War Begets Death
With Darksiders II, Vigil Studios establishes itself as a true source of quality Action RPG epics, even if it had to clone a few ideas along the way.
Published: August 14, 2012
It's not often I go back and read old reviews. I don't think much of my writing (I suspect more than a few writers and readers feel the same), but sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised. With our original Darksiders review, though, I really feel like the general theme of what Vigil is trying to do already came through. They aren't a studio that necessarily branches out all that far from established ideas in similar genres, but the execution is what helps set them apart. I'm beating around the bush here, and I'll say it just as I said for their first game: they are exceptional at knowing not just how another game's concept works, but why, and they lift elements of it to make their own.
This isn't new, and these days it isn't even something to hold against a developer. To the contrary; it was with the first Darksiders and continues with Darksiders II to be a genuine complement. Vigil Games is a young studio, but they have the most important factor any game dev can: they get games. They get mechanics, they get implementation and they are able to weave them into an interactive tapestry the way that few others with this many titles under their belt can. Despite all the borrowing, however, the core of the franchise has been in the imagination of studio head Joe Madureira since its inception and though the sequel doesn't quite carry the same Joe MAD consistency, there's no doubt that we're in a different part of the same universe.
There's no escaping, however, that this isn't quite the same gem that the first game was. It's a fantastic, infinitely worthy action game with staunch RPG elements to help bolster that all-important sense of progression, but it doesn't have that same sense of making something old new again. Instead, it's iteration, a continuation of what the first game did in often immensely satisfying ways that a sequel should be, but without the overall feeling of really ratcheting things up.
That might contrast with what you've seen (or can see if you want to watch footage of some gameplay bits, one of which I've embedded below, but there are plenty more in the Videos link at the top of the article), but I need to be honest in the same way I was before about the original release. This is, I think, the sophomore slump for Vigil. Don't confuse my intent, though; this is every bit the game that you hoped it could be in size and scale, it just doesn't have that incredible consistency and confidence that the first game had.
How could it, really? This is a game that is attempting to rival some of the most epic adventures out there, and by widening the scope, it loses some of that oomph that the first game had. The scale, too, is something that was consciously increased wherever possible, leading to some truly massive dungeons and the odd boss fight that ends up really making the most of those wide open spaces you'll be traversing (at least until you give up and start fast traveling everywhere).
This isn't new, and these days it isn't even something to hold against a developer. To the contrary; it was with the first Darksiders and continues with Darksiders II to be a genuine complement. Vigil Games is a young studio, but they have the most important factor any game dev can: they get games. They get mechanics, they get implementation and they are able to weave them into an interactive tapestry the way that few others with this many titles under their belt can. Despite all the borrowing, however, the core of the franchise has been in the imagination of studio head Joe Madureira since its inception and though the sequel doesn't quite carry the same Joe MAD consistency, there's no doubt that we're in a different part of the same universe.
There's no escaping, however, that this isn't quite the same gem that the first game was. It's a fantastic, infinitely worthy action game with staunch RPG elements to help bolster that all-important sense of progression, but it doesn't have that same sense of making something old new again. Instead, it's iteration, a continuation of what the first game did in often immensely satisfying ways that a sequel should be, but without the overall feeling of really ratcheting things up.
That might contrast with what you've seen (or can see if you want to watch footage of some gameplay bits, one of which I've embedded below, but there are plenty more in the Videos link at the top of the article), but I need to be honest in the same way I was before about the original release. This is, I think, the sophomore slump for Vigil. Don't confuse my intent, though; this is every bit the game that you hoped it could be in size and scale, it just doesn't have that incredible consistency and confidence that the first game had.
How could it, really? This is a game that is attempting to rival some of the most epic adventures out there, and by widening the scope, it loses some of that oomph that the first game had. The scale, too, is something that was consciously increased wherever possible, leading to some truly massive dungeons and the odd boss fight that ends up really making the most of those wide open spaces you'll be traversing (at least until you give up and start fast traveling everywhere).
