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Darksiders II |OT| What starts with War, ends with Death.

D

Daydream Sequence

Banned
QisTopTier said:
He must not play many games at all with that mentality
Click to expand...

If you limit yourself to games that have a median score of 95 or above, you don't game much. But even if you did only play those games, what's the point of going into threads about games you've never played and say "Nyah nyah it's not an A+, not buying!"? It's weird.
 
G

gocubs

Member
Never played the first Darksiders. I'm looking forward to Darksiders 2 it reminds me of the jumping of Prince of Persia and the combat of God of War.
 
S

Seance

Banned
purg3 said:
Just finished DS1 a few minutes ago for the first time. Now I'm pumped more than ever for DS2. My only concern is that when they mentioned the size of the world being so much larger than DS1. The last major dungeon went on too long, and got too repetitive. That along with the forced fetch quest before the finale. I just hope that DS2 can keep things fresh throughout and not start to feel like a chore. That was really my only gripe, otherwise it was a pretty fantastic game. I think the loot factor will probably alleviate a lot of this though.
Click to expand...

I didn't mind the fetch quest, because you could claim a bunch of the junk you missed first time round because you didn't have all the gadgets.

DS2 is looking insane, like DS1 except enhanced and refined across the board, with triple the content. At least that's my impression.




Are you able to turn off the HUD elements? Once i get used to the mechanics and rules of the combat system I want to turn off everything but the minimap.
 
S

sephi22

Member
4 hour play impressions

Oh God. So Much Loot!
Most of the chests in the original Darksiders had unique/preset items in them, so it was always exciting when you found a hidden chest.
Now, there are hidden chests everywhere. You literally can see 6 chests in plain sight when you enter a new area, only getting to them is the problem. Most chests seem to follow the 'Gold+Potion+Gear' formula and it works well. Only you'll go mad if you have 'loot OCD' and can't move on to the next area unless you've cleared the one you are in.

Apocalyptic = Dark Souls?
I did my Darksiders playthrough on Apocalyptic, to reduce my gameplay time for the platinum. It was challenging at first, but became pretty easy halfway through.
I'm kind of struggling in my DS2 Apocalyptic playthrough. The very first enemies did about 10% per hit till I got better gear. And even with better gear, bosses and mini-bosses still 1-2 shot me. You need to be either really good at not getting hit, or carry a lot of potions. Very much like Dark Souls.

Optional Encounters:
There are optional/hidden bosses. In fact, I faced my first optional encounter
27 minutes
into the game. The enemy is slow and telegraphs his attacks, but its a 1-hit kill if you get hit. I tried this battle for an hour till i finally won it. Each time I died i thought it was my fault. I pressed the dodge button too early or too late, or got too greedy. I guess that just speaks of how good the combat system is.

Combat:
Dodge cancelling is everything, especially early on. I dont know if this is known, but I feel like there are two kind of dodges - the regular one when you press the dodge button, and a faster, more invincible one when you press it right when you're about to get hit. It almost seems like Death phases through the opponent when this happens.
Wrath is quick to generate, so my favorite thing to do right now is slash-slash-slash xx just dodge xx teleport slash -> slash-slash... Repeat. Feels great, man. Cant wait to unlock more powers.

Also, armblades are the shit!

World and Fast Travelling:
I read somewhere that there are huge open areas in the game that get tedious when you cross them. I can see why people would think that. For a particular quest, i had to ride across 2 huge areas to reach my objective, and these areas had very few enemies in them.
However, the anytime fast travel system is great. I think you can even fast travel from a dungeon into a town, and right back into a dungeon, but I haven't tried it. This makes it so that you wont ever have to ride across those huge plains again if you don't want to.

Sound, Graphics, Presentation:
The soundtrack is spectacular. Voice acting is great but I feel like Death hams up a couple of lines (just a couple).

