The original Darksiders, which released within the first week of 2010, was a bit of a hidden gem, which surprised me greatly. It was heavily influenced in equal parts by the design and structure of the Legend of Zelda series and the combat and atmosphere of God of War, both of which are hugely popular franchises for good reason.

In Darksiders 2, players take the reins of the Pale Rider of Death, War’s brother and oldest of the Horsemen, in a quest to prove War’s innocence. In the process he visits various realms that exist beyond those of the humans, each of which has a distinct color palette and unified visual style and soundscape, which makes exploring them consistently rewarding and exciting.

I suppose it’s understood, then (even though I’m going to say it anyway), that Darksiders 2 is a massive game. By the time I finished the first of the four realms, which housed no less than six full Zelda-style dungeons, I was sitting at 8 hours of gameplay.

For some games, that’d be all the content. Darksiders 2 says screw that and then throws three more entire areas at you.

And all of that fails to mention how much the loot dynamic affects the dungeon exploring and combat. The thing about the Legend of Zelda games is that the only upgrades you get (for the most part) are tools used to solve puzzles and not necessarily to fight the hordes of monsters Link must face in each dungeon.

The thing about a game like, say, Diablo (I promise, this is going somewhere) is that the only upgrades you get are statistical and only occasionally strategic, with none of the things you find ever having uses outside of killing lots of demons.

Darksiders 2 takes the Old El Paso route and gives you TONS of stuff for both sides of the spectrum. It takes two time-honored systems, and by being the first (or at least the first that I’ve heard of) to combine them, it feels wholly unique and refreshing.

It’s a shame, then, that the story in Darksiders 2 isn’t that great, especially not compared to the original, which did have some rough edges, but was compelling and believable enough to push War through to what might be one of my favorite endings to a game this generation. 

In the Maker’s Realm, your adventures through each dungeon are contextualized enough into the world’s mythology that none of it really feels like a chore. Master Eidard (voiced by the awesome James Cosmo, otherwise known as Lord Commander Jeor Mormont in Game of Thrones) talks up a lot of lore, and while it’s up to the individual to decide how much that backstory is to their liking, it’s undeniable that your actions in the first realm fit with the narrative flow.

In the Kingdom of the Dead, your actions are only semi-contextualized, and when you do accomplish something relatively “big,” it doesn’t change jack in the world. Even in the latter two realms, Death’s actions have noticeable effects on the world, but nothing he does in the Kingdom of the Dead really has an impact.

In terms of visual fidelity and the technology powering the game, it’s serviceable if not perfect, though it really doesn’t do justice to the truly magnificent art design in this game. The varied worlds are so distinct and beautiful in their unique ways that the one zone that contains only washed out greys and reds manages to feel at least somewhat acceptable.

The voice acting is pretty great, though occasionally hammy, across the board. Cosmo as Eidard is probably my personal favorite of the bunch, but Death does manage to steal the show once in a while, being the menacing little devil he is.

Jesper Kyd, who worked on the Hitman and Assassin’s Creed franchises, was brought in to score Death’s journey, and it is simply glorious. The overworld music is phenomenal, the fight music, both for regular enemies and bosses is snappy and heart-pounding, and the man MAY have composed some better dungeon music than Koji Kondo (Zelda composers for those wondering). This game gets the soundtrack so ridiculously right.

As a sequel, Darksiders 2 brings in the best new elements to improve on the foundation that the original laid down. In the process, the game lost some of its focus on story which goes towards making a more content rich game, which is perfectly reasonable, yet slightly disappointing.

Regardless, I had too much fun with the game to not wholeheartedly recommend it. It’s well-designed and engaging and absolutely worth your time.