Release the Fury Darksiders 3

There was some doubt that this game would never come out, seeing as how THQ went under and the game was stuck in limbo for a long time. I should be glad that it did, and that it expanded upon the amazing lore set by the first two games, and in a way, I am glad. But the game-play of this game GOD the game-play of this game......
Around the time the first game came out difficulty in games was inspired by two games specifically "Devil May Cry" as well as "Ninja Gaiden" which were, at the time considered to be tough as nails. Darksiders one mimicked the more DMC difficulty, all be it a bit less so. Darksiders two did the same with NG. Neither of the games were quite as hard as the ones they were inspired by. Frankly, I actually like that they aren't as difficult.
But times change, and inspiration comes from different sources. Enter Darksidersouls. Since the time THQ went under and the game was stuck in limbo a new kind of difficulty emerged in the form of Darksouls. It was a game where every encounter could potentially be your last. I never played the game because I didn't like that idea, like having enemies jump out at you out of no where for an insta-death. No thank you. Had enough of those playing NG2 on Master Ninja mode and those enemies weren't in hiding. And yet, that became the inspiration for Darksiders 3. I can't say I'm in any way surprised, but I do wish they'd gone a different route.

We'll get to game play in a bit though, for now, lets talk about Fury, the third horseman. Her goal is to find and kill the seven deadly sins. That's basically her journey. You can do it in any way that you want (almost) but there really isn't much to it. Unlike the other horsemen, though, the journey she takes is much about herself as well. In the beginning she is hot headed and brash, but by the end she is visibly changed, worrying for the humans, who she hadn't really cared for at first. In the waiting period for this game to officially launch IGN did an interview with the voice actress Crissy Jones, who played Fury and they sounded genuinely excited. When the game came out, however, they said that Fury's voice acting was mostly just yelling and wasn't very good. They might as well just have made a trophy out of a middle finger and sent it to her. That's why I don't listen to reviews of games any more. I look at the story and the game-play to see that they are engaging and fun, if so, then I'm interested. It's that simple.
Fury starts by killing off Envy and from there, finds Ulthane. He tells her Where Wrath is, and Fury fights him, winning, but at the cost of her horse's life, and nearly of hers. At the last second she is transported into the Hollow Lands where she is patched up or healed or whatever and meets The Hollow Lord (who was a password in the first game you could type in to get the Harvester for free) and he gives her the flame hollow. Unlike in the previous games where War and Death pick up new weapons, Fury is a bit different. Her weapon, the Scorn is, basically a hilt. Her signature weapon are the barbs but Scorn can turn into anything from chains to hammers to swords to spears. Each hollow gives her a different weapon. I like the idea very much.
But I digress, we're still on story. After escaping the Hollows you end up in Avarice's domain. Personally, I like the name Greed better but whatever. You can choose to kill him now or wait and delve deeper into The Nether, (where you went to fight Wrath) and eventually come across my favorite sin (personality wise) Sloth. Either way you end up back in the hollows where you are given the storm hollow. It isn't, however, until you get to a place called the Bone-land when you get the next sin.
Before you can do that Fury has a confrontation with Pride who naturally thinks she's the best of the sins and refuses to fight you until you've defeated all the others. She goes off to a land called Aries. This brings me to a small gripe about this game. I wish there was more lore in it. While I like Fury's story very much, and the characters as well, the history of the world just isn't really in the game. You can see it, reading some of the descriptions of things in the menu, but there aren't really any side quests or journeys you can undertake in which you learn about any of the history. If this game had come after the first, which had just enough lore to keep you interested, then I would have enjoyed it more. The problem is that this game came after the second game which was full to the brim with all kinds of lore. It's kind of a shame they took it away in this game. Fortunately the DLC adds a bit of lore to keep you interested.
In the Bone-lands Fury finds the angels, who she blames for killing her noble steed and decides to massacre the lot of them. Then you come face to face with Useal, an arc angel stuck on earth and he tells you that they angels had nothing to do with killing your horse and that it was Lust. With that knowledge, Fury continues her quest.
She's attacked by a kraken all the while during her search for the sin, as well as some enemies that will make you rip all of your hair out in frustration if you hadn't already done that in in the first few sections of the game. Finally she comes to Lust.
This is another of my favorites. Slightly off topic for a bit, but I watch a lot of animation (anime) and often in it there are young boys who are for, whatever reason, played by women. Timmy Turner from Fairly Odd Parents is played by Terra Strong, for example. Anime tends to do it on an even more regular basis. I bring this up because the opposite is done here. It is obviously a man voicing the character, Jason Spisak, but he is speaking in a feminine voice. I guess my point with all of the above is that I kind of like seeing the rolls reversed and I think more men should do it.
