SDCC 2011: Darksiders II Preview
Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 07.28.2011
First Look: 411mania.com got to see a special preview of Darksiders II at San Diego Comic-Con, presented by Joe Madureira himself.
Darksiders was the breakout, sleeper hit of the videogame world in 2010. The great combat along with the RPG style dungeons made it a fun and unique gaming experience not to mention a solid story and writing. With the success of the first game came a sequel. However, rather than continuing the story from the first game, Darksiders II will take place in a story concurrent with the original. The first game ended with an awesome cliffhanger, implying that the Four Horsemen would be reunited to face off against the forces of Heaven, Hell, and the Charred Council together. Instead, Vigil Games ended up going a different direction. In Darksiders II, you will be playing as War's brother, Death, the Grim Reaper. In Death's story, Death in an attempt to redeem and absolve the betrayed War in the premature Apocalypse, Death goes on a quest to restore the human race. In the process, Death is faced with the option of possibly restoring the race from which the Horsemen are the only surviving members or absolving War and restoring the human race as well.
I was somewhat disappointed and underwhelmed to hear that this game would not be a true sequel and continuation of the first game. The ending sort of gave me the expectation that we would get to see all the Horsemen in the follow-up as I believe they were originally planned for the first one. The new game looks to entirely take place in the Underworld dimension instead of on the ruined Earth. The Death character designed by Joe Mad does look really cool. He is voiced by actor Michael Wincott. Death rides to an impressive floating castle dragged by two humongous serpent monsters. The sequence is quite amazing.
Death seeks an audience with the Lord of Bones. Death is not given the meeting but is made an offer. If Death defeats the champion in the Guilded Arena, he will gain the audience he seeks. So Death goes on a trek to the Guilden Arena through the dungeon stage. We get a look at some of the new combat and baddies in the game. There are some cool looking skeleton creatures. Vigil Games has also toned down a lot of the QTE sequences it seems. Death carries two nifty scythe weapons instead of one and they look super badass in the game's combat. One of Death's alternate weapons that was shown was a large, spiked hammer weapon.
Later in the demo, Death goes to the Guilded Arena and he eventually faces off with a hulking Scarab monster. This looks to be one of the game's sub-boss type sequences where you fight a really big monster. It looks like you can also collect money and gold from fallen foes. Death also appears to have his own unique set of powers like War. Death will also be able to change into an alternate form like War's hulking, dragon-like beast mode. Death's mode looks like a shrouded spectre.
So far the game looks great. Graphics and characters look tight, and the new levels and environments look impressive. I am a bit disappointed by the story direction. However after speaking with Madureira, it was more due to time constraints around the game and eventually they will finally get to doing all the Horsemen. My hope though is that this is not a rushed product either. Darksiders II is currently set for a 2012 release on Windows PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.
