So without spoiling any specifics I'm in the second hub world you get to. So I get told hey... that thing your looking to accomplish well theres this thing that can do that for you but you have to talk to this guy over here. So, I go to talk to the guy and get told that Hey....we know you really wanna talk and stuff but first you have to prove yourself. Okay...fine... tell me what do I have to do? Oh, its simple just go over to this place and face this guy in combat. Ugh. Okay. Oh then the real treat comes.... Oh hey..... that guy you wanna fight yeah... he just doesn't fight anyone you have to gather three different items in three different mini-dungeons and then you can face him.

Seriously, this seems so artificially padded out in places that it is starting to drive me nuts. For every brilliant thing that the game does I feel like it takes two steps back. I just want to get stuff done and see where the story is going. The first game had some of this but it wasn't real bad until the very end. Its not often I say that there is too much game in a game but the pacing in this game just feels off. Had the same exact issue with Alice:Madness Returns fun game but the levels jus DRUG out to the point where I just quit playing. I should probably quit playing this and save my sanity but seeing as I have nothing to play until Dead or Alive 5 I might just struggle my way through it.

For what this game is going for I'd say it's doing a great job. There are a ton of fetch this or talk to this guy quests but atleast the dungeons and puzzles have been interesting. It's the Zelda formula 100% I think that's what they were going for.

I'm loving it, it's completely pulled me away from sleeping dogs, and I have been really enjoying that as well.

The areas for me so far (2nd world as well) have been intresting and haven't involved any backtracking which is something I would hate if it had that. I did feel fatigue in Alice, I think the loot and story are really keep me addicted to this though.

@Rave: I had exactly the inverse effect. I got pulled into sleeping dogs so hard that I 100% the game in under a week.

They definitely could have done it a bit better. I find myself not caring much because I'm used to games paced like this but it still dragged a bit.

The "rule of 3" also comes into effect so many times in this game, it's insane.

@Rave said:

@Demoskinos Awesome to hear about sleeping dogs I enjoyed what I played and can't wait to dig into that. Are you into loot type games, that has been a huge draw for me in this and I can defiantly see the game not shinning as much if your not.

This game has convinced me that I absolutely despise loot in games. All it does is tap into that gambling like urge in the back of all of our brains were we all think were going to "win the big one" and like the lottery you almost never fucking do.

Been watching my roomate play through some of it and I see what you mean. I'm picking it up tomorrow so im curious if it really is this bad. I love the look of it though especially during the combat.

I am finding it repetitive, but I'm not a big fan of the pacing in Zelda games to the point where I don't think I have ever finished a Zelda game. So I wouldn't call it bad, just not my style of game really. Although I love the world, story, characters and art-style enough to still enjoy it.

@Demoskinos said:

@Rave said:

@Demoskinos Awesome to hear about sleeping dogs I enjoyed what I played and can't wait to dig into that. Are you into loot type games, that has been a huge draw for me in this and I can defiantly see the game not shinning as much if your not.

This game has convinced me that I absolutely despise loot in games. All it does is tap into that gambling like urge in the back of all of our brains were we all think were going to "win the big one" and like the lottery you almost never fucking do.

I wouldn't go as far as saying all loot in games is bad, but it needs to be done right. Random loot with very simple stats in a game where combat is mostly based around skill just isn't the way to do it.

I do really like Darksiders 2, even though I dislike Zelda style games, and didn't even like Darksiders 1. I am seeing, though, that I am getting kinda bored with it. I am about 8 hours in, and it's already a little repetitive. And I haven't picked it up and played it in like 3 days.

Not a fan of zelda games, but I ended up liking both Darksiders 1 and 2 a lot and found the pacing just fine; good enough to play through each game twice.

What I really liked a lot in DS2 is the damn music....damn is it good! Jesper Kyd outdid himself. If you feel like you're struggling to play it until DOA5 comes out then I feel bad for ya but I got 99 problems and pacing ain't one.

@Vinny_Says said:

Not a fan of zelda games, but I ended up liking both Darksiders 1 and 2 a lot and found the pacing just fine; good enough to play through each game twice.

