Darksiders II - Xbox 360

The Final Trailer For Darksiders II

Jim Reilly — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 17:58:32 GMT

Darksiders II comes out next week so THQ is doing all it can to get people to remember to mark their calendars. In this final trailer, Death explains his quest.

The game is out August 14 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

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Guess What Death Is Up To In This New Darksiders II Trailer? (Hint: Killing)

Matt Helgeson — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 01:56:00 GMT

Listen, no one said it was easy being one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Turns out, killing demons isn't just a nine-to-five gig.

In this new Darksiders II trailer, Death is plying his trade, and the results look pretty sweet. Enjoy.

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Trailer Breathes Life Into Death's Story

Tim Turi — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:30:00 GMT

For all but those suffering the most miserable existences, Death is rarely seen as a savior. In Darksiders II, however, Death forgoes his usual role and becomes humanity's last hope. How exactly he plans to save the extinct human races' lost souls is still ambiguous, but this new trailer and batch of screenshots help paint the picture.

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Darksiders hits PC, PS3, and 360 August 14. It's also slated to release for Wii U.

Darksiders II's Customizable Death

Matthew Kato — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 16:01:50 GMT

In Darksiders II, everyone's death will be their own. A group of developers from Vigil Games' talks through the game's loot and skill trees in this latest trailer for the title.

The team has added a whole bunch of loot through which you can not only upgrade your arsenal, but also strengthen your possessed weapons by feeding them those which you don't use anymore. Vigil also breaks down the Harbinger (warrior) and Necromancer skill trees.

Take a look.

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Darksiders II comes out for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on August 14. It will also be available for the Wii U sometime this year.

Also be sure to check out this previous trailer for the game.

THQ Teases Death Rides DLC In New Darksiders II Trailer

Matt Helgeson — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 19:10:24 GMT

In this (mostly) live-action trailer for Vigil Games' upcoming Darksiders II, a priest reads some apocalyptic passages from the Book of Revelation as the demonic hordes threaten to beat down the door of the church. Behold, a pale horse!

The Death Rides DLC will be available as a bonus item for those who pre-order the game at Gamestop, along with the already announced Argul's Tomb DLC. The Death Rides pack adds a host of new side-quests in the Maker's Realm and Dead Plains.

[Gamestop is the parent company of Game Informer.]

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The Horsemen’s Dark And Violent History Revealed

Kyle Hilliard — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 22:46:30 GMT

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were once part of a larger race called the Nephilim before taking on their roles as Horsemen. The Nephilim were not created by the gods of the Darksiders fiction. After discovering that the four horsemen were responsible for the genocide of their own race in Darksiders II’s opening cut-scene, we join Death as he begins his mission to clear his brother War’s guilty name by seeking the Crowfather’s help.

The game begins with Death on top of his mount riding towards an imposing temple on a snowy path as the wind whips snow and ice through the air. Death dismounts and begins his climb. The original Darksiders was often compared to God of War and Zelda, and Darksiders II invites another comparison. Moving around the environment feels like the 2008 Prince of Persia, and shares a similar death mechanic. Death cannot really die, so when you fall into a pit, he immediately flies into the air, resetting back to his last point of solid ground. He latches onto and runs along walls just by jumping toward them, and grabs handholds to propel himself up and across walls.

I meet my first enemies after scaling a few walls, and numbers fly from their bodies with each consecutive hit. The numbers dictate how much damage I’m dealing, and the ice monsters flash yellow to show that they are receiving damage. Both the numbers and the flashes of yellow can be turned off if you want an experience free of statistical reminders that you are playing a video game.

As I climb higher and higher, I meet a gigantic ice monster larger than any I had previously encountered. He doesn’t provide much of a challenge for Death, but the fight takes considerably longer than the smaller ice monsters. These creatures are referred to internally at Vigil as “nosses,” which is short for “not bosses.” They’re big, impressive, and dangerous, but not quite a miniboss or a boss.

Continuing my climb, I fight more ice monsters and collect assorted weapons and armor. By the time I finally make it to the top, I’m sporting stronger gloves and boots and a stronger secondary weapon, which I have changed out twice. The loot you collect in Darksiders II can be equipped or sold to a merchant as you would expect, but you can also feed it to possessed weapons. Possessed weapons start out weak, but gain in power and reflect the attributes of the items they are fed.

The Crowfather is an old man, shackled to a glowing green amulet at the top of the structure. Death seeks the old man to help him save War, but the he refuses to help Death because of the torment he has put him through. Death and his Horsemen brethren killed the Nephilim, but Death forced the Crowfather to carry their souls by refusing to destroy them, and the mythic figure now contains the Nephilim souls in the glowing green amulet. The Crowfather has been driven insane by their endless crying. He seeks vengeance for the fate given to him by Death, and changes his appearance to look like War before attacking him. Death makes short work of the disguised sorcerer, but the amulet of souls breaks during the tussle and Death accidentally absorbs the spirits, leaving a garish scar on his shoulder.

