Xbox 360 Critic Reviews

There's little to complain about with Darksiders II, in fact, I pretty much love everything about this game. I won't be surprised to see it end up on quite a few Game of the Year lists at the tail end of the year, which I'm sure you'll come to understand once you lay your hands on it.

It challenges you, it gives you room to breathe, but also a purpose and of course it´s fun for every minute of it, which is all that counts in the end. You don´t have to invent everything again to get that. Not, if you have mastered the craft like Vigil Games obviously has.

It absolutely trumps the first game, which in itself was a work of masterful art, and leaves me hoping we don't have to wait two years for the inevitable third game. One of the year's best releases by far.

Little pieces like a sprawling sidequest system, additional RPG-lite conversation trees, getting a "This is the story so far…" recap any time you click 'continue' from the main screen, the beautiful and incredibly-scaled heavily-varied environments, and the depth of the nuanced and familiar loot system all come together to support a fantastic storyline.

THQ and Vigil Games have taken the Darksiders franchise and released a sequel to the original that is such an incredible game it exceeds every expectation I had. From the production values to the size and scope of the game itself, you can't help but sit back and be amazed with what they have done here.

Darksiders II takes just about everything that was great in the first game and made it better, which is exactly what a proper sequel should do. Even switching to a new character could have spelled disaster, but instead Death casts his shadow to such a degree that you will be saying "War who?" before you even leave the Forge Lands.

Aside from the minor visual issues, there is little to criticize about Darksiders II. The game is packed with content, is visually striking and features some brilliant level design. It expands on the mythology of the franchise, giving players a world that is both bigger and better than the original.

Vast, sprawling, beautiful and infinitely playable, Darksiders II is the biggest and best surprise of 2012. So far. It will fill all the time between now and other big hitters. [Issue#88, p.26]

The mix of ideas at play in Darksiders 2 could have turned out to be a disaster, but Vigil stitches it all together expertly. From the corrupted idyll of The Forge Lands, to the twilit expanses of The Land of the Dead, to the thin, broken line between Heaven and Hell, Death's grand adventure ranks among the best we've seen or will see in 2012.

Darksiders 2 is the kind of game gamers deserve. It cuts no unreasonable corners, it's not dumbed down, and it doesn't have a tacked-on multiplayer or co-op mode.