When things do die down and the game returns to its more traditional exploration and traversal roots, Death still has some tricks War never did. A simple little sequence showed Death quickly sliding along the same Prince of Persia-style grapple surfaces, leaping to handholds above and dropping to lower ones with ease, all while a steadily rising sea of lava chased the Pale Rider. Like the titular Prince from his own games, Death can also wall run for a bit, and if he happens to hit a grapple point along the way, he clambers over it and another wall run can be executed, to say nothing of the ability to leap between nearby walls and continue a ping-ponging run that way, or the ability to climb up/leap between pillars. Dalton was quick to point out that all the traversal moments we were seeing were from early in the game, and that they would form deeper movement puzzles as things went on. Even in their "simple" form, though, we can see it feeling good to control Death.

The original Darksiders had a very particular look, one that some had likened to Blizzard's chunky, colorful work on World of Warcraft or even the more recent reveal of Diablo III, though in truth it owed far more of the look to the particular stylings of comic artist and Vigil co-founder Joe Madureira -- particularly the weather-worn rock golems of his Battle Chasers work. There's a heft to everything that continues in Darksiders II, giving things a stylized immensity not just to the scale of the environments (which are huge, by the way), but the creatures that inhabit them. One of those is a rideable golem that can traverse large pits of lava and can be used in combat, so even utilitarian objects have a dual purpose at times.

If the first Darksiders borrowed liberally from the best parts of a few key games, Darksiders II looks to be continuing the practice with the exact same attention to what makes those mechanics work so well, while wrapping them in a story and setting that's wholly different. Like the first game, the mix of combat and exploration will be key, but Vigil has already demonstrated that they're keenly aware of how to juggle both, and in truth the dungeon design (which is already confessed to be far bigger in scope and sheer number) was some of the best we've seen this generation. Rest assured that when we finally get the chance to go hands-on, we'll jump on it, and give you our first-hand impressions of Death's quest to save War.