Hey, does anybody know if you can change difficulties on the fly with Darksiders 2? It was sort of annoying that DS1 didn't have it.
Yes, you can change the difficulty any time from the options menu, it will warn you that "changing the difficulty setting mid-session will result in being rewarded based on the lowest difficulty setting you've selected", probably mean the loots, and of course it will affect achievements/trophies as well.
Played for two hours last night (PS3), I'll give some first impression. If you like Darksiders 1, I don't think there's anything that would stop you from loving Darksiders 2. Graphics-wise it isn't a big step forward from the first game, but I think DS1 still looks pretty good today and it's perfectly serviceable, the art direction is great if you like DS1 and Joe Mad's stuff. Most importantly the fighting animation/action is smooth and fluid. What I liked most about DS1 was that every attack you land feels great, the visual feedback and the controller rumbles in such a way that you really feel like you're hitting the enemies hard, and that feeling is still in DS2.
I only finished the tutorial level and cleared the first dungeon, there's a lot more platforming section than the first game, feel like I'm playing Prince of Persia sometimes, but the devs said Death is more about agility than brunt force like War so I guess I can go with that.
Secondly, it's a much bigger open world and you have to traverse more grounds to get to your destinations. I'm not entirely sure about this new approach, I'm not far into the game, but it feels very much like Kingdoms of Amalur (just the most recent example I can think of), I know some people like big open landscape, but the environment in DS1 is vast in scope but more tightly designed, which I like more. Though I think the devs probably wanted to open up more space for horse-riding, I dunno, there's always fast travel.
Thirdly, looting plays a much bigger role in this game, I was worried that might change the dynamic of the game (don't know if that's the right word), think back to DS1, every time you're given a new item or gear, you're given a new toy to play with, each item has its purpose, and it changes the way you play the game, it changes the puzzles and the combat, which controls the pacing of the game and keeps things fresh. Now in DS2, open world + looting, that feels very different to the finely controlled/paced experience of DS1 already, you might spend a lot of time grinding and looting in the open world, the story might suffer and lose momentum because of that. But ultimately, it's all down to your personal taste in games of course, you might prefer it this way to how it was in DS1. Thankfully, the loots you pick up are mostly secondary weapons and armors anyway, which shouldn't affect how you play the game too much, you still get your "game-changer" gadgets from the main quest and NPC.
One thing I instantly took a dislike to is the damage indicator. When in combat, the HUD is in full force already, every meter/gauge is on display and the screen is cluttered enough as it is, I really don't need a bunch of numbers popping up every time I hit someone, it's just unnecessary and distracting when all I want is to admire the fighting animation and the enemy design. Fortunately you can switch off the damage indicator. I can understand it might give some satisfaction after you've upgraded your new moves or got a new weapon, you're dying to go and test it out to see the damage "IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAND!!! AWESOME!!!", but I don't need that on display all the time, great to have the option is switch it off.
Please be reminded that I'm still fairly early into the game though, and these first impressions might not apply later in the game.