Death is “a bit of a d---,” says Simon Watts, THQ’s global communications manager. He is not concerned with honor like War was, and is willing to lie, threaten, and trick in order to get his way. In his exchange with the Crowfather, he even laughed, making a small joke about his predicament. He is more casual with his approach to his mission. For Death, the ends justify the means, which is why he seeks to reset humanity, rendering his brother’s crime null and void, rather than prove his innocence.

Darksiders II received a disappointing delay recently, but it was an elected delay on the part of the team at Vigil. Darksiders II is content-complete, meaning everything is in place and ready to go. Vigil just wants more time to polish its sequel and make it as close to perfect as it can. My hands-on time ended right after defeating the Crowfather, but I made every effort to grab the controller back and continue playing. I didn’t want to put it down.

CG Trailer Shows Death's Acrobatic Side

Adam Biessener — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:48:00 GMT

THQ sends along a new pre-rendered Darksiders II trailer that showcases how badly the deadliest Horseman of the Apocalypse outmatches even the most colossal of foes.

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Check out last week's trailer, or visit the hub from last July's cover story to get all kinds of inside info on Darksiders II.

Developer Vigil and THQ are shipping Darksiders II on August 14 to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

Check Out Sample Music Tracks From Darksiders II

Kyle Hilliard — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:39:58 GMT

Vigil announced back in March that Jesper Kyd had been brought on to create music for Darksiders II, and now you can get an early listen to some of his tracks from the game. Kyd is best known for his work on the Assassin's Creed and Hitman series.

The Makers Theme

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Into Eternity

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City of the Dead

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Demon Realm

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THQ and Vigil just announced today that Darksiders II will be releasing on August 14.

New Darksiders II Trailer Talks About Death

Matt Helgeson — Fri, 11 May 2012 01:10:00 GMT

The development team at Vigil Games discusses design and evolution of Darksiders II's Death.

If you've been curious about the game, which graced the cover of Game Informer, this trailer is a good primer. Despite THQ's financial difficulties, this game still has a lot of promise.

For more on the game, check out our Darksiders II Hub, which has links to loads of preview and video coverage on the title.

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Darksiders II Preview: A Rendezvous With Death

Phil Kollar — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:15:00 GMT

As the sequel to THQ’s surprisingly awesome 2010 action game, Darksiders II has a lot in common with the original. You’ll still be slicing up demonic enemies, solving Zelda-style puzzles in post-apocalyptic dungeons, and piecing together a conspiracy of biblical proportions. One area in which the sequel is decidedly different is the main character. In my most recent lengthy look at Darksiders II, it became abundantly clear that Death is much more than a palette swap for his big brother.

This feature originally appeared in issue 227 of Game Informer.

On Borrowed Time

In the first area of the new demo, Death enters a cave full of freely flowing lava. As he walks in, a stone golem named Ghorn threatens him and smashes the ground, destroying the bridge Death is standing on and sending the hero plummeting below.

On this lower level, I’m quickly introduced to one of Death’s significant improvements over War: his ability to quickly and gracefully navigate the environment. In the first game War could climb across ledges, but his bulky frame made him slow, so these sections were generally straightforward and didn’t require much timing. In this dungeon of Darksiders II, Ghorn's ground-smashing causes lava to rise, forcing Death to be swift as he clamors up a vertical passage.

The first Darksiders was often referred to as a blend of God of War and Zelda, but this traversal challenge reminds me of another popular franchise: Prince of Persia. Death employs a wall run to begin his trek upward, then runs along the wall’s limited handholds, inching higher up where possible. At key points he can launch himself using the ghost hand, a hookshot-like tool that pulls Death up to attachments sticking out of the wall and – with a well-placed button press – sends him sailing even higher.

"In the first game, all of the traversal was non-committal traversal, just point-to-point," says lead designer Haydn Dalton. "Now at some point you’re going to fail while doing a wall run or using your ghost hand. That adds an element of tension. It adds a lot of commitment and engagement for the player to getting around the environment."

Another early navigational puzzle sees Death standing on platforms that slowly sink into the lava like something out of a Mario game. He quickly scans his environment to get a bearing on each platform and then must jump to the next before he’s fried.

Facing Death In Darksiders II

Phil Kollar — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:00:00 GMT

THQ and developer Vigil Games are serious about the portrayal of Death as a character. How serious? In a recent event for the upcoming Darksiders II, festivities were kicked off not with a demo or a trailer for the game, but with…a lecture. Dane Munro, an expert on the artistic depiction of death through the ages got on stage to show us the evolution of this dark topic over centuries. With context gained, THQ darkened the room and moved on to the most recent and exciting version of Death yet.

