Darksiders was a fantastic brawler that, to many of its players, felt like a much darker Legend of Zelda infused with the combat system of God of War. To an extent, the game even had a bit of the action RPG genre in its blood with the inclusion of unlockable skills and special weapons.
Darksiders II takes this action RPG element a little further with the inclusion of an all new loot system, in which players can hunt for items and kill monsters for superior equipment.
Jay Fitzloff, studio marketing manager at Vigil Games got with us to talk about the loot system in Darksiders II.
"It’s not an exaggeration to say that there are tens of thousands of items that can be found in Darksiders II," he said. "Since loot is randomly generated, there’s no predicting what your next kill might produce or what that hidden chest contains."
Fitzloff also emphasized that there will be a need for players to think about the gear they equip, with difficult choices to make throughout Death's adventure.
"The loot element also forces players to make some difficult decisions throughout the game. Since every item will have unique abilities, what to keep and what to sell will ultimately boil down to preferred play style and immediate needs. Is it more important to do raw damage or to have a small chance to freeze enemies? In this dungeon, will fire resistance or regenerating health be more important? These are the types of questions players will wrestle with through all of Darksiders II for rarely will any item found be clearly superior to what is already held."
Finally, we wanted to know if there will be any need for the player to grind for items, as they would in a traditional action RPG.
"There won’t be a need to farm monsters to get certain equipment items, but if players are into grinding to get the best gear, they certainly can."
We'll be posting our full interview with Vigil Games on Sunday morning.
Darksiders II is set for a 2012 release on the PC, Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.