Darksiders II has been confirmed to be in development for a couple of months now. This week, we learned some new details in the most unlikely of places. You would think that Vigil Games would have been given their new Darksiders title some space at the THQ’s booth on the E3 show floor. But no, the biggest announcement was made right before my eyes at the Nintendo press conference. Darksiders II is on it’s way to the Wii U!
We learned about it on the tail-end of the major Nintendo announcements. After the 25th anniversary celebration announcement for the Legend of Zelda series, after the confirmation of nearly every first-party Nintendo title coming to 3DS, and after the reveal of Nintendo’s brand new console, we were treated to a 30-second video clip showing that Darksiders II will be a launch title for the Wii U. This was the only place that Darksiders was mentioned. I couldn’t have been more excited. The original Darksiders was one of my favorite games of 2010. The prospect of playing the sequel on new Nintendo hardware has my inner fanboy fawning over the possibilities.
I’m the most excited for the sequel’s anticipated changes and improvements over the original. Vigil Games has already stated that they paying close attention to their fans’ feedback. Hopefully this will clean up the most common complaints from the first Darksiders game. They have promised more side quests, more non-player characters, and a much larger map to explore. What this means for you is more gameplay and a better overall experience. Also, just think of all the cool things we’ll be able to do with the new Wii U controller.
If Vigil is able to keep their promise with the side quests and NPC’s, there will be a lot of extra loot and items to make the main character, Death, as powerful as you want him to be. The shift of the main character from War in the original Darksiders to Death (who bears a striking resemblance to Slipknot guitarist Mick Thompson IMHO) will also shake things up quite a bit.
As the Darksiders universe is based upon the 4 horsemen, Death will be the second horseman out of the gates showing a different side of of the same story from the original Darksiders game. Death will also play differently than War as his moves are going to be more focused on agility and dodging rather than brute strength and blocking.
Darksiders II is scheduled for release sometime in 2012. Many more details are expected to be announced at PAX Prime this coming August.