So anyway, after defeating Lust and getting the force hollow its on to Gluttony. Here, I should also point out that you can go for Avarice or Gluttony if you haven't already. I like that the game doesn't really direct you where to go it just lets you be you. I like it. Back to story. You start out in the Depths a largely underwater landscape with drowned ruins. It leads way into a subway briefly and from there into a sewer I think. It's questionable because you kind of travel through both. The Nether is the same, though it seems to be more subway than sewer while this one seems to be more sewer than subway.
Eventually, you come across Gluttony. Fury and he exchange some friendly banter, that is until he spits up the head of Fury's horse. Enraged, she dies. Oh wait maybe that was just me trying to avoid all the damn acid all along the floor during the fight. After dying a few more times and finally out of luck or shear will, but mostly luck, you'll get Gluttony's health about half way at which point he'll turn into the kraken. This part of the fight can easily fuck you up and bring you to tears when you die and have to fight Gluttony and his acid fountain again. Once you figure out what the hell your actually doing though it's really not that hard.
After defeating Gluttony you get the Stasis Hollow. At this point you have to try and find your way back somewhere, anywhere. There are multiple areas that lead out of the Depths, but to continue the game, you have to get back to Haven (where you met the makers). Once you have the Force and Stasis Hollows you can head over to the Scar if you want.
I hate it. The Scar has demonic enemies. That's not the reason I hate it though. In fact I actually love fighting the enemies here. One of them is a Trauma from the first game. Some are lesser demons from the first game. Some, new to this game, summon in enemies in battle while another makes copies of itself. They are all incredibly different enemies and I like fighting them. What I hate, though is dying. The puzzle to get into the scar is very unforgiving. Basically, you have to use Stasis to freeze something and then the Flame Hollow to jump across it. The problem is that you are not only on a timer, but if you should do anything wrong, like not freeze EVERYTHING or time your jump wrong or die to any one of the aforementioned enemies before you make it to the next save point, then you have to do it all over again. And that, really effing sucks. This same thing happens with the Tornado that plagues the Scar. Both gave me lots of frustration when I first did them.
Inside the Scar you meet two people. The first you're most likely to meet, by sheer accident, is Abraxis. He is a demon lord who The Hollow Lord asked you to kill, though you'll be forgiven for forgetting as it's all the way back in the beginning of the game when you get the first hollow. The second creature you meet is one of the Chosen. The game likes to throw this term around. Each of the Darksiders game had creatures called "the chosen" and they were all different. This mini boss is one of the only ones in the game. There are actually more than one to fight but more on that later.
After you meet them, Abraxis not required, you can actually skip right over him, then it's on to a rematch with Wrath, where this time, Fury kills him for good. Assuming you've defeated all the other sins then it's on to Aries to fight Pride.
Defeating her, it is revealed that, the Watcher, who was with you the entire time, was actually the real Envy, who had disguised herself as an ally. There are several hints throughout the game, easily miss-able in the first play through.
Envy kills Fury, or so she thinks. In truth, she is saved by a human, Jones, who she met at the beginning of the game. It's not actually clear on who saves her, but I'm making an assumption here. Either way, she ends up back in Haven with Ulthane. Now, assuming you killed Abraxis, and returned to the Hollow Lord, the ending can change here. Under the assumption that you did, though, you get a . . . . . . . . .  thing. It's never really clear what it is or what it does.
Ulthane reveals a portal, one he'd been working on for the entirety of the game, which leads the horseman to her final battle with Envy. She holds up said thing after the battle realizing that said thing can destroy the council and then leaves. Outside, the tree is under attack from the Destroyer (this game takes place while War is still imprisoned by the council and there by not dead yet) and everyone is in a tizzy. Ulthane tells the horseman to use the portal and get the humans to safety. She vows to look after them and on her way out, sees that Jones is the only human who stayed behind. This is because, as it turns out, he was Strife all along. BUM BUM BUUUUUM. That's why I think it was him who saved her.
Anyway, cut to credits. There are some extra cut scenes, much like in the second game, with the Prince of Darkness talking to Lilith, both of which very depending on if you got the thing from the Hollow Lord. And that's the end.

There are some glaring issues that I need to talk about though. As mentioned above, sometimes, getting to save points can be a real chore. I actually timed the load screen after death. It's right around 40 seconds. That doesn't seem like a long time but add that to getting from one save point to another, possibly having to fight all the enemies along the way to get there only then to die in the exact same spot and have to do it all over again. In some cases, during the boss fight with Lust, for example:

Wait 40 seconds for load screen.

Respawn.

Travel 15 seconds back to the Lust Boss.

Die in 1 second.

Repeat.

