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Post by pyrrhus on Jun 2, 2011 10:49:04 GMT -5
Combat wasn't quite where it needed to be (though it was a lot better than cult darling Nier), but the general play control, pacing, and dungeon design were excellent. I think it sanded off a lot of the extraneous presentation from the Zelda games. You climbed and pushed objects faster, doors opened more quickly, and it took way less time for War to open up a treasure chest than it's taken Link in every game since OoT. It also didn't stop the action cold to tell you what a key does.
The story was goofy (though well done, with good cutscenes and excellent voicework), the character designs were super over-the-top, and the combat was a little rickety, but the package as a whole was pretty amazing for a debut title. I'm looking forward to the sequel.
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Post by TheGunheart on Jun 2, 2011 12:44:22 GMT -5
I prefer swords myself. I just prefer having timing-based combos rather than just pointing and shooting. Though sadly, this game's combat has nothing on Devil May Cry 3 or Demon's Souls.
That said, I think one problem I had in general was how the weapons were meant to also function as Zelda-like tools, which always made them feel a bit clunky.
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Post by Revolver Ocelot on Jun 2, 2011 13:45:49 GMT -5
I'm glad it takes place parallel to the first game. I think what that allows is for the game to take place in a completely different environment. I think it's going to be a much more high-fantasy environment as opposed to the warped, post-apocalypse of the first game, which could be better or worse depending on how they work it. My only hope is that they show the same level of attention to detail to the world. As much fun as the game was, I think what really sold me was just how much the locales sucked me in. You don't see a lot of vibrant, impossible fantasy worlds like the ones in Darksiders and Enslaved much anymore. That sense of creativity is too bogged down by realism and grit. Darksiders even used COLORS!
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Post by thethird on Jun 2, 2011 14:50:06 GMT -5
Though half of it was from the first game, cool trailer. Death seems pretty cool ("I have an offer in mind."). Digging the tunes, too!
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Post by Warchief Onyx on Jun 2, 2011 19:00:22 GMT -5
Video no longer available.  And yeah, a huge part of what grabbed in in Darksiders was the scenery. It was gorgeous. I like how it merged the post-apocalyptic of destroyed buildings and sewers and whatever with outright fantastical imagery. Each area had a character of its own, which is pretty damned impressive. It really helps that the apocalypse was more biblical than manmade or aliens invading. |
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Post by thethird on Jun 2, 2011 19:06:15 GMT -5
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Post by MRSKELETON on Jun 2, 2011 20:10:37 GMT -5
I prefer swords myself. I just prefer having timing-based combos rather than just pointing and shooting. Though sadly, this game's combat has nothing on Devil May Cry 3 or Demon's Souls. That said, I think one problem I had in general was how the weapons were meant to also function as Zelda-like tools, which always made them feel a bit clunky. That's part of the thing, though. Devil May Cry has always had combat that is y'know, deep. Every hit you land on an enemy can have serious ramifications for your standing in combat, and individual attacks and techniques have actual reasons and layers of effectiveness for being there. Things like Stinger aren't just there because they look cool, it's a way to bridge the distance between yourself and an opponent. Juggling an enemy is there to allow you to deal with another enemy by taking one temporarily out of the situation. People like Devil May Cry, because not only do you indeed, yknow, kill stuff, but there are different layers and strategies to approaching combat. It's something games like God Of War always fail to grasp. God of Wars combat consists of hitting square with different timing when you get sick of hitting square with the same timing, and then hitting triangle when you want to not be hitting square. They all do around kind of the same damage, have no strategic method and ultimately the combat is a wet, lurid sloppy fart in the mechanics. God of War get's high ratings because the developers recognized that ultimately, their game was bad. They added blood, sex and gore to appropriate the game to the lowest common denominator. Darksiders kind of excels, because even though it lacks the individual depth of Devil May Cry's combat, the developers we're willing to toy around with the ideas of weapons and items building the layers of combat, not individual techniques. An example is the scythe, weak against individual enemies but incredibly useful for crowd control and area control. |
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Post by Feynman on Jun 2, 2011 20:52:51 GMT -5