What I really liked a lot in DS2 is the damn music....damn is it good! Jesper Kyd outdid himself. If you feel like you're struggling to play it until DOA5 comes out then I feel bad for ya but I got 99 problems and pacing ain't one.

Well hey, glad you enjoyed it and yeah Jesper Kyd is pretty great. I have the Hitman:Bloodmoney soundtrack on my shelf and its pretty great been a fan of his stuff and was thrilled to see he worked on this.

@Demoskinos said:

Okay...fine... tell me what do I have to do? Oh, its simple just go over to this place and face this guy in combat. Ugh. Okay. Oh then the real treat comes.... Oh hey..... that guy you wanna fight yeah... he just doesn't fight anyone you have to gather three different items in three different mini-dungeons and then you can face him.

Sounds like the Zelda formula to me. Come to think of it, that's the precise moment when I put down Skyward Sword: You know the exact thing you have to do to advance the plot, but wait, you have to collect three thingamabobs from the bottom of three dungeons first. I'll pass, thanks.

To hear that Darksiders 2 does the same transparent, video-gamey padding as its forebear is discouraging, to say the least. I'll probably still buy it if there's no late-game collectathon, though. That is the fucking line.

@Encephalon said:

@Demoskinos said:

Okay...fine... tell me what do I have to do? Oh, its simple just go over to this place and face this guy in combat. Ugh. Okay. Oh then the real treat comes.... Oh hey..... that guy you wanna fight yeah... he just doesn't fight anyone you have to gather three different items in three different mini-dungeons and then you can face him.

Sounds like the Zelda formula to me. Come to think of it, that's the precise moment when I put down Skyward Sword: You know the exact thing you have to do to advance the plot, but wait, you have to collect three thingamabobs from the bottom of three dungeons first. I'll pass, thanks.

To hear that Darksiders 2 does the same transparent, video-gamey padding as its forebear is discouraging, to say the least. I'll probably still buy it if there's no late-game collectathon, though. That is the fucking line.

Oh, it is and its not too far removed from the first but I feel with the success of the first game they were given way more wiggle room and a bigger budget and just went crazy this time without exercising much restraint at all. The first one I ended up actually 100%'ing because I got so into it. I think a smaller budget on the first game made them be more clever with how they assembled the whole thing and made them draw out the best parts of everything they had.

I could agree that the game is probably... a little too long. They could shave off the Heaven and Hell dungeons and still had a pretty good game length wise. But it's not as bad as something like... Skyward Sword where that game just didn't want to end!!!!

Yeah, the pacing issues are the only big flaw in the game for me. Admittedly, they do well by mixing up the assets and keeping each dungeon distinct, and the puzzles are all fairly interesting and different, but probably more than anything I miss the Zelda structure of 1 item per dungeon. That's what keeps that series fresh, the fact that you knew you'd completed a definite chapter of the game and you got a special new toy for it that helps you solve a substantial part of the game world. It's just such an anti-climax to leave a dungeon knowing you're only up 1 MacGuffin and some crappy loot - just an unnecessary side-trip to what you're supposed to be doing.

Well the whole thing with that particular fetch quest is it's different way to present a dungeon. The dungeon is you finding the 3 relics, and the boss battle is the champion.

They should have put more story flavor on the dungeons, half of the time I barely notice if I'm in a side or main dungeon until I find a map (oh hey) and the ''how and why' is often as basic as go fetch because I can make you.
 
Great game though, just really tiring if you play a lot of it.

This thread and similar comments are one of the reasons I got seriously turned off from getting this game now, full price. I really, really dislike games that make you jump through invisible hoops for the sake of the game experience. I think Max Payne 3 did an amazing job of keeping things moving, the game had great momentum and you just kept going forward. Theres nothing worse for me than a game with an impending apocalypse and you're running around getting 3 blueberry cakes for the cook because otherwise he won't open the backdoor of the kitchen for you.

@Demoskinos:

There are very few criticizms that I had with Darksiders 2. But this is one of those I agree with, the game does meander too much.

Thankfully I loved most everythng else about it. Loot, gear models, the art and design of the world, Death as a character, music, combat. There are some great setpieces. And challanges if you want to seek them out.

