Darksiders II is a fantastic game. It’s become a trend to slowly release comics up until a game’s release, but Death’s Door proves why this is such an issue. The main reason is that most of the game’s story can’t be spoiled before its release, thus limiting the comic’s story. Death’s Door feels pointless and empty. Each of the 5 issues is only 13 pages full, maybe 10 sentences each. Sure, the art is good, but the story is seriously lacking, and there’s absolutely zero character development. We don’t even know who Death is or the other Horsemen, and the entire story is about some artifact that Death is trying to get back from an angel. Completely pointless and just plain forgettable.
What this comic also shows is that they need to be released after the game’s release. This gives the writers more freedom to advance or even divert from the game’s story while also incorporating and talking about it. Death’s Door at least looks decent, but it’s also nothing special. Nearly every page is one piece of art with a few words that Death is narrating. It’s all a bunch of foreshadowing and riddles. The entire comic doesn’t make any sense, even for people who have played the games. Sure, we know who the characters are, but this series just doesn’t do the Darksiders franchise justice.
I never really heard of Ian Livingstone’s Fighting Fantasy novels. I just ran across this on Google Play one day and was instantly immersed. This is a text-based adventure with some RPG elements thrown in. Think of this as a pick-your-own adventure with dice. Thankfully, the game handles most of the tedious work for you, like keeping track of items, stamina, and other stats. The story is really intriguing because of how mysterious the whole setting is. You play as a man who is captured and taken to a secluded castle. You later find out that people are being turned into zombies to become part of some crazy guy’s personal army. These aren’t just regular zombies and are a bit smart, as you will find out in the story.
When you get to a certain spot, you can choose to go in different directions; however, some have consequences and rewards. I found that going into a bedroom scored me a few medkits, some items, and maybe a weapon. Some paths lead to dead ends, and you have to restart at your last bookmark. This is very exciting, and I couldn’t put the game down. There are a lot of key items in this game, probably too many, and this is one fatal flaw the game has. I didn’t buy a steel pulley at the very beginning of the story, and it was a key item I needed. Near the end, I had to restart the entire book, which was very tedious and frustrating. I even tried other paths, but they all led to this path.
When you run into zombies, you have to fight. You can either use your weapon or a grenade. You roll the dice, and if you don’t like the roll, you can shake the device until you get the role you want. Some may consider this cheating, but if this feature wasn’t here, you would restart constantly. Some fights required a certain number or higher to defeat the enemy, and some scenes require you to roll to determine whether you survive said event. This is also exciting and makes things tense. However, there is one main issue that almost completely ruins the game. You have to kill all the zombies in order to finish the story. I got to the very end, and it said I didn’t kill them all, and my adventure is over. Huge bummer, and I felt like the book was a waste of time. I went back through them again and just couldn’t figure out how to kill them all. This was a huge mistake on the author’s part.
Other than that, the story is great, but I wish there were more characters. The art is excellent, and the dice-rolling gameplay is exciting and can get tense. I did find the music to repeat through the whole book and get annoying. I will check out more Fighting Fantasy novels, and hopefully I won’t run into an issue where I can’t finish it.
THQ and Vigil return with a new protagonist and tons of improvements over the first game. This time you play as Death, War’s brother, who is trying to redeem War from the Charred Council’s wrath for destroying humanity. On your adventure, you meet new and old faces, as well as a ton of puzzles, bosses, and combatants, as well as new abilities.
The first thing I have to mention is that this game isn’t nearly as confusing to play as the first game. I was always lost and had no idea what to do. Even finding hidden chests was a pain. This time around, there are lots of collectibles and chests, as well as some free-roaming, but in a more organized fashion. You wind up traveling through three different realms, each with its own secrets. The Forge Land is where you start, and you can buy armor and weapons, so Vulgrim plays a small part this time around. By finding Book of the Dead pages and Boatman coins, you can trade them in for special keys as well as random boxes with a piece of armor or weapon from Vulgrim. There are lots of different items to collect and find, so loot is abundant here.
My favorite part about the game is the platforming. It’s just so fun and fluid, as well as fast-paced. The level design is ingenious here because it seems labyrinthine at first, but I rarely had to go to a walkthrough to figure out where to go or what to do. Death even gets to acquire some abilities that are just for puzzle-solving, like the Soulsplitter, which allows him to split into two, and the Voidwalker, which makes a return from the last game. I found the puzzles to be really fun, and they were just challenging enough that you only had to think for a bit before it all clicked. The satisfaction reminded me of how I felt when solving puzzles in Portal.
