Darksiders II's drastic change in scenery makes sense

Darksiders 2

Author's note: I have only played through the first part of Darksiders II so far, so my observations will be limited to the first area of the game.

Last week, I wrote an article about the Darksiders series' human-incidental apocalypse. Bitmob community writer Ed Grabowski left a great comment on that post, which read, in part, that "The first had awesome art direction, [and] the second went for the generic fantasy look."

I quote Ed not to pick on him, but because I've had some of the same thoughts about developer Vigil Games' latest title. Darksiders II is, in fact, a huge visual change from the first game, abandoning End-Times-ravaged Earth for a high-fantasy aesthetic.

The difference is that I don't mind.

The first Darksiders has one of my favorite all-time video game settings: a post-apocalyptic Earth that is not at all concerned with the scrabblings and daily trials of the few surviving humans. The few surviving humans are zombies, which I guess is probably pushing any reasonable definition of "surviving," but it is what it is.

It would have been easy for Vigil to go there again in the sequel, and nobody would have complained. But what the developers of Darksiders II did instead is take the new hero, Death, and place him in an environment that is as alien to him as could be. It looks really weird for the Grim Reaper to be walking around a brightly colored fantasy land talking to dwarves (it's Darksiders, so they're giant dwarves, but we know what they really are).

While Ed is correct in saying that Darksiders II's fantasy setting is generic, its juxtaposition with the Pale Rider makes it work for me. Death is on a desperate mission to save his brother, and he's way out of his element. The lush greens and blues of the Forge Lands amplify his other-ness and reinforce just how far he is willing to go to save his fellow Horseman.

In addition to the alienating effect, the Forge Lands broaden the scope of the story to include things that the first game had no time or need to address. By introducing a single additional detail -- that everything in the universe had to come from somewhere -- Darksiders II's universe becomes more complicated, deep, and, ultimately, complete.

Tags: Darksiders, Darksiders II

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Ed Grabowski

September 27, 2012

Wow, this is the second time I was quoted in an article. The first time was...well, let's just say I was completely taken out of context and in no way did I ever suggest that Madonna should take her selfish, arrogant, self ceneterd egotistical trashy monster of a soul and get bent....Uhum....

Anyways, I forgot I even wrote that comment. Haven't been back to check up on it. I can see what you're getting at here, and its awesome it worked for you. And I really mean that, since it isn't like everyone agrees with me on this, many of my friends loved the game. For me, it just didn't work. While I agree that, throughout the entire adventure, it was clever that Death always seemed uncomfortable to be where he was, and the irony of it all was layed on thick, but I just don't see how that excuses the total downgrade in art direction.

It would be like putting God of War in a Call of Duty game. I adore the first Darksiders, and the art direction certainly wasn't the only thing that drew me in. Even if the art direction was completely different in Darksiders 2, I have plenty of other complants about the game that wouldn't be solved by a few asset changes. Yet, I just can't help but feel like they had to do it this way. I was talking about this very subject with a friend the other day while we were blowing away robots in Borderlands 2.

He made a great point. Darksiders 2 is much larger than the first, for better or worst. Clearly the unique art direction in the first game took a lot of time. Every area looked completely unique from the last. It was an incredibly varied game. However, the massive size of the sequel might have forced them to go the generic route. Take for example a game like the original Borderlands. I recently downloaded it for free on PSN since I am a Plus member, and for as big as that game is, the file was only a little over 3GB's.

They re-use a lot of assets, whereas the first Darksiders didn't. Fallout 3 or New Vegas and espeically Skyrim is the same. Those games are huge, but in order to make the game ina reasonable amount of time, they can't go crazy with the art direction. They have to keep it simple and reuse everything. That's why Darksiders 2 looks the way it does. I don't think they did it for any story reasons. I think they had to in order to make the game in a reasonable amount of time for a reasonable amount of money.

It would certainly explain why all of the dungeouns look exactly the same, and why all of the areas look the same except for some minor lighting changes...Oh well, I still have the incredible original I guess. I do hope the game sells well, since Vigil said if they were to make another one they would make a more focused game, more like the first. And that can only be good news.