A comparison of Darksiders against its sequel Darksiders 2.
Alex & Mike talk Biomutant, a game from Experiment 101/THQ Nordiq you likely have not heard of. While the AAA side of the industry tends to homogenization and imitative, cinematic presentation, “AA” games remain creative and innovative in 2021. Drawing on inspirations as varied as Dark Souls, third person shooters & kung fu cinema, Biomutant is Ratchet & Clank on acid, developed by a team of 20 people.
Neil writes: "After holding tight and saving every spare penny since the Xmas sales, chances are you've worked up enough of a sweat to ensure that it's time to look in to the purchase of a new Xbox game or two. And with the latest Xbox Deals With Gold and Spotlight Sale for 28th Jan - 3rd Feb 2020, you'll be able to get access to all manner of cut-price Xbox One and Xbox 360 titles, boosting your digital library in the process."
"Vigil Games may not be around anymore but their 2 Darksiders games really raised the bar for 3D action adventure games. Let's take a look at both titles' gameplay and worlds and see which one emerges victorious." - A.J. Maciejewski from Video Chums
Darksiders 1 is a complete game but it’s obvious with Darksiders 2 they ran out of budget after the Ice world and the game just becomes a poorly paced mess.
First one was maybe not technically better, but it was more fun. So I have to agree with the writer.
Darksiders 1 drags on towards the end, with one dungeon being overlong and a fetch quest being tacked on.
But it still has much more visual variety to it than the second, where there are two main zones and largely the same greyish color palette all along.
They tried to mix it up by having some filter added in a couple dungeons, but that's not enough.
The story isn't great in either game, with Darksiders 1 lacking a solid exposition, but at least it tries to tell a story.
Darksiders II feels like the God of War spinoffs for the PSP. Nothing happens except a menial side story. Other than the cutscene when Death reaches the tree of life, we learn almost nothing about him.
And the piling on of fetch quests in the middle segment looks like a Ponzi scheme. Find me my 3 lieutenants, but first find me my 3 souls, unlock the arena's boss, kill the arena's boss, but it wasn't really the actual boss... Jesus.
The camera is also worse in 2, it's not fit for the increased emphasis placed on traversal and goes bonkers in tight spaces during combat.
The replacement of the original's big, bulky guy with a token platforming-dodging character also made the game feel a bit more mundane, and negated part of the efforts made in other areas of the gameplay to make DS2 more original than its predecessor.
On top of that, as pointed in the article, some moves have been lost in the transition. And Death is not even much faster than War in the most basic of activities: walking.
Conceptually, structurally D2 is more ambitious, but the actual experience feels tiresome in the long haul.
The looting was a nice idea, but in the context of a game that is already so drawn out, the equipment swapping ends up highlighting the repetition of it all after a while, rather than keeping it fresh.