Last week, Darksiders II was demoed at the Regency Center in San Francisco. The demo showed off what the newest features were, while providing us an awesome taste of the product. Sadly however, I couldn’t get my hands on with the game, but never or less it was an impressive showing. After the demo, I got to talk with the lead designer of the game, Haydn Dalton and got some insider info on the upcoming sequel.

GamerLive.TV: Haydn Dalton, thank you for talking with us about Darksiders II.

Haydn Dalton: "No problem"

GamerLive.TV: So what is the biggest game-play change from Darksiders 1 to 2?

Haydn Dalton: “ The biggest change we made was the looting and customize system that we have in the game right now. The ability to switch out specific items for your main character visually when you pause the game, is probably the biggest change in the game. “

GamerLive.TV: so how does that play into armor customization?

Haydn Dalton: “Well we have many different armor types, what we showed at the demo was the slayer and necromancer set. Basically we are trying to suit whatever style the player prefers to play and you can mix individual items to the style you want to play . So you can combine them to be more effective in magic or be more effective with your physical attacks, it’s all about mixing and stylizing for what the player wants to do”

GamerLive.TV: The biggest reveal in the demo or at least in my look was the talent trees. This is something the fans of the series were asking for, but i’m interested to know. Why did you decided to go that route and can you explain both talent tress?

Haydn Dalton: “I can’t give you to much detail, but I tell you what was behind the idea. The two-skill tress are formed around two styles of play. One is based around the physical and skilled side of the game, when the Necromancer side of the game is more about the stand off and projectile part of the game. So players have two very distinct of the game on the way they want to play. “

GamerLive.TV: Sounds Cool, so how does Darksiders II continue the trilogy. Will we ever get to see the first protagonist from the first game?

Haydn Dalton: “ Uh … I guess your going to have to play the game find out. The Story is definitely concurrent with the first one.”

GamerLive.TV: When does the story take place?

Haydn Dalton: “Kind of before and after the events of the first game. The main storyline centers around the events of the first game and fans of the series will likely recall events from the first game. The main question center around and what will be driving the storyline in Darksiders II is what was Death doing here at this time and what was going on with him”

GamerLive.TV: What type of weapons will we see?

Haydn Dalton: Yeah there are many different weapons and many are making their return. Obviously you saw the gun and claw briefly, which are returning favorites. You also saw the hammer but we also Axe’s, gauntlets and a wide range of weapons. Again, it was really about player choices, even with the weapons visually and gameplay. We really wanted to give the player different ways overcome the hurdles.

GamerLive.TV: What type of gameplay changes did you make to fully make the transition from War to Death?

Haydn Dalton: “Well the first thing is that War is more of a heroic character. He is somebody who is more grounded by his terrain, but is a ruthless brawler who can take lots of damage. When we started developing and envisioning Death, he seemed more of athletic and dose his own thing and doesn’t really go by the rules. So it’s a polor opposite to what War was all about. So yeah, War was methodical in combat, but Death is more about inversion. Death is more like an assassin in our world.”

GamerLive.TV: Another Reveal in the demo was that you are introducing side quests for the first time. Now the previous Darksiders was 40 hours long. I’m kind of interested to find out, does that take away from the main storyline or enhance it?

Haydn Dalton: “We really wanted to create a large world for the player. So we are give them the cool story, which is our main focus, but while doing that we wanted players to be fully enriched in the setting. When started we designing our side quests, we wanted to further enhance you the world, not just happens in main storyline. That’s why many times you will come across various quests that will often have you facing mini – bosses. That will offer new items to player and totally brand new experience at the same time, and I don’t think calling them mini – bosses doesn’t do them justice. Some bosses will be a serious challenge to defeat.”

GamerLive.TV: Okay thank you for the time.