It may seem like I'm nit picking here but I'm not exaggerating either. Sometimes you can last longer than one second so the time can vary a bit. One of the things this game has going for it is that after you initiate the boss fights,  eg watch the cut scene, they are just there waiting for you after you die. That's a nice change from Darksiders 1 and 2 in which you had to skip the scene every time. In Darksiders 2 In the Archon fight you had to skip three different scenes just to get back to the fight and then die and do it over again. I like the change. It still suck waiting for the load screen though.
Another thing I enjoy about this game is that, like the other Darksiders games, it is uniquely different. Sometimes, as mentioned above, that can be a bad thing, but for the most part, I like it. This game is sort of Metroid style game. It happened a bit in the first game, but in this one it's far more obvious how the world seems to fold in on itself revealing new paths to areas you've already visited. The paths usually lead to treasure, so it's worth looking for them.
On the subject of treasure, I find the items I pick up far more useful than the ones in Darksiders 2. Where Death would pick up a weapon with some stat boost or another, this game hearkens back to the first game, having you pick up Enhancements, which you can embed into your weapon for various stats. Personally, I like that much better than just finding a weapon randomly in a dungeon. Also, Souls as currency are back. They were absent in the second game because of the locations Death was visiting, but in this game, they make a triumphant return. And with souls, of course, comes everybody's favorite demon merchant Vulgrim.  God I love him.
Now and again he and Fury will talk and, ugh, I love it. The banter between them and the one liners he has are awesome. I love too, how the game kind of makes fun of itself, when, in one encounter, Vulgrim asks Fury for an artifact, which she has just acquired from the angels.
There are a few things missing from this game though, some characters, like Ureal, and others just game play elements. In the first two games there was a shooting segment, in Darksiders 1 there were two actually, where War, and Death take up an angel/demon gun and just fire away. This game doesn't have anything like that. Considering the mechanics of the game though it was probably for the best that they got rid of it.
Instead, you have to run away from a giant ass tornado. That's a super annoying section. It doesn't help that, when I first played it, I didn't know you could just avoid being sucked into it just by having the Force Hollow equipped. I guess that was on me, but still, kinda irksome.
That, sort of, leads me into my next section, and that's the puzzles. It wouldn't be Darksiders without them. Each area has puzzles that can only be solved by using one of the four hollows. Sometimes you have to use more than one switching between them on the fly. The puzzles are made even more complicated in the DLC, in the Void, not so much in the Crucible, where you just fight a bunch a shit. Sometimes though, like at the end, when you've to get to Wicked K, but not much there.
Another cool thing is that, as Fury acquires new hollows, Scorn changes its form. I mentioned it above, but it's worth repeating. Each weapon has various skills that the others don't. Take the Force Hammer "Mallet of Scorn". With that equipped you can smash right through cars, light, lamps, and all other manner of objects in your way. You can break SOME of those things with other weapons, but with the mallet, it's just more fun. Especially with the "get souls from breaking objects" enhancement on it. That makes doing it well worth it. Until the game crashes.
The "Lance of Scorn" is the only weapon that can be throne. It makes fighting long range enemies much easier but only if you can time the dodge counter right. The "Edge of Scorn" has the unique ability to freeze enemies (and objects) for a time. I wish it would freeze enemies for just a bit longer, but alas. The Flame hollow just sets stuff on fire. I mainly use it for when I need to jump higher, which is often.
I do need to talk about something else though, and that's the enemies. This game has no shortage of variety when it comes to fighting. Some enemies, like the Trauma's and the Undead General all make an appearance in this game. While the Trauma was missing from Darksiders 2 it, too, had an Undead General. The one in the third game is more akin to that one than the one from the first. Most of the enemies are fine I guess.
Like I said, the variety is great, but what isn't great, is the damage output. Right off the bat enemies can kill you in about 3 hits where as it takes you, depending on the enemy, seven or eight to kill them. What's more, some of the enemies have a gap closing attack where, even if you dodge, it can still hit you. This becomes especially tiresome with what I call the "shadow" enemies. They are regular enemies but with glowing red eyes and bathed in darkness. They can just one shot you. Even upgrading your health is no use against them as they seem to have no regard for what it may be.
What makes it all even more frustrating is that there are some enemies who have projectiles which they throw at you from off screen. Sure, there's a red arrow on screen telling you where the attack is coming from, but when you're surrounded by red arrows it doesn't really matter where the attack is coming from, you're just dead.

So what can I really say about this game? Well, I have sort of a love/ hate relationship with it. On the one hand, I really like the story and lore that it brings to the series. And while, yes, there really isn't any side quests to expand the lore further like in the other games, there are things to read in the menu's and in Vulgrum's shop, all of which give just a bit more in-sight on the game and its world. On the other hand, the game is aggressively hard with that "get gud" mentality. While I don't mind hard games, I do feel though, as if the difficulty is very unbalanced. Maybe it's just me. I've played it enough now to the point that, honestly, I don't really find it very hard anymore, and when I do, I just use up all the Havoc shards I've been collecting and bring forth the . . . well . . . Havoc. All in all, I enjoy the game very much despite its flaws. It may very well be one of my favorite series of all time. I hope that they are one day able to follow up with the amazing ending from the first game. That would be a dream come true.