I love the DS art style so Im biased when it comes to the visuals. I love the colors and the textures and the character models etc. Im not a person who notices tearing very easily so I cant give you an informed opinion on that front. Framerate has been pretty stable thus far but Im only in the first world.
 
D

Dahbomb

Member
sephi22 said:
Combat:
Dodge cancelling is everything, especially early on. I dont know if this is known, but I feel like there are two kind of dodges - the regular one when you press the dodge button, and a faster, more invincible one when you press it right when you're about to get hit. It almost seems like Death phases through the opponent when this happens.
Wrath is quick to generate, so my favorite thing to do right now is slash-slash-slash xx just dodge xx teleport slash -> slash-slash... Repeat. Feels great, man. Cant wait to unlock more powers.
Click to expand...
ik4whkXrIA9uj.gif
 
S

StevePharma

Member
sephi22 said:
4 hour play impressions

Apocalyptic = Dark Souls?
I did my Darksiders playthrough on Apocalyptic, to reduce my gameplay time for the platinum. It was challenging at first, but became pretty easy halfway through.
I'm kind of struggling in my DS2 Apocalyptic playthrough. The very first enemies did about 10% per hit till I got better gear. And even with better gear, bosses and mini-bosses still 1-2 shot me. You need to be either really good at not getting hit, or carry a lot of potions. Very much like Dark Souls.
Click to expand...

Mmmmm. Interesting. I started on Apocalyptic as well in DS1 and only had trouble with Tiamat. Seems this game ramps up the difficulty a bit.

Can anyone (or maybe even hdn) confirm if New Game+ carries over to higher difficulties? Might want to put it on easy first to experience the story and do an Apocalyptic playthrough on New Game+.
 
A

Adnor

Banned
I saw you use potions using only the d-pad, does that means that you can put items like this game version of the abbysal chain in LB + face button?
 
Monocle

Monocle

Member
Adnor said:
I saw you use potions using only the d-pad, does that means that you can put items like this game version of the abbysal chain in LB + face button?
Click to expand...
If I'm correctly recalling the videos I've seen, that's exactly how it works. I think you can map up to four items/abilities that way: LB + any face button.
 
S

sephi22

Member
Pressing down on d-pad brings up the ability wheel. From there you have to set up to 4 abilities on L1+face button. For eg:Ive set teleport slash to L1 + X
 
E

excaliburps

Press - MP1st.com
sephi22 said:
4 hour play impressions

Oh God. So Much Loot!
Most of the chests in the original Darksiders had unique/preset items in them, so it was always exciting when you found a hidden chest.
Now, there are hidden chests everywhere. You literally can see 6 chests in plain sight when you enter a new area, only getting to them is the problem. Most chests seem to follow the 'Gold+Potion+Gear' formula and it works well. Only you'll go mad if you have 'loot OCD' and can't move on to the next area unless you've cleared the one you are in.

Apocalyptic = Dark Souls?
I did my Darksiders playthrough on Apocalyptic, to reduce my gameplay time for the platinum. It was challenging at first, but became pretty easy halfway through.
I'm kind of struggling in my DS2 Apocalyptic playthrough. The very first enemies did about 10% per hit till I got better gear. And even with better gear, bosses and mini-bosses still 1-2 shot me. You need to be either really good at not getting hit, or carry a lot of potions. Very much like Dark Souls.

Optional Encounters:
There are optional/hidden bosses. In fact, I faced my first optional encounter
27 minutes
into the game. The enemy is slow and telegraphs his attacks, but its a 1-hit kill if you get hit. I tried this battle for an hour till i finally won it. Each time I died i thought it was my fault. I pressed the dodge button too early or too late, or got too greedy. I guess that just speaks of how good the combat system is.

Combat:
Dodge cancelling is everything, especially early on. I dont know if this is known, but I feel like there are two kind of dodges - the regular one when you press the dodge button, and a faster, more invincible one when you press it right when you're about to get hit. It almost seems like Death phases through the opponent when this happens.
Wrath is quick to generate, so my favorite thing to do right now is slash-slash-slash xx just dodge xx teleport slash -> slash-slash... Repeat. Feels great, man. Cant wait to unlock more powers.

