Darksiders II
Liberated Death
If you consider the first Darksiders to be like The Legend of Zelda , then Darksiders II is the Breath of the Wild of the series. In both cases, the familiar formula of dungeons, exploration, and story has been expanded in a meaningful way. The familiar combat system has now been joined by a Diablo-like loot system that rewards us with ever-better equipment with even higher damage values. A sophisticated parkour system made exploring the game world more dynamic, and the story was also a little easier to understand.
It revolves around another of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, Death, who tries to prove the innocence of his brother War. Why the skull man does this and how it relates to the parallel storyline of its predecessor is explained in the approximately 20-hour story. Those who haven't played it should at least read a summary so they don't find themselves completely lost. After 14 years, I no longer remember the ins and outs myself, but that shouldn't matter for this review.
In search of evidence, we don't travel to earthly realms, but to the fantasy realm of the Makers. This makes Darksiders II seem much more classic than the story of war on Earth, but it didn't bother me. Embodying the Grim Reaper himself may sound very powerful, but our protagonist is basically just a brawler who takes down dozens of enemies with his iconic scythe and other weapons. Unlike his brother War from the first game, Death also has an arsenal of necromantic abilities at his disposal. Basically, however, the gameplay remains the same.
So we fight our way through, sometimes focusing on a single opponent with lock-on, sometimes happily charging into crowds of enemies and boss enemies, solving puzzles and just having fun. Darksiders II remains my personal favorite in the series – not least because Darksiders III was rather mediocre and I didn't even bother trying Genesis . So I look back fondly on various gaming evenings, even if I have no idea what it was all about in the end... Good times.
The score
Unlike its predecessor and part 3, only one composer was involved: Jesper Kyd. Readers of my site will probably already be familiar with him from various other reviews, not least the early Borderlands and Assassin’s Creed games, but also Warhammer 40,000: Darktide and Battle Chasers: Nightwar, which is visually very similar to Darksiders.
As expected, Kyd also delivers solid work on the music for Darskiders II which even won an award at the 2012 Global Music Awards . Admittedly, their homepage looks like it was created in the same year, but a trophy is a trophy. The original soundtrack comprises 26 tracks and has a runtime of approximately one hour and 20 minutes, which is solid. In addition, there is also a Complete Edition with 37 additional tracks, which doubles the runtime. I mention this here for the sake of completeness, because a few of my personal highlights are not included in the OST.
As I said at the beginning, Darksiders II is more fantasy than its predecessor. While the former evoked Hollywood-style apocalyptic/superhero bombast in the style of God of Wars the sequel sounds more like “Immortals: Fenyx Rising meets Assassin’s Creed.” This is already clearly evident in the opening song, The Makers Theme, whose soulful flute melody suggests lightheartedness before futuristic-sounding synths cover the track with grounding and oppression. It's an interesting mix that is symbolic of the score.
Comparisons to the Animus sections of Ubisoft's assassination adventures repeatedly come to mind due to futuristic sound impressions, not least in atmospheric tracks such as Crystal Spire. But other parallels, such as the high-pitched solo vocals from AC2 (Into Eternity,The Drenchfort) or the rhythmic elements from Brotherhood (Makers in the Outland, Trouble in Eden), also clearly reveal Kyd's style. The GMA website describes it as follows:
The soundtrack of Darksiders II for the post-apocalyptic action-adventure Darksiders combines dark ethereal themes and melodic fantasy with sublime atmosphere that enrich the player's cinematic journey through each of the unique realms. BAFTA award-winning and MTV VMA nominated composer Jesper Kyd creates memorable and immersive soundtracks for visual media.
Description text from the Global Music Awards: November 2012 nominees
But Kyd also experiments with instruments, giving tracks such as The Makers Overworld or The Lost Temple Sentinels a Celtic feel with the bagpipe-like mashak (at least, I think that's what it is), which, combined with the oriental-sounding guitar, creates an interesting combination. I find this particularly well done in the driving The Makers Fight Back, which could easily have come from one of the early Prince of Persia-games. Other southern influences can be found in tracks such as The Rod of Arafel, which, thanks to the guitar strumming, is very similar to Hades – or Borderlands.
When we're not in the midst of battle or listening to the future fantasy mix (Supernatural Desert), the composer impresses with piano pieces such as the swelling and retardant The Corruption or the cello-heavy Plains of Death – another facet that fits very well into the overall picture. Or The Forge Lands from the Complete Edition, which screams ‘classic’ video game music. For me, the heart of the OST is The Crowfather.
The track starts off innocently enough. A slow build-up of strings is replaced by a few single guitar notes. The mood is heavy, deliberate, sad. Like distant thunder, drums roll in, heralding the coming gloom. The guitar fights its way through a short melody before being replaced. Replaced by a symphony of pain, sadness, and at the same time liberation, which reminds me in the best sense of the Mass Effect 2-score. In my Top 15 saddest tracks I wrote about 12th place the following:
The Crowfather doesn't see death as a sad end, but as the start of something new and orchestrates the farewell as a magnificent, beautiful thing. Perhaps I'm interpreting a lot into this track because I like it so much. But as soon as the sound of the orchestra explodes, it hits me every time.
Me about The Crowfather in Top 15 Saddest tracks
Another quote I came across on the website yourclassical.org by Emily Reese sums up the music as follows:
Judging from how many times I've listened to the soundtrack to Darksiders II scored by Jesper, his music not only withstands repetition, but it demands it.
Emily Reese in “Jesper Kyd and Darksiders II on Top Score
I can only agree with this to a limited extent, because for me, the ambient character dissipates the powerful moments of the score too much. These moments occur repeatedly, but unfortunately they are more prevalent in the Complete Edition of the score and may have been missed by a large part of the audience. A perfect example of this is The Maker’s Guardian, which is in no way inferior to the Hans Zimmer-esque heroic epic of its predecessor. Or the soulful string piece Gilded Arena.
Other pieces worth listening to, in my opinion, are War Against Death as a reprise of The Crowfather, the moving The Tree of Life and the action pieces Corrupted Archon and The Guardian Fight. Overall, the music of Darksiders II remains more of a collection of more or less restrained ambient tracks and fantasy action. In its most boring moments, Kyd brings the wasteland of a dead world to “life”; in its best moments, the score inspires in a way that only the greats can.
