Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition Review

Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition review: Darksiders II was a game that was eagerly awaited by many players, as it improved itself even more after the first game and announced that it would be many times superior to the first game. When it was put on sale in August 2012, it surprisingly showed a sales performance below expectations, and it surprised us by selling only 1.4 million units within 1 month. It was actually a good game, but the fate of the game was not bright, as the initial sales figures were below expectations and THQ went bankrupt.

Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition Review / PC

When you hear the name Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition you may think “didn’t they already do this”, and that’s what I thought too. Indeed, the game, which used this name when it was released on PlayStation 4 consoles in 2015, now has a game with more advanced visuals that can be played on the PlayStation 5 console. We are reviewing the PS5 version, but let’s not forget to mention that it is also released for Xbox Series consoles. Let’s see how it goes.

You Can’t Kill Death

In the first Darksiders game, we, together with War, one of the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse, were trying to solve the mystery of the apocalypse that started earlier than it should. At the end of the events, the pumpkin hit War, and the council decided to punish War, who was found guilty. This is where Death, another of the horsemen, comes into play.

Thinking that his brother has been unfairly accused, Death embarks on a great adventure to save him, visiting many different worlds to bring back everyone who lost their lives in the apocalypse. Visiting worlds in different corners of the universe, Death embarks on new missions in each one and, while trying to save his brother, he also reveals the secrets of a larger event.

I really liked the storytelling of Darksiders II when I first played it, and I am very satisfied now. I put aside the characters we encounter, the information we learn while solving their problems, and the additional stories, they are already good. When they first announced the game, they said, “What kind of problem can we have when we have the horseman of death?” I got into the thought. When we enter the game, we get the answer to this question and it is presented in a very logical way.

After the first game’s more straightforward and simple story that only ignited the events, I am very pleased with the story of Death, in which we travel across multiple lands. I recommend it to you too.

Sickles in Our Hands, Guns on Our Belts

The first Darksiders game was a game that felt the influence of God of War, and was even recommended to alleviate the lack of God of War, which was released only as a PS2 exclusive at the time, on other platforms. It was fun and all, but after a while it got repetitive and became mundane and boring. Darksiders II, on the other hand, came out with a completely different and advanced gameplay and successfully implemented it into the game.

In Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition, where we travel more than one world, we will defeat many enemies and try to solve various environmental puzzles. Moreover, Death has a solid combat repertoire and can further develop it with the weapons he finds in the environment. The RPG elements added to the game also appear here.

We ride around on planets with large areas that make us feel like we are in an open world, and try to complete smaller but carefully prepared mini dungeons. Meanwhile, the local people we encounter around give us various tasks and help us gain more experience and equipment. As we gain experience, we go to the skill tree for new skills and improve our fighting style and strength with the equipment we collect.

To give an example from the first mini dungeon regarding the game’s environmental puzzles, it focuses on cleaning up the mess by picking up bombs at a point and throwing them to appropriate places, opening doors by pressing the right button, and rolling a huge round ball to the right place. Of course, there is also the platform part, sometimes you waste more time figuring out how to reach that puzzle than solving it. Or I’m just too careless, I’m not sure. However, I found this ball rolling thing excessive in the game, and I still do.

The semi-open world of the game is designed to give you the impression of a “huge world”, it seems funny especially when compared to today’s standards, but a pretty good job has been done for its time. Sometimes you can deviate from your path to find secret areas around and get better equipment from chests or mini bosses. Of course, I like a little loot, that also has an effect.

We buy so much equipment, but we can think about whether the combat system is still good, how old the game is after all, it is very logical. The combat system is still very nice! It takes some time to get used to the buttons at first, locking on the enemy and trying to use skills at the same time feels like a burden, you don’t know how to combine attacks. Whenever we get the gun of another brother, Strife ( (Darksiders Genesis) and our skill tree expands a little, then the fights become smoother and more fun. The game uses the haptic feedback features of DualSense to some extent and it is nice to feel this in the fight too You feel that you hit in every sense.

You Have to Look Beautiful in the Face of Death

Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition does not receive major improvements in terms of gameplay and content, but this is not a big problem, the game is already good enough. The real big improvements show themselves in the graphics of the game.

The game is not very impressive visually, in fact, when I first started the game, I thought “the 2015 version looked this good anyway”. Then I went and looked at his videos online and realized I was wrong, Deathinitive Edition looked as good as I wanted it to look at the time. With 4K resolution, better textures and improved lighting, the game looks just fine. You still know that it is an old game, but THQ Nordic does not sell this game for the price of a new game anyway.

As I just mentioned in the combat section, DualSense’s haptic feedback feature is supported in the game, and the spirit it adds to the game both while navigating and fighting is remarkable. The fights are already enjoyable, and when you feel that you are hitting the enemy’s head with the mace in your hand, it gives a special pleasure. Therefore, if you have the opportunity, I can even recommend you to play the game on PlayStation 5.

Another important improvement is loading times, which is one of the biggest blessings of SSD technology. In the systems of the period, the game’s loading screens could be annoying, especially during large area transitions. Now the loading times are very fast, the longest loading time of the game is when you first open the game. There is also a short summary there so you don’t get bored. The game was also very good in terms of voice acting and music, they did not touch this part as it did not need any development.

Conclusion

Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition is actually an update that has successfully brought the best game of the series to the new generation. It is a game that can get a passing grade even in 2024 in terms of gameplay and content. You may find the pace a little slow at the beginning or you may get bored of some repetitive parts. In technical terms, it does justice to the new generation update, but if you are not expecting a graphical miracle, you will be satisfied. Maybe old players may have some problems, after all, there are no major innovations, but for someone who will play for the first time, it is a very good opportunity in terms of both content and price.

PlayStation 5 version of the game is available on PSN Store over It is on sale with a price tag of 1050TL. If you have the original version, you can buy it at a discount until a certain date. You can download the Xbox version from Microsoft Store. over You can purchase it at a discounted price of 388TL and get the new generation patch with Smart Delivery when the game is released. I have to point out that the prices are very good for almost 30 – 40 hours of content.