Review — Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition

Darksiders 2

We Sit Down And Review The Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition. After Almost Three Years And Some Graphics Updates, Does The Game Still Hold Up? Here’s Our Review Of The Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition

It is hard to believe that it has been three years now since Darksiders 2 first graced us all. During that release time I fell in love with it and was looking forward to the future of the franchise. Even though it is still up in the air I was curious to see how the game would hold up to the PS4 and Xbox One generations and see if it was a fluke before. Now that the Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition has been released we will all get to see that answer as we were able to contrast and compare to see how well Gunfire Games did with Darksiders 2 and if Nordic Games should help bring us all a Darksiders 3. Here is our review of the Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition.

Story

Nothing has truly changed here as it is the same from Darksiders 2. For the uneducated, Darksiders 2 is the story that obviously occurs after Darksiders. The horseman War is accused of prematurely starting the apocalypse and all of humankind has been removed from the Earth. His brother Death is damned sure that War is innocent of this crime and has set out to prove the innocence. If he can’t do that then his plan B is to undo the mistake by bringing all of humanity back from the dead and act like nothing happened. No harm, no foul.

Hated

In my original review I harshed on some pretty trivial things for Darksiders 2. Looking back on it all I see that. Sadly though some of the minor mistakes with the cameras and controls I was forgiving on with Darksiders 2 before did not get the fixes they needed in the Deathinitive Edition. It is nothing game breaking for sure but when you are remastering a game you want to fix things like the camera not angling correctly or the “parkour” system for Death to allow you to move about the map the way it should be. These are still here and it is one of the few things making the Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition just shy of a perfect upgrade we would all be expecting in the first place.

It also felt like some of the tweaks that Gunfire Games did to the loot system made all of the items dropped in Darksiders 2 so random that it was a pain to the game. Before, and this links to pre-order DLC, we could be lucky to get a nice, new, powerful weapon at any time due to the randomness of theDarksiders 2 drop rate. This was also altered by pre-orders and such. In the Deathinitive Edition it looks like all of the randomness has been toned way down and it no longer feels like Death can be lucky and it is all based on what the game thinks we should have. This is a minor gripe as it doesn’t hurt the gameplay at all but it worked so well for me in the original version it was upsetting to see it altered in the Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition.

Loved

I wish I could move on without referring to my original review of Darksiders 2 here but everything that I loved from before still holds up here in the Deathinitive Edition. Even with the gripe on the loot system I had above. The story is still strong, the loot system is still fun, the combat for the game works really well, and the platforming is still top-notch even if the minor issues from before were not fixed with the Deathinitive Edition. That about covers it all from before and it still shows that Darksiders 2 was crafted extremely well to hold up the test of time.

Moving on to the new loves I found in the Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition though, the game looks even better than before and this shows the dedication that Gunfire Games has for the franchise. Even with the style of the graphics that Darksiders 2 has, as well as the franchise, you can see the true upgrades and improvements that have been done. You cannot say this about a lot of other “remaster” titles that we have had recently. It may not looked like a lot had to be done but you can see it when you actually take the time to enjoy everything that Darksiders 2 has to offer here in the Deathinitive Edition.

Speaking on that, I griped before but I have seen the error of my ways when it comes to the sheer amount of things to do in Darksiders 2. More so for all as the Deathinitive Edition brings over all of the DLC that we had before and adds to the experience for all. Even the collectibles that I complained on before were fun to look for as it had me truly appreciating the visual work that had been done for the Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition. I wanted more and now I have more. Just another great selling point outside of the main story and campaign that is also a hefty one at that when compared to many other titles that launched around the same time as the Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition. I won’t name names but they know who they are…

Overview

Does Darksiders 2 hold up over the test of time and was deserving of the Deathinitive Edition? To me it completely did. I forgot how much I loved Darksiders 2 from before and it had been collecting dust since the PS4 and Xbox One came out. It was a great game then and it is a great game now. If you have not had a chance to experience the game before then I fully recommend the Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition as it has it all. Yes, I would have loved the other minor issues to be fixed during the remastering process but those are truly minor in comparison to the rest of the game and I look forward to more from Gunfire Games and Nordic Games in the future. Hopefully with a Darksiders 3 or a HD remaster of the original Darksiders. I’ll take either or.

Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition was remastered by Gunfire Games and published by Nordic Games for the PS4 and Xbox One on October 27^th, 2015. A digital PS4 copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.