Launch Station: Darksiders II

At the beginning of 2010, the original Darksiders took many people by surprise.  While Darksiders did borrow heavily from God of War and The Legend of Zelda, it had enough of a new atmosphere, setting, characters and interesting level design to capture the hearts of many gamers.  At first, I was not anywhere close to interested in Darksiders as I thought it borrowed too much from God of War and The Legend of Zelda to stand on its' own.  Once I played the demo, the opinion made a complete 180 and fell in love with this incredible series to the point that Darksiders II will be one of the first games I pick up for the Wii U once it comes out later this year.

Unlike your regular sequel, the story of Darksiders II runs parallel to the story of the first Darksiders.  Only this time around, you control Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, on his quest to  restore mankind and clear the name of his brother War, the protagonist of the first Darksiders.  Death is very different character than War.  Death focuses more on speed, magic and quick feats of raw power than the slow pace and brute force of War.  While Death's primary weapons are his two scythes, he is able to switch between other weapons at a lightning quick pace, which makes it easy to set-up huge combos.  Darksiders II is set in the Nether Realms, which is a massive open world that is easily multiple times bigger than the firs Darksiders.  Death is able to explore the Nether Realms at his own leisure completing side quests, fighting enemies for loot and finding tons of secrets from hidden areas to secret bosses.  You progress in Darksiders II by completing dungeons interspersed throughout the Nether Realms.   Darksiders II also includes some light RPG elements where you are able to customize Death's skills, armour sets and weapons.

Out of all the games releasing this week, Darksiders II is easily the most anticipated game.  All thanks to all the fans that spread the word about how good the first Darksiders was and got their friends, family and other acquaintances to try the game.  No matter what anybody says about Darksiders II, I will definitely be picking it up for myself and seeing how it continues the series.  If you are interested at all in Darksiders, I highly suggest picking up the first game.  If you enjoyed the first Darksiders, help support Vigil Games and in turn THQ, whose financial woes have been well documented, by picking up Darksiders II.