Darksiders II Hands-On Preview

With Darksiders II set to hit store shelves on June 26, 2012, THQ recently invited press to see how the game’s development was progressing. After a presentation covering some of the game’s new features, attendees got the chance to sit down with the game for a few hours to form some initial impressions.

The section available to play was set in the “Maker’s Realm.” According to the development team, this single realm is bigger than the entire area covered by the original Darksiders game. Players of the original will recall controlling War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, in a story that began with War being blamed for bringing about the apocalypse prematurely. In Darksiders II, players instead control Death, another of the Four Horsemen, as he tries to figure out what actually happened and what caused the early Apocalypse. The story runs concurrently with the events of the original game, so anyone hoping to learn what happens after the first game’s ending won’t find it here — though the story for Darksiders II looks intriguing in its own right, and playing as Death is a novelty in itself.

Darksiders II’s landscapes and areas are considerably larger than before — reportedly around four times the size of levels in the original game. The area explored during the hands-on session was “The Foundry,” an expansive area involving underwater swimming to find secret passageways, navigating pools of lava and more. The demo also introduced Karn, a huge warrior who helps out along the journey through the Foundry, assisting with both traversal and combat. A giant chasm, for instance, can be crossed by having Karn throw the player across it to reach a new area, though a door or bridge often needs to be activated first so Karn can follow. One goal in this section involved searching for pieces of the Heart Stone, which isn’t an easy task and requires exploring the area while solving puzzles — giving off a Legend of Zelda vibe (as the original Darksiders also did), which is high praise for the team at Vigil Games.

Death moves a bit more nimbly than his brother and wields a pair of scythes as his primary weapon, though more weapons are available beyond what was used in this demo. Beyond combat, Death brings some new tricks to the franchise, starting with a wall-run ability reminiscent of Prince of Persia, adding another layer to the platforming, with ledges and columns to grab along the way to extend a run. There’s a fair amount of platforming throughout, on top of occasional help from a magical creature called the “Custodian,” which allows safe travel across lava pools and can fire a chain across a chasm to create a makeshift bridge.

Even with only one area shown, the development team indicated that each area in the game will differ aesthetically, graphically and in the enemies it features — suggesting a considerable amount of variety across the full game. The demo closed with a massive boss fight that seemed to draw inspiration from recent Castlevania games and Shadow of the Colossus: a multi-part battle against an enormous foe, and not a typical boss encounter by any measure. Overall, the impression left by the demo was a strongly positive one, even with some trouble navigating certain puzzles — understandable, given the section played was roughly six to seven hours into the game, without the benefit of learning the new mechanics from the start. Everything otherwise ran smoothly; the audio wasn’t quite finished, though that’s expected of a preview build running unoptimized code. Given how well-regarded the original Darksiders was, everything seen here points to Darksiders II being bigger and better in every respect. Darksiders II is set for release on June 26, 2012 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Whether a demo will be made available on Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network hadn’t been decided at the time. THQ also announced at the event that Darksiders II will be a Wii U launch title.