The Conflicted Combat of Darksiders 2
5,658A critique of Darksiders 2's occasionally fun, but often unpolished combat, analysing its flaws, the good parts, and the missed potential.
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Turns out no one's really analysed this game's combat as has been done for DMC or Bayonetta, so all of this video was based off things I noted when replaying it. As such, I ended up with a lot of excess notes that had little place in the script.
Extra (mostly positive) Notes:
I like the standing launch move as there's some tactics to using it over the somersault launch - while it doesn't send you up in the air as well it doesn't launch enemies straight up, instead sending them in an arc over your head.
On top of this the gun cancels an enemy's horizontal movement in the air-so you can launch from the ground then cancel their arc right above you for better positioning.
The gun of course slows an enemy's descent but doesn't stall indefinitely like DMC, instead just slowing them down.
The Stalker enemies are particularly badly telegraphed, with powerful moves having little windup (and unclear what their range is) and a series of swiped with little telegraphing that would work fine in Bayonetta but are just tedious in a game with no dodge offset.
At some point you get a damage bonus for landing a super tight dodge which is good, any risk/reward incentives in these kind of action games are nice.
Why is the final boss SO shit?
The wrath system is easily exploited but I'm not sure how I feel about the health system. A potion takes a while to heal you which is good in a sense as it means you can't just spam them while you're taking hits and need to be avoiding damage. However it also contributes to the premise of backpedalling away from danger and chugging potions or using the odd health-giving move so you can tank hits later.
Reaper Form is dumb. Unlike giving an attack and speed boost but with the same moveset like Devil May Cry, or even making all your moves wicked weaves like Bayonetta, you just become this big lumbering Reaper with assloads of defense, encouraging you to just mash the attack button as you tank damage.
Execution moves improved somewhat from 1, whose humanoid enemies can be killed with it in 1 hit, whereas in 2 this only applies to tiny enemies. Also unless you get some bad execution chances on a certain weapon you won't get too many of them, unlike Darksiders 1 which gave them in spades.
Apparently you can turn the numbers off but that only partially fixes the problem. The game is very reliant on gear and stats, the numbers are there to give you immediate feedback on that. Turning them off clears the screen, but then you don't get that feedback, would have been way better to adjust the size.
Where are my rival fights guys come on
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Darksiders 3 reveal trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-QgJ-EFq7A
Darksiders 3 gameplay trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk_D2NSdOvA
Thanks to TheGamingBritShow for lending me those God of War clips: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheGamingBritShow
Thanks to Game Maker's Toolkit for helping me reframe some of the more directionless elements of my script. If only Darksiders 2 had the same kind of advice: https://www.youtube.com/user/McBacon1337
Games shown:
Darksiders 2
Darksiders
God of War
Bayonetta
Devil May Cry 3
Devil May Cry
Devil May Cry 4
Music:
I Know What You Want (Instrumental) - Busta Rhymes ft Mariah Carey
Ghostwriter - Rjd2
Feel Good Inc. (Instrumental) - Gorillaz
Play Dis Only At Night - Pete Rock
The Corruption - Darksiders II
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