The Failure that was Darksiders 2 Death Lives

Don't think for a second the title of this article means that the game is absolute trash. On the contrary, it improves on almost every aspect of the original, almost. The failure of this game comes from two things, the first, and most important, was the fact that this game was somehow supposed to keep THQ afloat. The company was going belly up and this was one of the last games that could potentially save the company, well, it didn't. Part of that do to the fact that the game had so many bugs coming out the door that versions of it weren't even playable on the PC. The second was the DLC content that should have been in the game. the "Bloodless" quest comes to mind, Karn's fetch quest, the search for the book all should have been in the game already. In the case of he "Bloodless" quest you can even see and hear them roaming around in the first world. They're translucent, but they're there.  The book quest, as well as Karn's fetch quest are all similar. If you knew where to look for them, you could see the items sitting right there, but unless you payed for it, you couldn't do the quest.
Some things, like the extra side dungeons, I didn't mind so much paying extra for. "The Abyss" "Labyrinth of the Deposesed King" and "Earth" were among the three in the "season pass" for the game, which I got, but could only play one dungeon. When I downloaded the others the game would crash on me. The only way to stop it was to delete the DLC, which was a shame, because I really wanted to play. The other quest mentioned above though, should have been part of the game from the start. The Remaster fixes all the bugs and adds all the DLC but that doesn't change the fact that THQ wanted people to pay for extra content that should have been there to begin with. Suffice to say, it didn't work.
The company went belly up, and for a long time, it looked like the Darksiders franchise would be lost forever. Nordic Games stepped up, but that's a story for another time. Right now it's time to take a dive in and see what the game has to offer.

Like in the first game, the story is fairly straight forward. You play as one of the four horsemen, Death, on a quest to erase his brother, War's, crime from the first game. Death hopes that by restoring humanity, he'll be able to redeem his brother. But Death has no idea how to do that, so begins his quest by seeking out some who does. The keeper of secrets. The keeper of secrets tells Death he'll help but only if Death relieves him of the souls of the Nephilim, which the horseman had given to the keeper of secrets long ago. Death refuses and the keeper of secrets refuses to help. Death is left with no choice but to kill him.
He is then transported to the Makers land. He learns from one of the makers that the way to save his brother is at the Tree of Life, which is currently blocked by something called corruption. Death's only choice is to help restore the the lands to their former glory and awaken a colossal stone beast which is supposed to be able to rid the land of corruption. It's worth mentioning that this first world you go to is as big, or almost as big, as the entirety of the first game. At least if felt that way to me.
At the end of the level the colossal monster becomes corrupted and Death has to put it down Shadow of the Colossus style. The whole level is wonderful.
The second level is great too, I'll be it a bit slow. First Death has to summon the throne, then, in order to speak to the king, he has to find three keys to fight a beast in the arena then he talks to the king and has to find his three judges, one of whom you have to help by saving three human souls, another you just fight, and another who is locked away in someplace called the Psychomeron, which is basically Hell, especially if you chose to play the game on one of the higher difficulties. So once you get all three of them and take them back, the Lord of Bones kills the three judges and sends Death to the City of the Dead where he'll find someone willing to help him. Whilst inside the game tricks you by having these Leviathan like creatures flying all around the sky. At one point you have to dodge one to get a key. I thought you were going to have to fight it, but nope, it's just there for show although, when you fight the colossal Whaling Host, depending on what difficulty you chose, he can summon those things to aid him in battle. Pretty cool I guess. Any way, you defeat the Whaling Host and meet the keeper of secrets, naturally. He tells you that there are two keys (wait, not three? weird) one held by the angels and one by the demons. Death goes in search of them.
The third level of the game is where things start to suffer. Unlike the previous two games the third and fourth areas are much shorter, which isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but it's definitely a bit disappointing. The place is called Lost Light and you start out by making your way to a spire, where you are told to speak with the Archon. He tells you that the key is unreachable, but that if he had the Rod of Arefel, he could clear all the corruption away. Death goes on a surprise trip to Earth (surprise because I didn't think he was going there in the game) to retrieve the three rod pieces. Once found he takes the rod back to the Archon who clears the way to the city of light where death meets Jameirah, a scribe, who tells Death that the Archon has the key. Going back to the Archon he and Death have chat which ends with the Archon on the end of Death's scythe.
The fourth and final level is the smallest. Death goes to the Shadow Realm, the realm of demons. There are no surprise visits to Earth or any other realms from here. It's one big straight line with only two branching paths, one leading to a secret treasure vault (more on that later)and the other leading to Lilith, who gives Death the power of the chronoshere much like in the first game, only instead of slowing time, it will take death into the past and present, though it only works in side the spire. Death fights his way through both past and present in order to find the king of the realm, who happens to be Sameal from the first game. He taunts Death and the two of them fight. Death wins but Sameal makes it clear that it was a test, and that he passed.
From here you can go back and talk to Lilith if you want, and she'll tell you to resurrect the Nephilim, which by the way is revealed in game that the four horsemen became the four horsemen when they grew tired of their race killing off everything and every one, and so made a pact with the Charred Council for immense power. Their first task as horsemen was to wipe out the rest of the Nephilim. The eldest of the Nephilim, Absolom, fell upon Death's scythe, birthing corruption.
In a not as epic as the colossus fight at the beginning of the game (the closest thing to that being the Whaling Host, the Noss from Earth or Sameal) Death and Absolom fight. Death wins, naturally. The keeper of secrets then tells him that the only way to resurrect humanity is to sacrifice the souls of the Nephilim. Death reluctantly does so, jumping into the well of souls, himself to do so. The game ends, sort of, the same way the first one did.
There is an extra scene with Lilith and the Prince of Darkness but that's only if you meet certain requirement. Basically he tells Lilith he's not happy and that she must be punished, but not in the good Dominatrix way that she likes.

