Review for Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition. Game for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 27/10/2015 The version for PC came out on 05/11/2015 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 26/09/2019 The version for Xbox One came out on 30/10/2015
"There can be no life without order, good, evil, light and darkness ... There must be a balance in the universe". With this very impactful phrase, back in 2012, one of the most popular titles of all time arrived on the shelves around the world, managing to conquer a significant amount of users shortly thereafter. Loved, criticized and idolized, Darksiders II however, it manages to convince both the public and the entire international press, placing itself among the most important rankings in the world.
As many of you know, THQ Nordic is today one of the software houses that has invested most in the little one from Nintendo, publishing and developing several titles for the little one from the Kyoto house: after working on the port of Darksiders: Warmastered Edition in the past months, it is officially the turn of the second chapter of the saga to debut on the small screen of Nintendo Switch.
If on the one hand it managed to convince of its production quality back in 2012, Darksiders II will have to win back both the old fans of the saga in question and the "historical" users who have followed the THQ Nordic project since its inception. Will it be able to amaze us and leave us speechless even on Nintendo Switch? But, above all, will it be able to outclass its predecessor even on the hybrid from Nintendo? Let's find out together in this new review!
Abstract of a knight
The story of this second chapter is certainly well known, so we will limit ourselves to making only a summary of the events that took place in this narrative arc, so as to be able to immediately focus on the differences with the other versions already on the market. In Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition we will play the role of Death, or one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse who will relentlessly try to exonerate his brother from a dark and unjust fate. Our protagonist will try to prove the innocence of the good brother by facing angels and demons who will present themselves before him, thus continuing the story told in the first chapter.
As you may recall, in the first chapter, Guerra was condemned by the Arso Consiglio for having unleashed the end of the world in advance, bringing with it only death and destruction. Death, knowing that his brother is the most honorable of the four and that he would never start the Apocalypse without a reason, he begins to investigate on his own to find the truth behind this whole story. The protagonist, after a while, begins to believe that his brother is the victim of a conspiracy and sets himself the mission of finding proof of his innocence.
After a long journey in the Veil, an intermediate dimension of the various realms, Death goes to the Keeper of Secrets post to prove his brother's innocence and find ways to restore humanity once and for all. As already reiterated a few lines above, the events of Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition take place exactly shortly after the end of the first chapter, and we will have the opportunity to explore completely new places without the two warriors ever crossing, at least up to a certain point ...
The adventure narrated in Darksiders II seems to be more of a parallel story than a direct sequel, at times leaving us some gaps in the game plot. Despite some flaws at the narrative level, the story present in Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition is still one of the most popular and original seen in the vast videogame landscape.
Death on Nintendo Switch
That the Nintendo home console is one of the most favored by world developers is quite well known, especially thanks to the simplicity with which it is possible to work on Nintendo Switch: after the first chapter, THQ Nordic strongly wanted to bring Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition to the Switch, doing a satisfying job in many aspects. The porting of the second chapter is well built and equally optimized, although it is not exempt from some problems mainly due to the console hardware: the adventures of our protagonist are solid and well characterized, and we will rarely notice drastic drops in frame-rates indeed, everything runs pretty well.
The gameplay in this version is almost unchanged, leaving the peculiarities already known on the versions already released previously: explore, complete the main missions, collect some artifacts or simply solve some puzzles present in the multimedia work, will be the main focus of the game experience always leaving the player with a very high interest. The progression of the character remains unchanged in every aspect: as we level up, we will acquire skill points that can be spent in the appropriate game menu, and we will be able to choose between melee techniques or evocative spells designed mainly for Death.
One of the main problems, if we want to call it "problem", that we have encountered in this version it is definitely the slowest loading in the game world: it happened to us several times to notice this little jam, where you have to wait more than 20 seconds to switch from one setting to another (in the long run it unnerves). Another feature that has not convinced us is the camera in the game, often resulting not very intuitive and quite jerky: we will notice this last defect during the fighting, especially when we find ourselves in tiny areas with bosses that are too large; but nothing that cannot be fixed with a corrective patch.
Joy-Con in hand, we liked the game greatly although it would have been useful to make some improvements in the use of the latter: using some skills of the protagonist will be quite difficult since the ZL and L keys are almost glued and we will often be required to use them both very quickly. We advise you to use the application with the Pad Pro: the gaming experience will be completely better using this Nintendo branded controller, trust me!
If you believe that the problems are completely over you are wrong, yes, things did not go the right way: the application has undergone important freezes, closing completely and forcing us to restart the application itself.
The developers are aware of this problem and have already reiterated that a corrective patch will arrive in the next few weeks, fortunately. Despite some flaws that afflict the Nintendo Switch version (Easily solvable), we find THQ Nordic's optimization of Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition quite satisfactory.
Graphic and Sound
Speaking on the graphics sector of the game, we can confirm that the multimedia work is successful and carefully curated on different points of view: if other similar works didn't shine graphically on the little Switch, Darksiders II on the Switch is truly stunning. The image quality is quite good, bringing both a graphic and technical quality product to the Nintendo Switch screen: despite some problems mainly related to gameplay, the developers have pushed the performance of Nintendo Switch to the maximum by focusing more on the graphic side of the title .
Another positive note we certainly give to the audio sector of Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition, capable of knowing how to keep us glued to the screen with its frenetic music during the fights. Obviously we are talking about a title that must be discovered gradually, exploring far and wide all that this multimedia work can offer even the most pretentious players.
In conclusion, Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition is an interesting port for all those who want to relive the adventures dedicated to one of the most famous characters in the gaming industry. Although not excelled on the technical side, this multimedia work will offer us a solid, interesting and full of twists plot. We will be called to face an adventure, graphically speaking, like few seen so far on the Switch. We would certainly have appreciated better optimization work, as well as exclusive features dedicated to the hybrid from Nintendo. We therefore recommend the purchase to all those who have never had the opportunity to try the title on the last generation consoles, guaranteeing to find themselves in their hands an excellent title including all the DLCs released so far.
We remind you that Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition is available at a price of € 29,90 both in retail and digital version on the Nintendo Switch eShop.
► Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition is a sliding-RPG Adventure-Beat 'em up game developed and published by THQ Nordic for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 27/10/2015 The version for PC came out on 05/11/2015 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 26/09/2019 The version for Xbox One came out on 30/10/2015
