Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Disappointing"

At its core, Darksiders takes elements from some of the best game series around. There are Prince of Persia wall runs. Zelda dungeons with a darker, deeper feel. Executions Kratos style. And on and on. It's a lot and all pieces integrated well with controls which flow & feel right. Additionally, the level design is massive and smooth with ample variety. Here where it gets strange. Those pieces are the hard ones in game design. Generally if you nail those you've got a 10 on your hands. Darksiders nailed them but I almost quit playing twice and wish I would have. Here's why:

1) The story is confusing and disjointed. Sad b/c Darksiders 1 set expectations high.
2) The action is overloaded with "go find it" quests. The whole Lord of the Bones segment was a complete waste of time. Without spoiling it- you get sent multiple places and each one of those sends you on fetch quests. When you are done, he sends you away to find someone that can actually help you. Goodbye 5-7 hours of my life.
3) Darksiders integrates all the different game elements like wall runs well, but doesn't do any of them great individually. For example, half the execution animations are hard to even tell what Death is doing. Items have varied stats but those stats are never explained. Same with special items. Why give us a cryptic explanation of the special power?
4) Combat was easy and lacked variety. I did the same thing over and over. At level 19, I went through all of Soul Arbiters maze using 1 potion and essentially the same exact attack plan for every level. Monotonous.

I had high hopes for Darkisiders and played it all the way through - completing most side quests. Unfortunately too often the story or the monotony broke through the 4th wall and made me lament for what might have been.