There is some subtle characterization in the game, but Death is otherwise unchanged throughout the game. In the beginning, we learn that Death didn't want to destroy the Nephilim because he didn't want his race to be gone forever, but in order to save War, he realizes that he has to chose between the Nephilim or humanity. Death chooses to save War above all else, there by sacrificing any hope he may have had of bringing the Nephilim back. Kind of sad when you think of it like that, but seeing as how they were murderous monsters, it's probably for the best.
I only bring this up because War, throughout his entire campaign, is vastly unchanged. Death is, all be it very little, but he is changed none the less.
But enough about that, lets get into game-play. If Darksiders was, as someone said, Zelda May Cry then Darksiders 2 Death Lives would have to be Prince of Diablo. Seeing as how Prince of Persia was one of my favorite games growing up, (and seeing as how Ubi$oft would rather make fee to pay games now) I'll take it what I can get.
The game play though, is one of the parts of the game that kind of bother me. Running along walls and rooftops and the like is fun and very reminiscent of the old Prince of Persia games. I love it. The one caveat is that sometimes it feels like things are just there for Death to grab onto, such as pegs in the wall or "Death Grip" points. I guess that's more of a level design thing. My problem with it is that it just kind of feels weird, like there happens to be a peg there for you to extend a wall run. In Prince of Perisa it felt more natural. Not always, but for the most part it did. Like I said though, that's more of an aesthetic thing than a gripe about game play, which is still fun.
The fighting is much better in this game. Death has his traditional scythe(s) as well as three other types of weapons: bucklers, which can be used to counter enemy attacks, claws which are used for fast brutal attacks, and hammers, which are used for powerful but slow attacks. There are some other weapons in the game like glaives and tridents and such but they all play so similarly to the aforementioned three that it's hardly worth mentioning.
Fighting with either of these weapons have both their advantages and disadvantages. In the first game your combos were limited between the sword, gauntlet and scythe, each of which had only a certain number of moves even after you had bought them all from Vulgrum. This game expands upon your arsenal so the fighting never feels stale. Death's movement, and ability to dodge is also a big improvement. War could dash away from attacks, but Death can dash away or even around an enemy. The only gripe I have about Death's dodge is that you can only do it three times before he does a pause, leaving him open for enemy attacks. There's a way around that, but in the middle of combat, especially when you're surrounded by enemies, it's easy to forget.
The "Diablo" like elements in the game come in the form of the loot system. Death opens a chest and a plethora of gear and gold comes out. There are also the weapon classes, such as enchanted weapons, possessed weapons, etc. It's a fun idea, but the more chests you open the more you begin to realize that the gear you get is pretty useless. At least in the latter parts of the game it is. More often than not, I'd pick something up only to find out that what I had on was better. Sometimes there weapon or gear would have something worth sacrificing to a possessed weapon, but for the most part, I just didn't feel that it was worth it, so stopped picking up the stuff about mid way through the game.