I should probably play this after buying it last week, huh? Still, I'm not liking what I'm reading from this :/.

The game's pacing is pretty poor. The whole 'get 3 of this' fetch quest structure gets over-used (making it feel artificially padded in places), and they don't breadcrumb the story/narrative regularly enough to keep you going. I've decided that it's best to enjoy this game for its strong points and turn my brain off for the rest.

The general opinion is that the best part of Zelda games are the dungeons. Same could be said for this game. The problem is they just have so many dungeons that it's hard to keep coming up with reasons to go into them. But that's okay, because the dungeons are why I play it. If doing dungeons isn't your thing, you're probably not going to like it.

There is one instance where the games plodding pacing totally works out in it's favour.

When you are sent through two "dungeons" only to realise at the end Death has been used and didn't need to do any of that shit, game managed to get me in a pissed mood at the character who used you. So coming back and kicking the everliving shit out of him was enormously satisfying.

Archangel

@Demoskinos: I totally agree. I really was hoping that I could get into Darksiders 2 more but it was horribly paced. The layout of some of the dungeons and its tedious nature just didn't allow me to get deeply invested in it. I did complete the game but I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would. Also, the loot. I'm a fan of loot based games but I didn't get anything in Darksiders that I thought was a game-changer.

I really need to get Sleeping Dogs.

Your telling me it's like night trap

Both the first and the second areas have been really long - something like 4 main-quest temples in each - not to mention the number of collectibles.

Saying that, I'm thoroughly enjoying it - big fan of the first and this has been much more of the same. The story front is a little light, and the 'town hubs' disappointed, but the world, combat, dungeons and design are all incredible.

I'd have liked if there was even just one bussling, large town area, where you could pull back from the story/quests a little and just hang out - something along the lines of Flotsam in Witcher 2.

I'm in the exact same boat as you are, second hub world, about 15 hours in and couldn't agree more that the "first you need to go collect these three things, then I'll talk to you and then i'll tell you what else you need to go get to actually make some progress" is getting more than a little tedious. I really do like this game, combat is super fun, and while the traversal puzzles feel bloated and drug out at times, they are well designed. I'm will keep going since it is a neat world and I love the combat so much, but I agree it is starting to drag here in the middle.

So question guys... Im going to give this a last earnest shot tonight to make SURE I want to sell it. For those of you who have finished the game is there some cool story shit that happens? Im at the start of the 2nd hub world. If I had more story intermingled with the dungeon grind I might be able to get through it. Just curious if there are any neat bits coming up worth seeing.

@Demoskinos:

There is a cool story/boss bit a bit before the end. And after the credits an interesting tibit on where they are taking the universe. But not the ending itself that much no.

Also only the first 2 worlds are that large. The game picks up pace towards the end, the last world is basically a single dungeon, 3rd is basically 2 dungeons.

I dunno, I only see it as an issue if you're only in it for the story. If that's the case, why not just go YouTube it?

The combat and dungeons are where the fun is for me. I'm glad every time they give me more. The story is there to give you just enough purpose and flesh out the world a bit. The areas and dungeons have been pretty varied as well and paced out great. This game is great in piecemeal. Hop in for ~hour and knock out a dungeon.

@Demoskinos said:

So without spoiling any specifics I'm in the second hub world you get to. So I get told hey... that thing your looking to accomplish well theres this thing that can do that for you but you have to talk to this guy over here. So, I go to talk to the guy and get told that Hey....we know you really wanna talk and stuff but first you have to prove yourself. Okay...fine... tell me what do I have to do? Oh, its simple just go over to this place and face this guy in combat. Ugh. Okay. Oh then the real treat comes.... Oh hey..... that guy you wanna fight yeah... he just doesn't fight anyone you have to gather three different items in three different mini-dungeons and then you can face him.

Seriously, this seems so artificially padded out in places that it is starting to drive me nuts. For every brilliant thing that the game does I feel like it takes two steps back. I just want to get stuff done and see where the story is going. The first game had some of this but it wasn't real bad until the very end. Its not often I say that there is too much game in a game but the pacing in this game just feels off. Had the same exact issue with Alice:Madness Returns fun game but the levels jus DRUG out to the point where I just quit playing. I should probably quit playing this and save my sanity but seeing as I have nothing to play until Dead or Alive 5 I might just struggle my way through it.

