The first Darksiders got a lot of recognition for feeling like a mix of God of War and Legend of Zelda, what with the horse and the dungeons. Darksiders 2 still exists in that airspace, but has its eyes a bit more towards the MMO and dungeon crawler space. Along with the loot system, there’s quests for you to take from the folks who sell you weapons and moves; one character who gives you new combos will ask you to wipe out powerful enemies that he couldn’t while another will beg you to find relics of his dying race, things like that. You certainly never run out of things to do in the game, and the ability to warp back to hub worlds from nearly every dungeon there is to offer is definitely welcome in this case. But the large overworlds you can ride your horse through are just lacking in enough amounts of enemies to encourage exploring away from the main path. As it is, the riding around to new locations just feels more padded than the game already is.

The game clocked playtime at only 12 or 13 hours, but it certainly felt longer than that. You’re continuously stopped by a new roadblock, either by way of an enemy encounter or a puzzle for you to figure out. At one point towards what I thought was the game’s halfway point, I had to collect three of something to be part of another three of something, and it went on annoyingly long. There’s a bit on Earth that requires you to just shoot waves after waves of enemies that goes on way too long and wears out the novel “fun waste of time” bit.

As is the case with other remastered games, Darksiders 2 boasts having all the DLC bundled together, and while there are some new weapons added in, the real meat comes from the dungeons. The best of them has to be Argul’s Tomb, which has the best of what makes the game so fun. It doesn’t wear out its welcome, has great encounters, and manages to provide some sweet loot. Abyssal Forge is solid, but doesn’t entirely feel as airtight as Tomb, and The Demon Lord Belial is pretty good as well. The remaster also has enhanced graphics and an improved camera, or rather claims to; while the game does indeed look prettier, the camera may have gotten worse in some aspects. It gets too close on Death sometimes (or sometimes too far out that you can’t see him all that well) and during combat, the lock on is just plain bad.

Still, when the game works, it certainly works. Getting past the camera issues and annoying padding is a fun game that’ll definitely keep you entertained. Plus, you can become a giant spectral reaper and pick apart enemies the size of a Transformer with a single swing. How can you say no to that?         

Score: 4/5