One of the great features of the game is that you get the horse right from the get go. I love being able to use it to travel faster and I feel like a bad ass when I get into fights while riding. That is until an enemy attacks you, knocking you off. You don't always get to use it though. There are plenty of areas in the game that are "no place for a horse" forcing Death to "have to go alone." In those huge areas though, where you do get the horse, I'm somewhat reminded again of Shadow of the Colossus.
I now have talk about the side quests. With the acceptation of the "go kill this monster" quest, there are only three, and they can be very tedious. The first is from Vulgrum, who, while present in the game, which is fun, lacks much of the humor from the first, which is a real shame. Anyway, he asks you to go and find the BLUE PAGES! Oops sorry, wrong game, the Book of the Dead pages. There are 40 in total through out the game. The next quest is the stone collection quest where you have to find a total of 70 effing stones for this guy. Finding them can be a huge pain in the ass. I did the quest one time so I could get the trophy for it, never again. NEVER AGAIN. The last one is a quest from another merchant in the game Ostegoth. He asks you to retrieve 30 relics for him. You don't have to do any of the quests mind you, unless you want the Abyssal Armor for Death, then you've got to do both the page quest and the relic quest, thank God you don't have to do the stone quest.

The other quests in the game, the DLC ones mentioned above, were fetch quests and go kill this thing quests as well, but they weren't nearly as long, and the reward for doing them, honestly, wasn't that great. That has been amended in the Remaster though, making them totally worth doing, except for the maker quest. You have to go find a helmet, a shield and a compass for him. Whatever he gives you for finding them isn't as great as being able to keep the compass would be.
This brings me to another fault of this game. There is 0 indication on the map where to find the pages, stones or relics. You just have to, basically know where to look, or just check everywhere, which, as mentioned above, is incredibly tedious, essentially trying to find the damn stones. In the first game relics were indicated on the map. Having a compass or item that revealed them on the map would have been very helpful. It sucks going back to the Dead City, looking everywhere for that one lost relic only to realize that you've already collected everyone from this area. The game puts unopened treasure box locations on the map, so I don't see why it couldn't have done that for the other collectibles. It just makes finding them all the more irksome.

New Locations DLC are very fun, at least when they work. Even though I bought them for the original game I was only able to actually play them after purchasing the remaster. They are as follows: "Layer of the Deposesed King". Here you go on a quest for Ostegoth. He tells you that there are secrets all around if you know where to look. Going through the dungeon you'll eventually run into Tiamat, the bat queen's brother/ husband/ friend/ acquaintance/ really the game never really says. Either way, like Tiamat in the first game it's a giant bat. You kill it. The secret you get is some nice ice claws and various other collectibles from chests in the level.
The second location is called the Abyssal Forge, the place where the Abyssal Armor was forged. Here, you meet the Mad Smith, a maker who was cast out and lost his Celtic accent because of it. When you meet him, at first he fights you, but when you are about to deliver the final blow, he tells you that he's willing to help. Long story short, they Abyssal Forge is going to implode in on itself if Death doesn't stop it. He reluctantly does. There's something here, and only here for some reason, that happens in the third game all the time, which I like. If you die to the boss of this level, you don't have to watch the cut scene before hand every single time. If you die once you just go back there and, as soon as you reach the boss, the fight starts. A welcome addition in my mind, especially when it's so easy to this boss.
Third is Earth. Ureal asks Death to seek out the demon lord Balaris and along the way Death comes across the last of the humans, at least the last of the humans in whatever trashed city on Earth Death happens to be in. The human, afraid at first, finally agrees to help Death. After killing the demon lord Death returns to the human who asks death to put an end to him.
None of this pertains to the main plot it's just nice that you get some extra life out of the game. Something odd though I noticed. In the Remaster, you unlock the Abyssal Forge after beating the wailing host, the Layer of the Deposested King from beating the Archon, and Earth, from beating Samael. I feel like you should get the Abyssal Forge after the Forge Lands, the Layer of the Deposesed King after the Dead Lands (and the place where you actually fight the deposesed king) and Earth after defeating the Archon. Not a big deal, just kind of strange the order they unlock in.
I mentioned above that the game-play isn't the best. I do love much of it, the fighting, the wall running and the items that you get, like the death grip and void walker, but there are many aspects of the game I don't care for, like all the useless loot and the fact that the gold you pick up isn't really worth using, especially since you don't really need to buy anything when there's so much loot just laying around in chests. Even Vulgrum doesn't really offer much, which is a real shame. It'd be nice if you could by special weapons from him, rather than just getting them in game, i don't know. There are also things like the timed floor in the Dead Lands (you all know the one). I can do it, but I still hate it. It regurgitates horrible memories for me when I think about it.
There's one other special world accessible in whatever world you're in, and that's the Crucible. A place where you can go to fight hordes of monsters. That's basically it. It's super fun, until you have to fight the DAMN MALISTROM. It's also the place, though not the first place, where you really get to utilize the Execution commands. The game starts out with them, letting you insta-kill enemies once their health is low enough, but as you progress further in the game they kind of disappear. There is a way to initiate them though, which is by sacrificing items to possessed weapons. One of the abilities of some of the weapons in the game is Execution Chance. The more weapons you sacrifice with an Execution Chance, the higher your chances are of getting executions with that weapon.