Also, armblades are the shit!

World and Fast Travelling:
I read somewhere that there are huge open areas in the game that get tedious when you cross them. I can see why people would think that. For a particular quest, i had to ride across 2 huge areas to reach my objective, and these areas had very few enemies in them.
However, the anytime fast travel system is great. I think you can even fast travel from a dungeon into a town, and right back into a dungeon, but I haven't tried it. This makes it so that you wont ever have to ride across those huge plains again if you don't want to.

Sound, Graphics, Presentation:
The soundtrack is spectacular. Voice acting is great but I feel like Death hams up a couple of lines (just a couple).

I love the DS art style so Im biased when it comes to the visuals. I love the colors and the textures and the character models etc. Im not a person who notices tearing very easily so I cant give you an informed opinion on that front. Framerate has been pretty stable thus far but Im only in the first world.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this. I pretty much prefer things like these over "professional" reviews.

I'm thinking of doing it on Apocalyptic straight away, too. How is the actual difficulty? Compare it to say God of War 3's hardest difficulty from the get to (was it God?)?

I normally play a game with the highest difficulty straight away. That way, it feels so much sweeter when I finish it. Although I don't want to get pissed at the game and if some of the enemies/bosses are 1-2 hit kills, then that might be a bit frustrating if you have to endure it for 20+ hours.

I do think that the difficulty will eventually plateau. though. Especially once you start getting top-tier gear and whatnot...or do the enemies scale?
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
DieH@rd said:
Am I off with the timing, or US Steam crowd will get their hands on the game in 23 hrs?
Click to expand...

Its Steam store page says 20 hours for the US and Australia, and the timer is accurate to the hour (i.e. the actual unlock time is a little less than 20 hours away).
 
F

forrest

formerly nacire
I got an email from THQ saying that I will receive an email from them on the 14th with my key and download instructions. I wonder if that will happen right at midnight or if it will be half way through Tuesday before I get it.
LLShC.gif
 
U

Unhandled Exception

Member
So I'm not sure if my GTX 680 will be here tomorrow or Tuesday, but I'm hoping for tomorrow so I can have it installed before the game unlocks. Going from a GTX 460 SLi that has served me well and still performs moderately alright, I just want out of SLi. Too many pitfalls. Worried that DS2 might be one of them.
 
D

DieH@rd

Banned
19 & 21 said:
I'm not from Europe but I've done this with numerous games, most recently Syndicate but also Skyrim. There's really nothing to worry about so long as you trust your VPN provider.
Click to expand...

Can you tells us what did you use for VPN, and do you know of some reliable free solution?
 
Sentenza

Sentenza

Member
sephi22 said:
World and Fast Travelling:
I read somewhere that there are huge open areas in the game that get tedious when you cross them. I can see why people would think that. For a particular quest, i had to ride across 2 huge areas to reach my objective, and these areas had very few enemies in them.
However, the anytime fast travel system is great. I think you can even fast travel from a dungeon into a town, and right back into a dungeon, but I haven't tried it. This makes it so that you wont ever have to ride across those huge plains again if you don't want to.
Click to expand...
That's a bit disappointing. While excessive backtracking is bad and the firs DS had some uneven distribution of teleports (plus annoying arbitrary restrictions on the use of your horse), "anytime fast travel" has always been a giant immersion killer for me.

And when I say "immersion killer" I don't mean "it remembers me it's a game and not reality"(couldn't give a shit about that); I actually mean that it tends to break the flow of the game and to make distances feel pointless.
 
U

Unhandled Exception

Member
DieH@rd said:
Can you tells us what did you use for VPN, and do you know of some reliable free solution?
Click to expand...

