Darksiders II

Whereas the first game dragged, Darksiders II offers loot, side quests, an engaging skill tree, and a world four times bigger than the first that constantly keep you engaged with the experience. What's more, its various inspirations and genres feel more solidly packed together, robust and stable like a diamond formed under the pressure of the earth. It's a rough diamond, certainly, lacking the sharper, polished facets that make a real gem like Zelda so irresistibly good, but there's a dull gleam there nevertheless.

While trying to revitalize the Zelda formula with modern developments is an admirable goal, Darksiders II's developers just can't seem to get a handle on how to make such a thing work. For two games now they've tried adding hi-octane combat, a Western-style story, and ability trees, but it's never managed to gel. The things that made games like Zelda, God of War, Prince of Persia, and even Shadow of the Colossus great are all on display here, but the Darksiders series still hasn't figured out how to use them effectively enough to stand on its own.

It's a generous buffet of the finest experiences the genre has to offer, the problem with this being that each offering is a discernibly weaker imitation in comparison to the original source it is drawn from.

There's a sizable adventure here but the repetition of basic tasks makes it seem padded rather than epic – too many dungeons send you on fetch quests for plot devices wherein the rule of three is doggedly applied.

The gear in Darksiders II is only as important as the combat, and the combat simply isn't that important. If there's one place the mostly satisfying and smartly designed Darksiders II needed more streamlining, it was the monty haul and the corresponding hack-and-slash.