Frantic combat. Engaging puzzles and platforming. A complex universe drawing from a diverse cross-section of religion and myth. Shame about the story.

Fans of the series will be familiar with the starting point in Darksiders 2: War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, stands accused by The Charred Council for ending humanity. Earth stands as the battle ground between the forces of light and those of the darkness.

And in the middle stands Death, brother to War, struggling against the odds to set right those crimes which he believes his brother stands falsely charged with. The Crowfather, Keeper of Secrets, may be the only man who can help Death, but nothing is without its cost.

Darksiders 2 throws you into a complex and involved universe full of potential, equipping you with a wide-range of tools and skills necessary to take out whatever dangers may await you on the scattered world of the Abyss. However, for all the shining facets of Darksiders 2, one remains to dull an otherwise brilliant gem.

The original Darksiders repeatedly drew comparisons to the Legend of Zelda franchise, and the sequel continues much in the same vein. This time, however, the open areas akin to the field of Hyrule is much larger in size, as are the hub worlds and dungeons you frequent during Death’s travels. Everything has received a significant injection of scale, making each realm you visit feel grander and more developed.

Dungeons offer a wide variety of challenges from puzzles, to obstacles to navigate around and monsters to slay. Each tries to retain a unique look and feel, with early examples such as the water dungeon and lava dungeon feels sufficiently different to hold your interest. Later dungeons in the land of the dead can tend to feel a little repetitive – dark crumbling tunnels filled with ghostly abominations start to feel oppressive, rather than a welcoming challenge.

Nevertheless, this is simply an aesthetic hurdle to jump, as the later dungeons up the challenge. The puzzles in particular spiral in difficulty from simple moving keys into slots to controlling multiple NPCs to do your bidding in order to navigate locked doors, draw bridges and pressure pads. You are never stuck for new things to do – but from time to time you just may not enjoy the room you are stuck doing them in.

Getting around is easy – at a moment’s command Death’s skeletal horse Despair can be summoned to take you from A to B, otherwise an excellent fast-travel system can take you back and forth (and kindly leave a fast-travel marker for those moments when you need to stock up before a boss battle). For everything else there are Death’s platforming abilities.

Nine times out of ten the platforming sections work flawlessly – a precisely timed series of direction changes and button mashes to quickly propel the Horseman along ridges, over handholds, and across vine ceilings. Sadly, once in a blue moon, the game appears not to register a quick direction from your joystick, and rather swiftly leaping up, you dash sideways to your doom. You often return to a nearby spot for an easy do-over, but a couple of sections require you backtrack to restart a section, and if failure happens again, it can become infuriating.

When not leaping from wall to wall, Death takes a scythe in each hand and starts to disassemble hordes of monsters ranging from stone constructs, to the undead, and later angels and demons get thrown into the mix. Fast-paced and augmented with a plethora of exciting abilities, not least of all the ability to transform Death to a stronger Reaper form, combat is a joy.

Heavy axes and maces, or lighter gauntlets round out Death’s arsenal, allowing some tinkering with the load-out depending on your personal play-style. Downed enemies and hidden chests supply you with a constant stream of new equipment with which to upgrade Death. Whether you want to arm your Reaper with the strongest equipment or simply want to customise his kit to look good, there is enough loot to appease the kleptomaniac hidden within.

Success relies on a strong understanding of your enemy’s abilities and whether at any point time it is better to be close and dealing the damage, or bouncing away from the foe to dodge a killing blow. Death’s Death Grip ability, much like the hook shot, both essential for combat, and can drag small enemies towards you allowing you to dish out the killing blow. Alternatively, it will throw Death at the larger foes, closing the gap when holding onto your health may be essential.

Darksiders 2 has a lot to boast about, and in a purely technical sense, surpasses its predecessor with flying colours. So what’s the problem?

The story.

The numerous realms floating in the Abyss of Darksiders 2 complex universe are beautifully developed, each with their own inhabitants, laws, friends and foes. And Death spends Darksiders 2 doing very little of relevance across a large number of them.

Tasked with undoing the Apocalypse and restoring his brother War to the Charred Council’s good books, the first ten hours feel more like War’s story than Death’s, and you are left wondering whether you have fallen into some odd side quest which has very little significance on its own merits.

Hinted throughout is the tale of the Nephilim and their downfall, but this aspect of the plot only emerges as a key thread half way through the game and never develops enough to feel worthy of being ‘the main quest’.

Darksiders 2 is in many ways an extension of the Darksiders story -the Halo ODST to Halo 3 - a game which plays superbly and develops the universe from an interesting fantasy land to a living, breathing expanse of worlds and peoples. It just weaves a rather uninteresting yarn. 

When players reach the end of Death’s story, you will long for a Darksiders 3, but perhaps feel less inclined to replay Darksiders 2.

This review is based on an Xbox 360 version of Darksiders 2 provided by THQ.

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