Darksiders 2

Darksiders 2 puts you in the scythe-wielding boots of Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as he tears across multiple realms to clear his brother War's name after the events of the first game. If you came here from Darksiders 1 expecting a tight linear action game, brace yourself: the sequel swings hard toward RPG territory, bolting on a loot system, skill trees, and a sprawling open world that clearly wants to be a gothic Legend of Zelda crossed with Diablo. The ambition is real. So are the seams. The core combat loop is genuinely satisfying for long stretches. Death moves faster and more fluidly than War ever did, and his dual-scythe primary attack chains feel crisp. Secondary weapons - hammers, axes, gauntlets, claws - drop constantly from enemies and chests, and swapping them out to find a rhythm that suits you is where most of the fun lives. The skill trees split into Harbinger (melee-focused, brutal combos) and Necromancer (summon undead, throw spectral constructs at problems), and both branches hold up well past the midgame. Build variety is a genuine selling point here, not a checkbox. The dungeon design deserves its flowers. Puzzle-heavy rooms gate your progress behind acquired traversal abilities in classic Zelda fashion, and the better dungeons - the Gilded Arena, the Judicator's Tomb - are compact, inventive, and satisfying to crack open. The problem is that Darksiders 2 keeps padding between those highlights with enormous open zones that have very little going on inside them. Side quests range from "mildly interesting lore delivery" to "go fetch six of these things from caves you already cleared," and the game has way too many of the latter. For an RPG specialist who despises filler XP grinds, the Kingdom of the Dead overworld section in particular tests patience across roughly two acts worth of content that could have lost thirty percent of its runtime without losing anything of substance. The writing is serviceable rather than remarkable. Death himself is the standout - sardonic, weary, carrying actual narrative weight as an immortal who chose his brother over obedience. Some of the supporting characters land well too, particularly Samael and the Crowfather in early story beats. But the worldbuilding, which spans the Tree of Life, a Maker civilization with clear Norse-dwarf influences, angelic bureaucracies, and demonic wastelands, gets spread so thin across so many realms that it rarely achieves the density needed to feel fully alive. Players who need rich, layered lore like BG3 or Planescape offer will find it frustratingly shallow. Players who just want a cool reaper doing cool reaper things across visually distinctive biomes will be more satisfied. The Deathinitive Edition (the version on PC) bundles all the DLC, rebalances the loot scaling that was notoriously broken at launch, and generally represents the best way to play. Performance on PC is stable. Steam reviews sit in mixed territory at 79 percent positive, which feels about right: this is a game with a strong identity, real mechanical depth in its combat and builds, and a genuine pacing problem that the developers never quite solved. Worth it if you like action-RPGs and can forgive a padded second half. Worth skipping if tight, purposeful design is non-negotiable for you.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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