered&&num;8221&semi; game for next gen consoles&period; However&comma; I was pleasantly surprised by this particular remaster&&num;8211&semi;maybe it was the fact that I didn&&num;8217&semi;t play the old one or because I love the <em>Darksiders<&sol;em> games so much&period; Either way&comma; I fully enjoyed my time with this game&comma; and it makes me hunger for more <em>Darksiders<&sol;em> entries&period; Gunfire Games did a great job porting this to next generation consoles and from what I hear they may be working on a third entry&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m guessing that this remaster was a test to see if making another game was viable&period; Hopefully it is doing well in their eyes and will garner another game for us&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;ve not played this game before&comma; this is the version to get&period; If you have played it and have an itch to jump back into the world of <em>Darksiders<&sol;em>&comma; you should definitely pick this game up&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PS4 code for Darksiders II&colon; Deathinitive Edition was provided by Nordic Games for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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