![]() Everyone speaks as if the world depends on each of their sentences, and if using the internal logic of the game, it does. The story is full of operatic melodrama, brought to life with full comic-book gravitas. I might even go so far as to recommend the soundtrack to folks who aren’t actually playing through the game – it’s that good. Jesper Kyd‘s (Assassin’s Creed, Borderlands, Hitman) soundtrack is as lush and gorgeous as the artwork, bringing to mind the better film and television soundtracks of late, such as Game of Thrones. The disembodied voices in the Gilded Arena are scary pitched higher and raspier than any other voices, it gives them a quality of madness that feels especially creepy. How do you make one of the scariest Horsemen of the Apocalypse sympathetic? Get a fantastic actor to play him.Įven the supporting characters and voices are extremely well done. The voice is as gruff and gravelly as we’d all expect from the incarnation of Death, but Wincott plays him full of different tones and auditory colors, helping players connect with the main character. ![]() Michael Wincott ( The Crow, Alien Ressurection) voices main character, Death. It allowed me to play the way I always play games like this first time through: rushing through to the end, not stopping for the scenery along the way, aiming for the main quest goals like some sort of demented bulldog with a tug-of-war toy in its mouth. It’s a subtle, well-designed way to get players back into the action as soon as possible.įast travel is another well-implemented and subtle touch. And, wow, when I hit the button, the camera pans around behind him, and there we are, in the very spot we left. And, yes, that is the same environment you last left him. Yes, he does look like he’s wearing his most current outfit. Death stands there, full of menace, plasma swirling around his fists. In Darksiders II, the Continue screen looks very similar. You know those Continue screens in most games? They look like a slash screen, may include some camera panning around, focusing on a generic environment or prerendered character model, and are rather disconnected from the gameplay. However they did it, the developers deserve credit for this, because it really added to my enjoyment. I was never waiting for the game to get back to the action, not once. On very few occasions, between larger environments, a loading icon comes up. See? It totally is possible to create a game that feels huge without separate between-environment loading screens. ![]() Skulls cover the doors in this second realm, with eyes that light up green as Death approaches. The Maker’s realm is lush greens and browns, natural earth tones, while the Land of the Dead is all lifeless grays and browns. The color palette for Death is browns and shades of gray, with bright, shiny greens and purples for the magical effects he carries around on his wrists. As players will be staring at it for 20 hours to 40 hours, easy, it’s great that the levels, characters, and combat animations are lush and beautiful. ![]() Half the fun here is in keeping Death’s equipment upgraded, his weapons causing the most damage as possible, and using other items to give you better and better stats.įluid animations, heroic vistas, and distinctive designĭarksiders II is gorgeous. The armor includes boots, gauntlets, shoulder pads, and cloaks, each adding defense points to help Death stand just a few more hits and take just a little less damage. He also carries a secondary weapon - either hugely damaging slow warhammers or battle axes or gauntlets with a little faster refresh. Death carries scythes for fast attacks that he can combine into whirling-dervish attack moves that just look fantastic on screen. The user interface does a great job of letting players know if found loot is better or worse than currently equipped items. Most of this include gilt, or gold, which Death can use to upgrade weaponry, purchase combo moves and potions, and so on. He uses his magical door-opening disembodied arms to tear each and every chest asunder, loot exploding out in all directions. Yet his travels keep taking him hither and yon on the way to his ultimate goal, the Tree of Life, which he hopes holds the exonerating answers he seeks.ĭarskiders II has a dozens of chests to rip into. Death, the brother of War (the star of the first game), is out to restore humanity to Earth after the brothers allegedly triggered the Apocalypse just a bit too early.ĭeath is sure that War is innocent of this charge and tears through into hordes of demons, skeletons, and monsters to prove it. Combine the mechanics of God of War, Prince of Persia, Diablo III with the visual style of Warhammer, World of Warcraft, and the Spawn comics, and you have Darksiders II. THQ’s Darskiders II is a sprawling epic that ranges across three major worlds: The Tree of Life, The Tree of Death, and Earth. ![]()
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