How Darksiders II Clawed Its Way Off My Pile Of Shame

GameInformer:
"I enjoyed the first Darksiders almost in spite of itself. Its take on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was like a hesher’s fever dream, with hilariously buff and armored dudes fighting demons in a bombed-out wasteland. It was a great Zelda clone, though, in spite of its silliness. I was looking forward to the sequel, but a game-breaking glitch killed my progress a few hours in. And with that, another game got stacked onto the backlog. But unlike a lot of games on that stack, I actually circled back to it."

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

I still own and love DSII on my Wii U, and even without the full range of DLC I have to say that it was a worthwhile purchase.
That's just how good the game was, and it's more than I can say for a lot of other third party titles that lack their full range of DLC...

[majiebeast]

Darksiders II was a bad game compared to 1, and the pc version was a complete mess. Still havent finished it doubt i ever will.

[nope111]

"Darksiders ll was a bad game compared to 1"

Darksiders ll was a HUGE improvement over Darksiders 1, which was mediocre.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

You're going to have to qualify that statement with some reasons, and evidence to back it up, before I'll take you seriously.

[majiebeast]

Level design was junk,game performance was abyssmal with low res textures and N64 shadows, combat system took a nose dive. The whole itemization didnt feel well designed. It feels like a game rushed to the market before the company went bankrupt. Most of my issues have to do with the pc version though.

[Bimkoblerutso]

"Darksiders ll was a HUGE improvement over Darksiders 1, which was mediocre."

Darksiders II was an improvement over the first Darksiders...which was also a very good game.

[DragonKnight]

I have to agree with majie, but not to the same degree. Darksiders 1 was categorically the better game all around, ESPECIALLY the combat system. Vigil had an opportunity to make Death more akin to Dante from DMC and passed on it. There is no dash button and I find that to be criminal. War is a better character in my opinion because they tell his story better. Death is supposed to be trying to save War, but it seems like he just ends being everyone's errand boy. This is Death, the personification of an end to life, the eldest of the 4 Horsemen and arguably the most powerful (I personally think War is more powerful, and base that on the first game and the comics, but I digress) and yet he's just doing errands for everyone just so they'll give him a sliver of information about what he wants to know.

The antagonist is awful. Hell, Samael was a better antagonist, and he was just used as a plot device.

Darksiders 2 is a great game, but I wouldn't call it an improvement over the first game by any means.

[Hellsvacancy]

I didn't finish Darksiders 2 for the same reason, I did however like some things about it so it wasn't a total loss

Darksiders 2 had some good music, and I liked Michael Wincotts voice acting but overall I just couldn't play it anymore, got boring

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

The level design was just fine, the game's performance was not abysmal because the game ran at a smooth and consistent frame-rate and still looked great doing it, the combat system was fun yet simple, and the weapon customization aspect was one of the best parts of the game.

You're going to have to list reasons that have less to do with semantics and preferences and more with actual game-ruining aspects, like constantly glitching through the environment or cut-scenes not triggering or the game not saving properly, or something.
Oh, wait, there aren't any issues like that.
Guess that's that, then.

[fei-hung]

Loved Darksiders 1 and loved Darksiders 2 even more. I bought it during a PSN sale last year and just recently played through it again to get the platinum.

Loved the lore, characters, combat, platforming and puzzles so much, I hunted down the Premium collectors edition from somewhere in Europe and bought it. Easily the best collectors edition I have bought and unlike majority of collectors editions, this is the real deal; got myself a 520/13300 limited runs.

Hope Nordic dont screw this up and release a Darksiders 3. Need to know how this ends.

[gpturbo81]

one of my favorites on the console. tons of content.

[DragonKnight]

"It was a great Zelda clone."

It wasn't a Zelda clone.

Anyway, I love the Darksiders series, and I hope Nordic Games will pass off development to a suitable studio that can do Darksiders 3 justice. The series deserves it because it's amazing.

[nerdman67]

It was like Zelda meets God of War and they have a child. Which was all kinds of awesomeness

[DragonKnight]

Exactly. It had elements of Zelda, God of War, and even some RPG elements in it. It wasn't a clone of any game, it took the good aspects of other games or genres and incorporated them into one fantastic game.

[Scrivlar]

Absolutely loved Darksiders. Absolutely hated Darksiders 2. Honestly don't know why I just thought it was boring and I expected Death to be cooler and more badass maybe?

[Skate-AK]

Bought the game over a year ago but haven't started it yet. I have the platinum for Darksiders.

[SamPao]

Darksiders 2 is amazing, just start it. Its one of the best games of the last generation!

[nope111]

I hope Darksiders 3 happens.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

I hope it does, too, but somehow I doubt it...

[sdozzo]

Never played 1 but really enjoyed 2. For what it is, lots of fun. Like Amalur.

[nerdman67]

I think both games are awesome, I just wish I could see what happened with War after the end of DS1. The setup was great

[Op_Static]

All this did was remind me of my huge 8 console spanning backlog...I'm gonna go cry now..

I do believe I got about 1/4 of the way into DS1 so far.

[MasterofMagnetism]

A cool game but not as good as the first. Still need to get the platinum for this game.

[ChronoJoe]

I enjoyed the first Darksiders game and wished the story continued from the first. In Comparison Darksiders 2 felt like a really barebones product.

They attempted to expand the scope of the game by providing a more open world environment, but managed to forget to fill that environment. Functionally these open world environments served the same purpose as the linear corridors from the original Darksiders, except they just highlighted how barren the game was.

Worst of all was the itemisation. It really broke the game. You could get over 150 life steal on your weapons within the first 2 hours of gameplay, and from then on you never needed to worry about being damaged again. The game got easier and easier as it progressed due to a poorly considered equipment system, and as a result became very boring, very quickly for me.

Darksiders 1 was a good start to a franchise.