Darksiders II Deathintive Edition Review
Darksiders II Deathintive Edition released in Australia on October 27th, and honestly I couldn't wait to pick it up. I have never played Darksiders before, so I came into the series completely blind and not quite sure what to expect. What I saw and what I played had me genuinely impressed, however if you were a die-hard fan looking for a complete remaster then you are most likely going to be disappointed but don't let the fact that it isn't a full blown remaster discourage you, it still is in my opinion, a great game and worth the price of $39.99 that it is on the Australian PlayStation store.
Let's start with the physical appearance of the game itself. While it still looks like an old game, the up-scaled 1080p graphics soon put your mind at ease. What I did find a little disappointing though is the fact that it is locked in at 30FPS, and in some cases dropped a couple of frames during intense battles where there is quite a bit happening on the screen. However while I would have liked to have seen it run at 60FPS, it never really detracted my game play experience. Despite only being 30FPS, the game still felt smooth and the combat is great fun, with the option to purchase new moves it keeps things interesting and fun, rather than being repetitive like some other hack and slash games.
What was surprising to me was the fact that there are some RPG elements that really appealed to me. For anyone who knows me, I love my RPG's, so I guess this really drew me into the game. Finding a new set of scythes that have a stun ability or a freeze ability was really cool and made me want to explore every little ounce of the semi-open world that Darksiders brings. The interaction with the NPC's (non playable characters) in the game is also a cool little feature that allow you to choose what you wish to say to them and along with this they will also give you side quests to undertake that can lead to all kinds of rewards that will benefit Death (your character) throughout the game. The level system also allows you to build Death around your play style that you can mould into the perfect killing machine. The targeting system can be a little trixy, especially if the enemies manage to get behind you. The camera struggles to readjust and you may have to physically lock off, turn around and lock on again. However these are really only minor issues as overall, the combat system works really well.
Another cool feature that is if you are deep in a dungeon trying to finish that tricky side or main quest you can fast travel back to town. Yes! That is right, a game that will let you fast travel (as long as there are no enemies nearby) and you can resupply back at town before returning to where you were. So when you find yourself low on health with no potions, you can haul ass out of there and pick up some more from the merchant in Tri-Stone (main hub). Trust me, this feature will come in handy especially if you are playing on the harder difficulties (for review purposes I am playing on normal) which in itself can be quite challenging, and believe it or not there are two higher difficulties that you can choose from!
While the story is nothing to write home about, it still keeps it interesting enough to keep you going on your merry way to try and save War (Deaths brother). Death as the name would suggest is not overly impressed about being stuck in Tri-Stone and is even more unhappy when he realises the only way out is to help the people end the corruption so he can get out of there and save his brother and bring back humanity.
On the downside while playing last night (31/10/2015) I did encounter two errors in the space of an hour that crashed my game. While not game breaking, it was rather annoying that I had to go back and repeat what I just done. Luckily enough that the game saves quite frequently and I didn't lose too much progress. It was more the time consumption it then takes to retrace your steps and reboot the game more than anything. This along with a couple of load screens that you can encounter while riding about between different areas can be annoying but the load screens are merely a hindrance as they only last about five seconds.
I would have to say that Darksiders II Deathintive Edition is more of a re-release then a remaster, however I could see where they would have made improvements from the original. I think developer Gunfire Games were more concentrated on building hype around the upcoming Darksiders 3 which I believe has not received a release date. I can say that from playing Darksiders II Deathintive Edition on my PS4 that I will indeed be picking up Darksiders 3.
Overall Darksiders II is a solid game, and for the price I would recommend that you pick it up as it is definitely worth the play and will get you into the swing of things before we see Darksiders 3.
Cheers Guys and thanks for reading!
Zachary Weeks
Aussie Gamers Express Team