Things kick off with Death entering a lava-filled cave, where he’s immediately confronted by Ghorn, a rock golem who threatens to smash the nimble protagonist. Ghorn smashes the ground in front of Death, crumbling the bridge he was standing on. Death tumbles to a lower level where he runs into a traversal challenge.

Unlike the previous game’s protagonist, War, Death is agile and able to climb walls in graceful, Prince of Persia-style strides. Upon entering a narrow vertical area, Ghorn smashes on the ground from up above, causing lava to rise. In this timed challenge, Death must scale up the wall before he is burned alive.

He begins with a wall-run and latches onto a groove. Sliding to the right, he tosses himself across a gap to another groove, then launches himself up to catch one above him. At certain points, Death is able to latch onto hooks that are sticking out of the wall with his ghost hand ability. A well-placed button press after grabbing on sends him flying even higher than normal.

Past the rising lava, Death runs into a few enemies, a mix of smaller rock golems and demonic creatures that look similar to the bad guys War fought in the first game. As with his movement, Death’s combat is also faster than War’s. He wields two scythes, and at the end of combos they will often come together as one giant blade to smash down at a foe. Death can also swap to his secondary weapon on the fly – even mid-combo. In this case, he’s using a gigantic hammer that does huge damage but moves very slowly.

Rounding out the combat with a couple of spells, Death uses exhumes, which summons two coffins up from the ground. The coffins then burst open, producing tiny zombie minions that fight on his side for a bit. He also has a spell called Murder that summons a big group of crows to flock toward an enemy. The crows do a small amount of damage but mostly serve as crowd control, distracting opponents so you can focus in on one. At one point, Death even uses his ghost hand in combat, whipping it toward an enemy and then pulling the creature back at him.

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After clearing away this group of enemies, Death stumbles upon a ridable construct, a giant stone creation that springs to life when he jumps on its shoulders. Death uses the construct to cross a pit of lava that would kill him normally. On the other side, he attacks a few smaller enemies with giant swipes and smashes one of the construct’s rocky fists.

At the end of this cave, Death discovers a circular indentation in the ground where he parks the ridable construct. This opens a gate leading to a final face-off against Ghorn, the rock creature that has been causing him trouble throughout this area. This enemy is probably double Death’s size, but THQ cautions that he is still merely a mini-boss as far as this game is concerned. Actual bosses will be much larger.

The battle against Ghorn features a familiar number of attacks with obvious tells helping Death figure out what to do. At one point, Ghorn glows red and begins shaking, a sign that he’s about to perform a big area-effect attack. Death has a few seconds to back off and avoid taking damage. Another attack has Ghorn relentlessly slamming at the ground, sending bursts of lava into the air that Death must dodge. When half of Ghorn’s health is drained, he summons smaller golems to fight alongside him.

After a fun-looking five minute battle, Death drains the last bit of Ghorn’s health, setting the mini-boss up for a finishing move. Death summons his Reaper form – a giant, spectral hooded figure – and brutally hacks at the enemy with a huge scythe.

This whole area looked great, but THQ had one last surprise to share upon the demo’s completion. The whole fifteen or twenty minutes I just watched? It was a completely optional side dungeon, an exciting addition to Darksiders II that should significantly beef up the amount of content in the game. Call me crazy, but I can’t wait to see Death again.

For a more in-depth look at Darksiders II, including exclusive information about the game’s skill system and puzzles, check out my feature in the upcoming March issue of Game Informer.

Get To Know Death In New Darksiders II Dev Diary

Jeff Cork — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:25:00 GMT

"What makes Death different from War is almost everything about him," says Darksiders II's director, Marvin Donald. Fortunately, Donald and the rest of the team spend the rest of this video being significantly less cryptic.

Check out the video below for a look at how Death is different from brother War. That includes everything from the way he moves to how he makes an otherwise mundane impalement an outlet for his unique personality.

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Get A Few More Precious Seconds With Death

Jeff Cork — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:20:00 GMT

Last month, we brought you exclusive details on THQ and Vigil Games' Darksiders II, including the first glimpse of the game in action. Now, an extended cut of that trailer is available, showing off a few more quick shots of Death and the gang.

The trailer is identical to its predecessor until about the 1:17 mark, at which point the new content flashes by. A fair bit of warning: If you don't time your blinks correctly, you'll miss out on the footage. When you're done soaking it all in, browse the new screens in the gallery below.

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Exclusive: First Darksiders II Screens

Ben Reeves — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 19:00:00 GMT

We’re breaking open the floodgates with a ton of great Darksiders II content. We’ve already given you a first look at the game with the Darksiders II announce trailer. Now feast your eyes on this first set of screens from the game.

These screens highlight the new horseman Death and a couple of different weapons he’ll have access to throughout the game. You’ll also get a glimpse of Death’s horse, Despair. Finally, you can stare down two leviathan-sized serpents, which are used to transport a giant airship throughout the underworld.

Be sure to check out our Darksiders II hub here, or by clicking on the banner below.