I love RPG arena quests. So that whole Arena-themed dungeon is a bit of a misnomer, being 'just' another dungeon. Aside from that, I don't quite get your complaint. I play Darksiders for its gameplay - fighting, puzzling, exploring, even backtracking for hidden secrets.

And Darksiders has one of the most fleshed out and kick-ass awesome arena quests ever. The Crucible! Anyways - just wanted to say, you're looking at it wrong - unless you aren't playing the game for its gameplay.

The pacing bothers me a bit but i also just think the second world is pretty boring over all.

I've been having pretty similar feelings. The temples just go on and on and on. I do feel that the puzzles are pretty good, but I would have loved a little more combat. The rule of three's thing is getting beaten into the ground at every possible turn. I Like the game for the most part, but I'm not enjoying it like I thought I would. I had to take two days off because I felt like I was at a point in the game where I had been playing for hours, yet felt like I'd only made minimal progress in the story.

The peak of my irritation was earlier when I spent an hour and a half shooting zombies(obviously whilst collecting three items), If I was reviewing this game I'd knock a whole point off the game just for this section.

@GunstarRed: I absolutely loved the atmosphere, the music and the rain in that section! Also if you hate the guns you can just go through it with mele (altho bosses are easier with the rocket launcher)

@Tennmuerti: I couldn't take out any of the bigger ones with my melee weapons, and the smaller ones are probably the only enemy that could take down half my health in the blink of an eye. It's strange as I have stormed through the rest of the game like I'm almost invincible. You are right about the atmosphere and the music in that section being great though.

@Seppli said:

@Demoskinos said:

So without spoiling any specifics I'm in the second hub world you get to. So I get told hey... that thing your looking to accomplish well theres this thing that can do that for you but you have to talk to this guy over here. So, I go to talk to the guy and get told that Hey....we know you really wanna talk and stuff but first you have to prove yourself. Okay...fine... tell me what do I have to do? Oh, its simple just go over to this place and face this guy in combat. Ugh. Okay. Oh then the real treat comes.... Oh hey..... that guy you wanna fight yeah... he just doesn't fight anyone you have to gather three different items in three different mini-dungeons and then you can face him.

Seriously, this seems so artificially padded out in places that it is starting to drive me nuts. For every brilliant thing that the game does I feel like it takes two steps back. I just want to get stuff done and see where the story is going. The first game had some of this but it wasn't real bad until the very end. Its not often I say that there is too much game in a game but the pacing in this game just feels off. Had the same exact issue with Alice:Madness Returns fun game but the levels jus DRUG out to the point where I just quit playing. I should probably quit playing this and save my sanity but seeing as I have nothing to play until Dead or Alive 5 I might just struggle my way through it.

I love RPG arena quests. So that whole Arena-themed dungeon is a bit of a misnomer, being 'just' another dungeon. Aside from that, I don't quite get your complaint. I play Darksiders for its gameplay - fighting, puzzling, exploring, even backtracking for hidden secrets.

And Darksiders has one of the most fleshed out and kick-ass awesome arena quests ever. The Crucible! Anyways - just wanted to say, you're looking at it wrong - unless you aren't playing the game for its gameplay.

Its long for the sake of being long. And the crucible is hardly "fleshed out" its wave based arena combat and its been done better before like in Devil May Cry 3's bloody palace mode.

I'm in the second hub as well and I'm so bored and disgusted with the game.  So sick of having to do stupid puzzles in every god damn room.  I fight maybe 15 seconds and then its another 10 minutes of puzzles.  I've said screw it and just doing main plot now as I want the game over asap. 
 
I like the combat and loot system.  I think the move and skill trees are really limited and dull but eh, just gotta get this damn game over and get on to something fun.

I think the problem is that you're caring too much about the story. I just skipped all the cutscenes and enjoyed the best pseudo-Zelda experience of my life.

I don't mind retrieving stuff, but I do hate the whole two extra steps in a mission/quest that usually happens.