In conclusion, there are many things about Darksiders II Death Lives that expand upon the lore of the first game gave us but there are some choices, like the loot system, that I don't think really work well for this game. Never the less, this game is an excellent expansion of the story that the first game gave us. It's fun, the music is great and Death is awesome. The reviewers can all go and choke on their words. What more could you want out of a game?

How I fell in love with Darksiders (The Wrath of War)

 Darksiders was a game that came out in 2010. I can remember seeing the first trailer, people stuck in traffic, as a big screen on the side of a building talks about meteors falling. In between are snips of two creatures fighting. Then, all hell breaks loose as meteors land upon the earth, turning into demons and angels, all fighting to the death, with the demons already winning. Down comes another meteor, but this time it's not angel or demon, but something in between. Our protagonist, War, takes one look at the chaos and readies his sword.
    That alone got me to want to play the game, and I knew nothing else about it at the time. Over the course of the next few years, I followed the game closely. I'm sorry to say that it didn't do very well. It was put out at an impossible time. The game had to compete with the first Beyonetta game, which was getting rave reviews (being created by the same guy who made the original DMC games). There was no way a studio that no one had heard of was going to beat him out.
    I, of course, chose to buy Darksiders. Beyonetta just didn't really appeal to me. I did eventually get it, and beat it, but it's not a game I ever felt the need to come back to. I played it once, and that was enough. Darksiders, however, I kept. I LOVED it. Sure, it wasn't as tough as Beyonetta, but it was far better acted and the lore was miles ahead of anything Beyo had. Still, reviewers tore into Darksiders, calling it an amalgamation of God of War meets Zelda meets Devil May Cry, and it was, but who cares. I don't mind the repetitious bosses. I don't mind that I'm not getting my ass handed to me left and right. NOT ALL GAMES NEED TO BE FUCKING DARKSOULS! and when they are like Darksouls (Darksiders 3) then reviewers bitch about how hard the game is. The franchise just can't seem to win.
    From a personal stand point I don't think reviewers are very credible. Slight tangent here, but I'm an artist. That doesn't mean I don't like CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. But it has to be that, constructive. You can't just tear into something, because you think the game has a "poorly fleshed out story" which: ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? With the possible exception of Final Fantasy (which has been going to shit for the past couple years) this has one of the best stories I've played in a game for a while. In what realm is Darksiders story "poorly fleshed out?" Shadow of the Colossus was a beautiful game for it's time, 2005, and when the remaster came out 2015? reviewers said that "the controls felt clunky" the thing is, you said in your original review in 2005 that the "clunky" controls only added to the ambiance of the game. Other than an uptick in graphics (and some extra side quests) NOTHING ABOUT THE GAME HAS CHANGED! How can the controls "add to the games ambiance" and ten years later feel "clunky?" Seriously, if you're going to bitch and moan about a game then just stop, go be a journalist in a different field, the game industry doesn't want you anymore either.
    Okay, rant over. So, Darksiders. Let's take a look at the games "poorly fleshed out" story.

 The game starts with one of the four horseman of the apocalypse arriving on Earth just as Armageddon has been started between the angels and the demons. War makes his way around the city, killing demons, as well as angels, who all believe that it was War who prematurely started the end of times. When War finds the angel named Abaddon, the angel cries out "the seventh seal wasn't broken," before being crushed. War is then transported to an entity known as the Charred Council, whose primary existence is to keep order and balance between the angels and demons. They are ready and willing to punish War for starting the end war when the horseman convinces them to let him free, and to find out who is really responsible. The council reluctantly agrees, attaching a spectral creature called a watcher to him on his journey. The council tells him to seek out a demon known as Vulgrum, who is a merchant (and awesome in every way).
    Upon finding Vulgrum, War is told that if he wants answers, he should talk to a demon Prince known as Sameal. Finding him, Sameal tells War about the Destroyer, and where to find him, adding that, "You're no match for him as you are now," he then proceeds to tell War that the only way into the tower is to defeat it's four guardians. War does so, each time bringing their still beating hearts back to Sameal, who eats them, gaining more power each time. It isn't until the fourth guardian that War learns the truth, that Sameal has been lying to him.
    War kills the last guardian, bringing her heart to Sameal, fully expecting him to attack, but Sameal, delivers, as promised, creating a path to the Destroyer's tower. War goes and finds an angel named Azreal inside. He reveals it was he and Abaddon who prematurely started the end war. War is going to kill him for his treachery when Azreal tells him that he can help War escape, once the final guardian is destroyed. War accepts.
    He is taken to Eden, to the tree of knowledge, where he learns that Abaddon is the Destroyer, and that the only way to stop him is to reforge a blade called the Armageddon Blade. War goes on a quest to recover all seven pieces of the blade, and find one of the makers (the only beings in the universe capable of creating a weapon of such immense power). Upon retrieving the final piece of the blade War is confronted by Ureal, and angel who blames him for the Apocalypse, and she challenges him to a fight. War wins, telling her what he learned from the tree.
    In the final battle War defeats the Destroyer, and in his dying breath he reaches out to Ureal, who wants nothing to do with him. War kills him. It is then that the watcher reveals his treachery, saying that the council knew what would happen, and what War would do, so sent him down to kill everyone involved. Ureal kills War, breaking the seventh seal in the process. War is resurrected and kills the watcher. He leaves Ureal alone, holding up the Seventh Seal, as his three siblings come crashing down from the sky.
    So, yeah, very poorly fleshed out.

