Developer : THQ
Release date : August 14, 2012
Synopsis :
Darksiders II is an action role-playing hack and slash action-adventure video game developed by Vigil Games and published by THQ. It is the sequel to Darksiders and was released in August 2012 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360[4] and as a launch title for Wii U upon the console’s Australian, European, and North American release in November 2012. The story follows the efforts of player character Death to clear the name of his brother, War, who stands accused of wiping out humanity. On a total budget of $50 million, it was one of the most expensive video games to develop of all time.
A remastered version, titled Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition, was published by Nordic Games for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows in 2015, ported to the Nintendo Switch in 2019, and released in Google Stadia in 2021. A parallel sequel, Darksiders III, was released on November 27, 2018.
Darksiders II is parallel to the previous game. The Four Horsemen – War, Strife, Fury, and Death, the player character – are the last of the Nephilim, cursed fusions of angels and demons who waged war on all Creation for a place to live. To preserve the balance of the Universe, the Four received power from the Charred Council in exchange for slaughtering their kin. Death personally cut down the last of their brethren, Absalom, the first Nephilim; however, he secretly preserved the souls of the Nephilim in an amulet, defying the Council, and gave it to the Keeper of Secrets, known as the Crowfather, for safekeeping.
While War is charged with his crimes, Death, sure of his brother’s innocence, sets out to erase his brother’s ‘crime’ and resurrect humanity. He first travels to the Icy Veil to seek the Crowfather for proof of War’s innocence and a way to restore Earth. The Crowfather tells Death to go to the Tree of Life, and demands that Death take back the amulet. When Death refuses, the Crowfather attacks him in the shape of War. Death kills the Crowfather, who shatters the amulet and embeds the fragments in the Horseman’s chest before sending him into a portal.
Death wakes up in the Forge Lands, a world populated by the Makers, physically imposing beings who are the Architects of Creation. He learns that their world, and many others, has been overrun with Corruption, a dark force that has blocked off the Tree of Life and has taken over many of the Makers’ constructs, among which a massive Guardian made to combat the Corruption. With the help of a Maker named Karn, Death reaches the tainted Guardian and destroys it, allowing it to be reassembled free of Corruption. The Guardian clears the path to the Tree of Life, which allows Death to reach his goal. Upon reaching the entrance, however, Death is seized by Corruption and dragged into the Tree. There, Death is accosted by the shadowy form of Absalom, whose hatred birthed the Corruption.
Death is transported to the Kingdom of the Dead, where he encounters the merchant Ostegoth, who explains he must find the Well of Souls to bring back Mankind, and to that end he must speak with the Lord of Bones. After completing trials to gain an audience with the Lord, Death is transported to the City of the Dead to find a soul who knows about the Well: the Crowfather. The Crowfather tells Death that the souls of humanity have been transported to the Well, which is where the spirits of all things living are cleansed and renewed before they are sent out to be reborn. In order to access it, Death needs two keys, held by Heaven and Hell. The Crowfather adds that the Council feared that if the Horsemen learned about the Well’s power, they might resurrect their kin.
Death first seeks the key held by the angels and is sent to an outpost of Heaven called Lostlight. At the Ivory Tower, he meets the Archon, who directs Death to the Ivory Citadel, which has been claimed by Corruption. The Archon sends Death to Earth to bring back a powerful holy weapon, so the way to the Ivory Citadel could be cleared. On Earth, Death encounters remnants of the Hellguard being led by Uriel. With their help, Death reassembles the shattered rod. After traveling to the Ivory Citadel and confronting its custodian, Death realizes the Archon has possessed the key the entire time and has fallen to Corruption himself. Returning to Lostlight, Death confronts the Archon, kills him, and acquires the first key.
Death then proceeds to Shadow’s Edge, which is being devoured by Corruption. Searching for the demon lord, Samael, Death finds Lilith, a demon-queen who created the Nephilim; she refers to herself as Death’s mother, which he angrily denies. Lilith claims Samael is gone, and can only be met by utilizing a time portal. Before he leaves, Lilith urges Death to revive the Nephilim when he finds the Well of Souls. After traversing the fortress through time, Death finally meets Samael, who tests him in a fierce battle, and gives the key expecting “an interesting show.”
Death returns to the Tree of Life and the Crowfather reminds him that the fates of humanity and the Nephilim are at stake, and warns that Corruption has chosen a named champion to block Death.
Death proceeds into the Well of Souls, where he is met by Absalom, who taunts Death claiming him “blackened by the sin of betrayal” to explain his imperviousness to the Corruption; Death kills Absalom again. The Crowfather appears and explains that Death may tap the Well’s power to restore one race, but a sacrifice is needed: choosing one race will forever doom the other. Death chooses to save War and sacrifices the souls of the Nephilim, and his own, for humanity, and leaps into the Well. An epilogue retells the final moments of the first game, with Uriel questioning War’s intent to go to war with the Charred Council alone, to which War replies “No, not alone”. The scene shows the arrival of the Four Horsemen, Death among them, as the narrator states “the number of the riders shall ever be four.”
In a post-credit scene, Lilith is berated by a being in shadow (strongly implied to be Lucifer), angered that humanity has been restored and the Nephilim lost forever. The screen fades as Lilith screams in agony.
Source : Wikipedia