I'll have to go through some emails to find the exact provider. I haven't ever used a free solution because they're just hard to come by in working condition and far less secure. You've gotta remember if you're going to use a VPN or proxy of any kind with Steam/Origin you're going to be sending your steam login information through their network. Something to keep in mind.

There's a paid proxy I used called 'Platinum Hide IP' that typically did the trick. I think that was a one time payment just for the software. Not sure if they have a trial, just google that name.
 
L

luffeN

Member
19 & 21 said:
I'll have to go through some emails to find the exact provider. I haven't ever used a free solution because they're just hard to come by in working condition and far less secure. You've gotta remember if you're going to use a VPN or proxy of any kind with Steam/Origin you're going to be sending your steam login information through their network. Something to keep in mind.

There's a paid proxy I used called 'Platinum Hide IP' that typically did the trick. I think that was a one time payment just for the software. Not sure if they have a trial, just google that name.
Click to expand...

But Valve's newest agreement thingy said something about banning accounts if you use VPN.
 
L

luffeN

Member
Does anyone from Europe have "download suspended" at Steam for DS2? Did you re-download it or just leave it in that state?
 
R

Rodney McKay

Member
TucoBenedictoPacifico said:
That's a bit disappointing. While excessive backtracking is bad and the firs DS had some uneven distribution of teleports (plus annoying arbitrary restrictions on the use of your horse), "anytime fast travel" has always been a giant immersion killer for me.

And when I say "immersion killer" I don't mean "it remembers me it's a game and not reality"(couldn't give a shit about that); I actually mean that it tends to break the flow of the game and to make distances feel pointless.
Click to expand...

Simple solution for you: don't use it! My friend never used fast travel in Skyrim for the same reasons you bring up. The only time he would "fast travel" was by using the in-universe carts/taxis or he would just use horses.

Personally I find that anywhere fast travel HELPS the flow of a game especially when developers decide to put in shitty quests like "collect the X number of Triforce shards" like Darksiders 1 did.
I will always rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
 
R

Rodney McKay

Member
luffeN said:
Does anyone from Europe have "download suspended" at Steam for DS2? Did you re-download it or just leave it in that state?
Click to expand...

My pre-load is suspended (I'm in the US). But it's suspended at the point where it should be finished and if you press "Play" you get a message saying the decryption key is missing or something like that.

I assume the pre-load is done and it's just a bug saying that it's suspended.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
luffeN said:
But Valve's newest agreement thingy said something about banning accounts if you use VPN.
Click to expand...

The SSA has always discouraged VPN/proxy use, it's just that the paragraph was a structural mess until the most recent revision:

SSA said:
You are entitled to use the Steam Software for your own use, but you are not entitled to: (i) sell, grant a security interest in or transfer reproductions of the Steam Software to other parties in any way, nor to rent, lease or license the Steam Software to others without the prior written consent of Valve; (ii) host or provide matchmaking services for the Steam Software or emulate or redirect the communication protocols used by Valve in any network feature of the Steam Software, through protocol emulation, tunneling, modifying or adding components to the Steam Software, use of a utility program or any other techniques now known or hereafter developed, for any purpose including, but not limited to network play over the Internet, network play utilizing commercial or non-commercial gaming networks or as part of content aggregation networks, without the prior written consent of Valve; or (iii) exploit the Steam Software or any of its parts for any commercial purpose.
Click to expand...

I have occasionally used VPNs to bypass belated unlock dates and haven't had any problems, so the reworded SSA doesn't concern me, although I can certainly understand it dissuading others.
 
D

Dahbomb

Member
TucoBenedictoPacifico said:
That's a bit disappointing. While excessive backtracking is bad and the firs DS had some uneven distribution of teleports (plus annoying arbitrary restrictions on the use of your horse), "anytime fast travel" has always been a giant immersion killer for me.

And when I say "immersion killer" I don't mean "it remembers me it's a game and not reality"(couldn't give a shit about that); I actually mean that it tends to break the flow of the game and to make distances feel pointless.
Click to expand...
Don't use fast travel?
 
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