 Game-play in this game is very reminiscent of God of War and Devil May Cry, all be it a less complex Devil May Cry. The conjoining of the two fighting styles makes for a fairly simple game with some more complexities. Basically, it keeps the game engaging. (If I were a reviewer, it's here, I might dock the game some points, not because I don't think the game-play is fun, but because it all feels so familiar, if you've played the other two games mentioned above.) War starts out with the chaos eater and can acquire a scythe and a gauntlet to aid him in battle. Side note: in the original game you could type in the code "the hollow lord" and get a scythe called the harvester for free. In the War-mastered edition you have to pay 5000 souls for it.
    The alternate weapons offer some nice verity to combat, though not as much as I would like. You can buy new moves from Vulgrum but even then there's only about seven or so to chose from. I guess I'm just used to Ninja Gaiden's massive moves list. I want to stress though, that despite the smaller moves set, I do find the game fun, and with only three weapons, it's pretty easy to weapon swap on the fly and make for some fun combos with all three weapons at once.
    In the game you also get some other collectables, almost all of which can also be used as weapons. The first is the horn, which is used to wake Wardens and to blow enemies backwards. The next collectable you get is in the first level of the game and it's your first projectile weapon. The next collectable you get is the gauntlet, which we've discussed already. Soon after getting the gauntlet you receive the gun Mercy (one of Strife's Guns) which is the only collectable, besides the mask, that you can use on Ruin. The next one you receive is the Abyssal Chain, which can pull enemies towards you, though it doesn't really hurt them like the gun or the cross blade. In the latter parts of the game you get a portal gun, and the Mask of Shadows, which allows you to see into the "shadow realm".
 

 I can't talk about Darksiders or its game play, however, with out talking about the Legend of Zelda. To be fair, and at the risk of showing my age, I can remember playing Zelda on the original Nintendo. I never made it very far in the game, but I loved the open worldness of the game. That is, perhaps, why I love games like Final Fantasy and Shadow of the Colossus, because of the big expansive worlds that you get to explore. That being said, I can't really compare Darksiders to the Zelda games that came after because I never played them. It is obvious though, that Darksiders borrowed many elements from Zelda. The Mask of Shadows is similar to Zelda's "Mazura's Mask" and the serpent holes you use to fast travel from location to location is reminiscent of another feature in the Zelda games (can't remember the name of them).
    The boss fights in the game, while fun, are rather repetitive. Basically, you do X which causes the boss to do Y and then you hit the boss until it gets. Rinse and repeat. This goes for all the bosses. Honestly, the bosses are the more disappointing aspect of the game.
    This leads me to another of the downsides of the game. I mentioned it before, but a lot of the stuff is borrowed from other games, so if you've played them, everything may seem familiar and not very fresh to you. The game tires to change things up, even going as far as to have some sections of the game which play as third person shooters (or optional third person shooters I should say) as well as having puzzle solving elements.
    Personally, while I've always been interested in the Zelda games, I can only afford one console, and I chose the one that had more games I liked, that being PlayStation. This meant that I didn't get to play the other Zelda games. So for me, Darksiders is like a grown up Zelda game. One with a great story, and fun game-play, despite it being a rip off of other games.
 The first time I played the game, I fell in love with it. To me, the ideas were cool, and I liked how they changed up the game-play in parts. The characters and game-play were all very enjoyable. I've replayed the game more times than I can count and I love every second of it. Yes, the boss fights can be repetitive, but each one is slightly different, and still engaging. Yes, almost all the elements are borrowed from other games, but that doesn't matter. A game, for me at least, is about game-play, and about story. As long as those two things are fun, or at least interesting, I'm all in, and this game has some fun game-play and a great story, steeped in so much lore that they had to make a companion comic book just to tell the whole story.
    Darksiders if a franchise I will love forever, despite its short comings. Unless they fuck it up like Team Ninja did Ninja Gaiden, but I don't want to think about that.