HitokiriNate85
Member
Just finished the game(360). Overall I really enjoyed it. A better game than the original. The soundtrack is likely to be one of the best this year and I think will continue to stick out in my head as one of the best soundtracks I've heard in some time. Seriously awesome music, though a few tracks didn't stand out much. Some thoughts.
The Dead Kingdom was especially awesome. That place, particularly, was easily the coolest section of the game and felt like it had the most thought behind it.
Character movement still feels wonky. Death is nimble, but he often feels bulky and weightless at the same time. I think Ninja Gaiden is a great standard for how characters should move and feel in a third person game.
The loot system definitely needed balanced better. I went very long stretches without ever replacing numerous items. That just ended up wasting a lot of time as I'd have to jump into a menu every time to find out what I had picked up wasn't very good.
Why isn't there a stat comparison when I'm looking at items to buy? How could a developer overlook something like that? It's crazy and annoying that I'd have to remember stats from an item I was looking at and then go compare it to what I had on.
Level design was significantly better than the original. I also loved having optional dungeons to explore. I think I did everything except for the Soul Arbiter's Maze. Which brings me back to loot. I skipped the maze because I checked and found out I was going to just get loot. I already knew loot pickups were generally underwhelming, so I skipped it. If I'm going to go out of my way and put time into extra quests, the rewards should motivate me to want to do that. I don't want a weapon that might not be as good as I have equipped. Don't leave that up to chance. Give players something that they couldn't have otherwise. Better items from the smith was a nice touch. More along those lines. Ex. The grab move could be given a dmg. element that isn't available otherwise.
Why was the framerate generally bad, but the Archon fight and sections of Shadow's End ran at around 60? Wtf. Literally the only points in the game where that happened.
I was pretty underwhelmed by the story. Everything seems so cool, yet characters were constantly just being vague about corruption or talking about how everything accidentally split into three and Death needed to go tape things back together. I only played the first Darksiders because the reveal trailer for 2 reminded me so much of Legacy of Kain. Now, I knew after Darksiders that the story wasn't of that caliber, but I was hoping 2 would improve it. With the criss-cross of realms and characters, there could've been a lot of intrigue and behind-the-scenes stuff to show and tease players with. I never felt like that was happening, though.
The end of the game was really abrupt and disappointing. I literally walk into the tree, fight a pretty easy boss(Samael was cooler and more difficult), get zero resolution without any reveals, and bam. Credits. Who thought this ended was acceptable or satisfying in any way? More stuff with Samael and Lilith would've been cool. They're both really interesting characters and barely had any screen time. Also, regarding the Well of Souls. Absalon and the corruption called to mind the Metroid Prime series, particularly, well, Corruption. Take a look at how the end of that game played out in terms of gameplay. You made your way down into the core at the end, with atmosphere oozing and tension building before the final fight. That's how you do things. Literally walking in and being treated to the final fight with zero build-up was just jarring and disappointing.
It seems like I disliked the game, but that really wasn't the case. I had a good time and enjoyed it more than the first. I'll totally recommend it to others, but I can't help but feel that it has some obvious problems(that I mentioned) that should've been recognized with ease.
Character movement still feels wonky. Death is nimble, but he often feels bulky and weightless at the same time. I think Ninja Gaiden is a great standard for how characters should move and feel in a third person game.
The loot system definitely needed balanced better. I went very long stretches without ever replacing numerous items. That just ended up wasting a lot of time as I'd have to jump into a menu every time to find out what I had picked up wasn't very good.
Why isn't there a stat comparison when I'm looking at items to buy? How could a developer overlook something like that? It's crazy and annoying that I'd have to remember stats from an item I was looking at and then go compare it to what I had on.
Level design was significantly better than the original. I also loved having optional dungeons to explore. I think I did everything except for the Soul Arbiter's Maze. Which brings me back to loot. I skipped the maze because I checked and found out I was going to just get loot. I already knew loot pickups were generally underwhelming, so I skipped it. If I'm going to go out of my way and put time into extra quests, the rewards should motivate me to want to do that. I don't want a weapon that might not be as good as I have equipped. Don't leave that up to chance. Give players something that they couldn't have otherwise. Better items from the smith was a nice touch. More along those lines. Ex. The grab move could be given a dmg. element that isn't available otherwise.
Why was the framerate generally bad, but the Archon fight and sections of Shadow's End ran at around 60? Wtf. Literally the only points in the game where that happened.
I was pretty underwhelmed by the story. Everything seems so cool, yet characters were constantly just being vague about corruption or talking about how everything accidentally split into three and Death needed to go tape things back together. I only played the first Darksiders because the reveal trailer for 2 reminded me so much of Legacy of Kain. Now, I knew after Darksiders that the story wasn't of that caliber, but I was hoping 2 would improve it. With the criss-cross of realms and characters, there could've been a lot of intrigue and behind-the-scenes stuff to show and tease players with. I never felt like that was happening, though.
The end of the game was really abrupt and disappointing. I literally walk into the tree, fight a pretty easy boss(Samael was cooler and more difficult), get zero resolution without any reveals, and bam. Credits. Who thought this ended was acceptable or satisfying in any way? More stuff with Samael and Lilith would've been cool. They're both really interesting characters and barely had any screen time. Also, regarding the Well of Souls. Absalon and the corruption called to mind the Metroid Prime series, particularly, well, Corruption. Take a look at how the end of that game played out in terms of gameplay. You made your way down into the core at the end, with atmosphere oozing and tension building before the final fight. That's how you do things. Literally walking in and being treated to the final fight with zero build-up was just jarring and disappointing.
It seems like I disliked the game, but that really wasn't the case. I had a good time and enjoyed it more than the first. I'll totally recommend it to others, but I can't help but feel that it has some obvious problems(that I mentioned) that should've been recognized with ease.