Secondly, the combat is a lot better than in the last game. Death feels fast, fluid, and has a lot more moves at his disposal than War did. You can buy over 20 new moves throughout the game, as well as upgrade your skills. You will need to play the game twice to be able to upgrade all the skills, but what I did unlock was fun. Eventually, certain moves leached health from enemies, gave me more wrath (needed to do these moves), and stunned enemies. You can turn into Reaper for a while, which does a lot of damage, and you take very little damage. Overall, the combat was just fine, but the camera had issues. Every so often, when I was in a tight corner, the camera didn’t know what to do. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, you can’t really see what’s going on and will take hits. After Forge Lands, the game gets extremely difficult. I died multiple times during certain fights because they were so hard. You also get fewer health potions later on, which can lead to frustrating deaths.
The boss fights are some of the best things the game has to offer. There are plenty of them, and they are fun but challenging. You have to be quick, dodge, and learn the enemy’s moves. There isn’t a block button here, so the game can get really tough. I did find the final boss disappointing because I beat him in one try in just a few short minutes. Besides these issues, the combat is fun, solid, and well done.
I did find the game a bit repetitive after a while. It was the same thing over and over again, just in different orders. Fight these enemies, solve this puzzle, and do this platforming bit. Most action-adventure games are like that, but Darksiders II doesn’t offer much variety. Even the enemies repeat themselves constantly, to the point where you just get sick of killing them. The only time I felt excited about combat after the mid-way point was during the boss fights. Thankfully, the game is just overall fun, so even when you feel the game is getting old, you will want to press on.
The game looks pretty good, with a gorgeous art style. The textures can look a bit ugly up close, and I was disappointed that Vigil didn’t include any PC-specific features. In fact, the graphics options only allow you to change the resolution, and V-Sync doesn’t even work. The keyboard and mouse controls are clunky, so stick with the Games for Windows controller if you have it. There are plenty of collectibles in the world, so people who are dedicated to them will stay busy. This is one long game, ranging from about 15 to 20 hours if you just go through the story and most side quests. If you complete it 100%, you are looking at close to 40 hours of gameplay here. I just couldn’t find the motivation to collect everything, like in games such as the new Batman games and Assassin’s Creed. After I got to the end of the game, I just wanted to finish it and be done.
Overall, Darksiders II is a solid action-adventure game with some minor issues. There are no PC-specific graphics options, there are camera issues during combat, and the final boss fight is a disappointment. Enemies repeat often, and the same puzzle, platform, and combat formula follow throughout with not much variety, but the game is fun. There are a lot of collectibles and a few side quests, and the boss fights are a blast. If you loved the first game, you will love this even more. People who didn’t like the last one should check this out.
With the success of Darksiders II, it’s no surprise that a novel would come out. The Abomination Vault follows War and Death, two of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, before the events of the first game. This is an all-new, original adventure that uses the game’s ideas very well. Death and war are trying to keep the Grand Abominations in the wrong hands. These are weapons made of flesh and steel by the now-extinct Nephilim race. Of course, the White City is involved, and so are the angels. The Charred Council sends Death and War to stop this problem so it doesn’t tip the balance of the pact between Above and Below.
You get to see some insight into War and Death that wasn’t in the game, as well as sneak peeks at what Strife and Fury are like. They appear briefly in the novel, but it’s more than the games. I liked how Ari gave us a closer look at Dust and Death because their relationship isn’t really fleshed out in the games. The same goes for Despair, his horse. There are some pretty good fight scenes in the game, and I found they were well-written and entertaining. Ari really brings across the true power of death and his personality. One thing I was disappointed in was that he never appeared in his true form in the book. Death is a Grim Reaper, and in the game, he can turn into one, but never in the novel. The book is about the relationship between death and war. You truly see how tight-knit these two are and how much they care for each other.
The conversations in the book are well written and keep you drawn in. Ari does a wonderful job describing the environment and what’s around the characters, so you can paint a perfect picture in your head. Overall, The Abomination Vault is highly entertaining and gives us some insight that the games can’t or don’t offer. That is what I mainly came here for, and I feel satisfied after closing the back cover. I know Death and War more, as well as their relationships with their horses and weapons. Pick this up if you are a Darksiders fan, but hold off until you play the second game.
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Yep! The fact that I forgot about this game until you made a comment proves that.