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How Darksiders II Clawed Its Way Off My Pile Of Shame
I enjoyed the first Darksiders almost in spite of itself. Its take on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was like a hesher’s fever dream, with hilariously buff and armored dudes fighting demons in a bombed-out wasteland. It was a great Zelda clone, though, in spite of its silliness. I was looking forward to the sequel, but a game-breaking glitch killed my progress a few hours in. And with that, another game got stacked onto the backlog. But unlike a lot of games on that stack, I actually circled back to it.
When it comes to gaming, I definitely overextend myself. Around the holiday season in particular, I grab games when they’re on sale and hope that I’ll eventually get around to playing them. (I’m not alone in this way of thinking, apparently.) I was looking through my collection last weekend, when I remembered how much I did enjoy what I played of Darksiders II. THQ and Vigil released a patch for the game that supposedly fixed the glitch I was having (a character got stuck in geometry, for what it’s worth), but it didn’t fix my earlier save. I knew I’d have to start over again, and with so many other new games vying for my attention at the time, I didn’t think it was worth the effort.
Enough time has passed to where I’ve forgotten most of the game’s intro, so I thought I'd give it another shot. It doesn't hurt that the game pops up in conversations in our office nearly every day, so I never got the chance to fully forget about it. I still think Death is a completely ridiculous character, and I should probably wear jorts when I play it to get the full experience, but it remains the same super-fun game. I love the dungeon design, and the combat is flexible and interesting. Best of all, you can summon little ghouls to fight for you. As someone who will always pick the necromancer option, that is awesome.
I’m only in the beginning of my Darkstalkers II reunion – I did pass the section that crapped out on me before – but I’m already looking to my next backlog item. I started playing Max Payne 3 last weekend, too, and it’s on the shortlist, along with Spec Ops: The Line and the Last of Us DLC. Battlefield 4 is still waiting, still in its wrapper, but there’s a good chance it’ll stay there for the time being.
What’s on your list? Have you picked anything up again after taking a long break?
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