@GunstarRed said:

I've been having pretty similar feelings. The temples just go on and on and on. I do feel that the puzzles are pretty good, but I would have loved a little more combat. The rule of three's thing is getting beaten into the ground at every possible turn. I Like the game for the most part, but I'm not enjoying it like I thought I would. I had to take two days off because I felt like I was at a point in the game where I had been playing for hours, yet felt like I'd only made minimal progress in the story.

The peak of my irritation was earlier when I spent an hour and a half shooting zombies(obviously whilst collecting three items), If I was reviewing this game I'd knock a whole point off the game just for this section.

I found the 3rd person shooter section rather well done. The guns, especially the sticky grenade launcher, have a great amount of 'Oumph' - there's lots of destructible and physically simulated stuff and creatures in the level giving rewarding visual feedback to the mayhem - it's satisfying to shoot the crap out of zombies and cars and architecture is what I'm saying.

I see what the OP is talking about and rolled my eyes a few times. Overall, I really liked the game but I had a different issue with pacing. The pace at which you get new equipment is very odd. You get the "death grip" somewhat early on and don't get the next thing for a long time. The game eventually gets a lot more interesting in the last few dungeons. By that time, you start using them in combination and it felt really satisfying. I'm not pining for the Zelda structure of 1 item/dungeon, but adding some more equipment and spacing it out more might have been better. The ending felt very abrupt and was unsatisfying. I guess that's to be expected having built up such expectations from the first game.

Yes I'm not a fan of the pacing to, and of course the balance between "jump&run" and Fighting is a little off in my opinion.

In 10 hours of gameplay I just fought 1 3/4 hours.. to little for me.

This caracter is death (!).. I don't notice this at all! Yes the Reaper-Form is satisfying, and the combat is really fun, but there is not a lot of it! =/

I think there are far to many puzzle sections in Darksiders 2 to the point of exaustion. Sometimes it feels more like a puzzle game than an action game. At least the crucible is a nice way to take a break from the main story and puzzle solving and a good chance to earn some sweet loot.

nowadays, every game has, which based on RPG element or pure RPG genre, a lot of errand. I am really sick of it. do you think that even mass effect games are fine? NO. get over.

@krazy_kyle said:

I think there are far to many puzzle sections in Darksiders 2 to the point of exaustion. Sometimes it feels more like a puzzle game than an action game. At least the crucible is a nice way to take a break from the main story and puzzle solving and a good chance to earn some sweet loot.

dont forget the soul arbiter maze , as for the game in general i think they did what they wanted with it and did it right , in my opinion its a better zelda game then zelda is in a couple different aspects , and at least the fetch 3 affect isnt as bad since the dungeons themselves are about an hour or 2 shorter then every zelda dungeon ever made , though if you like the zelda series , im not quiet understanding why there isnt enough combat when zelda had the same formula. however i also agree that it dragged a bit on some parts where maybe a bit more story would have helped in between and then it was too short on other parts mainly the home stretch of the game were it all felt rushed and like they were ether getting pushed by thq to put it out a certain time or they just ran out of ideas , id like to assume it was the first

It's really starting to grind me down a bit now. I'm at the king of bones and doing yet another "fetch 3" quest. My issue is I'm freaking death. Why am i running silly errands for people? I'm supposed to be a badass rider. It worked out with War because he was pretty much chained up and powerless but Death has nobody keeping him in check whys he happily being everybodys bitch?

I dunno. I'll keep playing. I hope it picks up a bit...no idea how far in i am.

@J12088 said:

It's really starting to grind me down a bit now. I'm at the king of bones and doing yet another "fetch 3" quest. My issue is I'm freaking death. Why am i running silly errands for people? I'm supposed to be a badass rider. It worked out with War because he was pretty much chained up and powerless but Death has nobody keeping him in check whys he happily being everybodys bitch?

I dunno. I'll keep playing. I hope it picks up a bit...no idea how far in i am.

The game does address at a couple of points that because the Seals have not been broken, Death is also pretty darn powerless. However I the couple of times they've mentioned it, it's more of a throwaway line more than anything so I can understand if you missed it.