I prefer swords myself. I just prefer having timing-based combos rather than just pointing and shooting. Though sadly, this game's combat has nothing on Devil May Cry 3 or Demon's Souls. That said, I think one problem I had in general was how the weapons were meant to also function as Zelda-like tools, which always made them feel a bit clunky. That's part of the thing, though. Devil May Cry has always had combat that is y'know, deep. Every hit you land on an enemy can have serious ramifications for your standing in combat, and individual attacks and techniques have actual reasons and layers of effectiveness for being there. Things like Stinger aren't just there because they look cool, it's a way to bridge the distance between yourself and an opponent. Juggling an enemy is there to allow you to deal with another enemy by taking one temporarily out of the situation. People like Devil May Cry, because not only do you indeed, yknow, kill stuff, but there are different layers and strategies to approaching combat. It's something games like God Of War always fail to grasp. God of Wars combat consists of hitting square with different timing when you get sick of hitting square with the same timing, and then hitting triangle when you want to not be hitting square. They all do around kind of the same damage, have no strategic method and ultimately the combat is a wet, lurid sloppy fart in the mechanics. God of War get's high ratings because the developers recognized that ultimately, their game was bad. They added blood, sex and gore to appropriate the game to the lowest common denominator. Darksiders kind of excels, because even though it lacks the individual depth of Devil May Cry's combat, the developers we're willing to toy around with the ideas of weapons and items building the layers of combat, not individual techniques. An example is the scythe, weak against individual enemies but incredibly useful for crowd control and area control. Yes, you get the idea. God of War and its imitators drive me nuts, because it has very, very shallow combat mechanics compared to the DMCs and Ninja Gaidens and Bayonettas of the gaming world. Squaresquaresquaresquaredodgerollsquaresquaredodgerollsquaresquaretriangle. It is maddeningly dull. I find that Darksiders isn't really much better than GoW in combat mechanics, sadly. Trying to attach combat depth to weapon selection instead of technique was a good idea, but it doesn't quiiiiiite hit the mark. Still, the level design and cool toys to play with in Zelda-like ways really help make it a solid, fun game in spite of somewhat lackluster fighting. I liked Darksiders. It's a good example of a game being more than the sum of its parts. If the sequel is of the same quality, I'll be happy, and if they can touch up the combat mechanics to have a bit more technique involved, I will be thrilled. |
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Post by MRSKELETON on Jun 2, 2011 21:06:01 GMT -5
There's a lot more besides the combat they can really serve to tighten up. A lot of the ideas behind the design are pretty nonsensical. I really enjoy the game, but at the same time they introduce things that serve no purpose, like the pistol, or introduce superficial 'rewards' like the glove, that really don't strengthen the combat of the game at all but need to be there so you can advance past some pretty awkwardly designed puzzles.
Also, they should remove the quick kill system for bigger enemies. It's a lot more satisfying to be able to do shit like that yourself in games, instead of having control ripped from your hands and watching something you couldn't possibly do with the in game mechanics.
They should also make the techniques a lot deeper, instead of just different combo variations that look different but don't accomplish much. They could probably serve to scrap the 'skill progression' system altogether.
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Post by Feynman on Jun 2, 2011 21:08:37 GMT -5
And cut out leveling up weapons while they're at it, because that was pretty lame.
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Post by TheGunheart on Jun 2, 2011 21:11:53 GMT -5
Yeah, I thought the first was pretty damn grindy. The problem with weapon leveling is that it encourages you to either stick to one weapon because it'll gain all the EXP, or to not use your best weapon because you need to level up one of the other ones.
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Post by MRSKELETON on Jun 2, 2011 21:14:30 GMT -5
Yeah, that kind of goes back to what I said about Darksiders being a 'bad' game. It has pretty uninteresting combat mechanics, a lot of design choices that make absolutely no sense, shallow design itself but is still ultimately enjoyable (on some levels((not all of them))
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Post by ommadawnyawn2 on Jul 31, 2016 5:25:49 GMT -5
So what's everyone's thoughts on this one? It seems to have had some technical problems before, but I'm playing the patched DE version now on PC and I haven't had any problems at all.
I'm a couple of dungeons into it and really enjoying it so far. I haven't kept up with action adventures and hack 'n slash in 3D much in the past 5-10 years and didn't play the first game, but recently having played through OoT and most of MM this is so much better in terms of tempo, platforming/parkour and combat. The only things really bugging me so far are the frequent invisible walls and the rather clunky menu interface.
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Post by zerker on Jul 31, 2016 6:31:49 GMT -5
I had a lot of fun playing the original release of DS2 back in 2013. Rather enjoyed the first one too. I'll probably replay them a couple years  . The only sticking point with the second one is the innumerable loot drops. It just felt like busywork to go into the menu every so often to find if I ended up with an item with a slightly higher number. It felt more like a punishment than a reward; I much prefer the first game's LACK of drops in this regard  |
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Post by ommadawnyawn2 on Jul 31, 2016 6:53:39 GMT -5
It definitely has more bad than good loot too, but so far it hasn't been enough to really bother me since you can always teleport back to town to sell it and the inventory is pretty big.
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