Throughout human history, across all nations, all races, and all cultures, there has been one lone figure… one masked presence that binds us all. His eventual visit is unavoidable and his visage has been known to every man, woman, and child that has ever drawn breath.
He is Death.
With the release of Darksiders II, this coming summer, you take control of Death as he leaps, swings, scythes, and grapples his way through stunning and terrible landscapes, fighting a wide variety of powerful enemies and enormous bosses.
We got to attend the press event for Darksiders II in San Francisco. THQ took over a club and turned it into a Gothic cathedral that set the mood perfectly for the game.
A different kind of Darksiders
Death dives towards a foe
The new Darksiders is a departure from the original. The introduction of skill trees as well as weapon choices and upgrade paths allow for a great deal of customization for the way you want to play. As you can see from the trailer, Death is a bit more agile than his brother War (the protagonist from the first game). He leaps and spins, climbs and runs, while performing immensely acrobatic moves with his weapons. Much of the demo we saw (being played by a Vigil Games representative) showed off just how fast and nimble Death is, a decided departure from the more deliberate and solid presence of War. This, according to developers, was all part of the plan based on how they saw the aspects of the Four Horsemen. Death is ethereal, striking when and where people least expect. War, well… you can usually see it coming from quite a distance, and it makes its presence known.
Therefore, this game plays a bit more like, say Ninja Gaiden rather than the God of War-like experience that some equated the first Darksiders with. Many fights begin by Death throwing a grappling claw out at an enemy, hurling himself towards them, and closing in with two scythes or a giant warhammer.
Death can also hop on to, and ride around on, a massive construct—a stone golem with a spherical “foot” that can roll around crushing things (and faces).
Hop on for a ride
Death’s many enemies
Nobody likes Death, and that is apparent from the scope and scale of the enemies we saw in the demo. The mini-bosses were screen-filling; as big as most of the main bosses from Darksiders I. They wouldn’t out and say it, but they hinted that the main bosses of Darksiders II will be multi-screen monstrosities—we threw out a Shadow of Colossus reference and none of the developers or PR team blinked. We even saw a few sly grins.
The new Darksiders takes on more of a fantasy feel, as—unlike the first title—many of the levels take place on planes other than Earth. While Death does visit Earth, you can also expect to see hellish, lava-and-fire areas as well as mystical jungles and other decidedly un-Earthlike locales.
Hanging around
Death moves like a ninja. He grapples and leaps with high speed and accuracy. We witnessed one level that was a classic trope: The floor is lava and you have to climb up quickly to avoid being destroyed as the lava fills a tube-shaped tower. Death wasn’t slow about it—he raced up that thing like a gecko on meth. He can wall-climb, wall-run, grapple, jump, and fling. When he got to the top, the scythes were out and he was slicing things without missing a beat. The action is frenetic.
Based on the demo gameplay, the people we spoke with in the audience all agreed that it looked like a pretty challenging game (at least to play it with the skill that the demo-driver showed).
Faces of Death
Darksiders II, according to Vigil, will be much, much larger than the first game. One of the things they were most excited about were the breadth and scope of the side quests and collection aspects. Rather than sticking hidden areas into main levels, putting hidden items in them, and calling them “side quests”, they actually developed a world filled with NPCs who interact with Death and provide a large variety of tasks for him. Honestly, the more they gave us about Darksiders II, the more like a large RPG it sounded like.
Still, they insist that it doesn’t stray far from its roots as a high-energy action fighter. There are lots of new things to enjoy: better graphics (especially the PC version, which will offer a large variety of resolution support and better visuals than the console versions), a new skill tree system, more variety of weapons and firearms, much larger scale, and a great deal more NPC interaction—but it’s still a game you’ll be able to sit down with and pulverize some demons into dust with a massive bone-headed warhammer if you need to unwind.
Darksiders II will be available “Summer 2012”, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. There is also a Wii U version in development (and we’re told that it looks extremely good… and that the Wii U is “wow”.) We’ll definitely have more coverage (since, hey… THQ’s community manager, Sledgehammer, is and always will be an Icrontian too!)
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