The first Darksiders was relatively linear in terms of both level design and narrative. How is Darksiders II structured?
There will still be linear parts of the game – such as when you enter a dungeon and have to solve a succession of puzzles to proceed – but we’ve created an open world that grants access to all the different locales you eventually discover. You won’t be able to go to any place you please right from the start, but you will have more freedom in how you progress than you did in the first Darksiders.
Given that the game is a lot more wide open in Darksiders II, will there be things like side quests and optional dungeons to explore and boss monsters to kill?
Absolutely. We’ve got quite a bit of optional content to be found in Darksiders II – and not just little fetch quests. We’re talking full dungeons that take hours to complete. We felt that if a player goes to the trouble to explore the world and find the side quests, they should be adequately rewarded with meaty adventures.
Unlike the first game, Darksiders II appears to have a dedicated RPG system with skill-trees and character development. Could you tell us about the depth of the system?
This is something we wanted to have in the first Darksiders, but just didn’t have time to implement. To give a basic overview of how this system works, every kill earns Death experience points, and he advances in level when enough experience is earned. Each level increase boosts Death’s basic stats, but more importantly, it gives him a skill point to spend in one skill tree. Most skills have three tiers of power. In other words, three skill points can be spent on a single skill. The first skill point adds the ability to Death’s repertoire; the next two make that ability more powerful.
There are two skill trees to choose from in Darksiders II – the Harbinger Tree and the Necromancer Tree. In simple terms, the Harbinger Tree is a warrior track; the Necromancer Tree is a mage track. Players can focus to one track or mix and match between the two. The skill trees do branch, and selecting a skill on the tree will make skills on connected branches available. It’s worth noting both trees have a gate to more powerful abilities that requires 9 skill points be invested in that tree before opening up these abilities to players.
Also, you won’t be able to get all the skills by the time you finish the game – so some hard choices will have to be made.
How varied is the loot system in Darksiders II? Will there be any need for players to kill (or farm) certain monsters?
It’s not an exaggeration to say that there are tens of thousands of items that can be found in Darksiders II. Since loot is randomly generated, there’s no predicting what your next kill might produce or what that hidden chest contains.
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.
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.
Besides killing monsters for their loot, can skills be acquired the same way or is that simply limited to leveling up?
Skills can only be acquired by leveling up, but you buy new combat maneuvers from vendors. So if you wanted to have every single move available, you could certainly grind for gold and loot to buy up all the combat options you’ve unlocked.
Is there any sort of crafting system in the game, salvaging, or resource collection?
Other than collecting money from enemies and selling of items, no.
More and more games are starting to offer social networking (Twitter, Facebook) elements. Although Darksiders II is strictly a single-player title, are there any plans to offer a social element in Darksiders II?
There is going to be a social element to Darksiders II, but we’re keeping that a secret for now.
In the first game, War had a character called The Watcher who hid in his gauntlet and provided him with advice on how to proceed if the player ever got stuck. The Watcher also acted as a comedic foil to War's more serious nature. Is there a similar character in Darksiders II?
Death is a more talkative fellow than War, so we felt he didn’t need a foil like The Watcher. Instead Death has his raven, Dust, that acts as a kind of clue giver throughout the game. If the player seems to be stuck or not going in the right direction, Dust will fly to the point they need to go to and begin cawing.
Darksiders II is slated for release on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms (as well as on the PC). Are there any differences between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game?
Other than the controller you’ll be holding in your hands, no.
