Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition
Violent mature action gets loads of content, more glitches.
Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this game.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition is a violent downloadable action role-playing game (RPG). Players take on the role of Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, on his quest of revenge and redemption. Themes of destruction, devastation, hatred, and conquest are constantly echoed throughout the game, providing a bleak setting for players to fight their way through. There's also a focus on continually fighting your way through any enemy that opposes you, wielding scythes, hammers, and other weapons to destroy monsters or corrupted beings. Gore and blood are constantly shown, and enemies are impaled, decapitated, ripped to pieces, or, in some cases, destroyed by the classic avatar of Death himself, all of which actions are triggered by player commands. Controls are easy to manage, though some puzzle sections can prove frustrating to some players.
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What’s It About?
DARKSIDERS II: DEATHINITIVE EDITION is an expanded release of the 2012 action RPG. Players take on the role of Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as he seeks to prove the innocence of War, his brother in arms, from accidentally annihilating humanity too soon. In his quest, he travels through multiple realms, attempting to uncover the truth behind what happened. His adventure will take him into vast dungeons and through strange lands, acquiring weapons and items that will help him defeat monsters that not only threaten Heaven and Hell but the rest of the universe. Players will fight their way through hordes of monsters and will also scale dungeons in parkour-style platforming segments. The Deathinitive Edition also includes all the original downloadable content (DLC), enhanced visuals, and rebalanced loot, providing more than 30 hours of play.
Is It Any Good?
This updated version of the action RPG brings a massive game to a new generation of consoles and computers, with vastly expanded content and equipment for players to discover. The Deathinitive Edition does a clever job of integrating the downloadable content that was slowly released for the title, seamlessly integrating new loot and gear into stores or as random drops from fallen enemies. New tombs or dungeons can also be immediately accessed, so if you're looking for a challenge (or items that can't be found anywhere else), you can instantly move toward those sections and explore. All of this expands an already vast and deep game that allows players to customize their avatar of death to fit their style of play.
That being said, Deathinitive Edition isn't as "definitive" as one might hope. The original game could have some muddy visuals, and even though this game has been enhanced to full HD, the textures can still be a bit bland and washed out. The game's camera still hasn't been resolved in a satisfying way, because it will still get stuck in some environmental objects as you're navigating some levels. Plus, unlike the original, the update seems to have introduced a number of bugs and crashes that plague the game at random. There's nothing more frustrating than making it through a challenging dungeon only to have the game crash on you unexpectedly. But, these issues aside, Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition is still an excellent game that older players will enjoy, especially if they're hack-and-slash game fans.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in media. Do you see any difference between gory, bloody fantasy violence carried out against nonhuman creatures and gritty, realistic military violence set in more familiar environments?
Talk about the rerelease of older games and "director's cut" editions. Do these revamped games improve on games at all, or is it a marketing tactic designed to sell more titles?
Game Details
- Platforms: Mac, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Gunfire Games
- Release date: October 27, 2015
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy, Adventures, Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- ESRB rating: M for Blood and Gore, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Last updated: October 27, 2019
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