Can't recommend this game in its current state. I played it when it originally came out in 2012. Wanted to relive the nostalgia and play through the whole series before Darksiders 4 comes out. But seriously what is this sad excuse for a PC port?
I'm here after recently beating Darksiders 1, which just had its next-gen update last month, which ran and played smoothly, had customizeable controls, and way overall a great experience. 250FPS locked and at 4K. So surely this game should be a piece of cake right? Darksiders 2 apparently had its next-gen update in 2024- fantastic.
I check the Discussion forums and immediately worry as to what I'm in for. There was nothing anybody said that could instill much faith. First thing I notice upon booting this game up is that it just looks.. grainy? And I discover it can’t go above 1080p. In 2026. Ok. Frame rate is for the most part locked to 59, which is fine I suppose, but the game just keeps having these freezes and micro-stutters, so functionally it feels more like 30 fps. The controls hardly cooperate with the New Steam Controller. Trackpads are just ignored, even when you manually assign controls to them. The menus are extremely inconsistent with controls for navigation. Some menus ignore the controls sticks but only the d-pad. Some menus ignore the d-pad and only use the control sticks. Parts of the menu that logically should use the triggers, use the bumpers, and so on. It's very annoying. Anti-Aliasing makes the graininess very fuzzy, and across the very limited options and being restricted to 1080p, there really is no sweet spot. The game either looks very deep-fried and pixelated, or the textures and models just look fuzzy?
And worst of all & what compelled me to write this;
I’m barely 100 minutes into the game, and in the game's first "dungeon", my frame rate inexplicably just dropped to 21fps and will not go up. Using the forums for help, no matter how much options tweaking I do, the only fix seems to be outright closing the game and re-opening it. Is this a joke? By all metrics, my PC can play Elden Ring, or Cyberpunk 2077 both at 4K with a decisive 120fps, never dipping. This game of all things shouldn’t even close to that power demand. If anything, it should be able to run this game concurrently 4 times over. I say this as someone who loves this game but cannot condone this sad excuse for a sale. The developers also seem to be extremely active in the forums for Darksiders Warmastered and Darksiders 3, but seemingly have abandoned the discussion forums for Deathinitive Edition. To me, that shows an acute awareness of this poor excuse for a PC "next gen" port and a wilfull ignorance towards even bothering to fix the problem. Players who will come to this franchise upon Darksiders 4's announcement will play through the games, and likely stop here, quit, and get a refund.
The more dignified thing to do would be to take this buggy, unfinished mess of a game from being sold until these issues are rectified. It brings the entire brand quality of the franchise down with it. Extremely disappointing, but all of that said, I'll still happily change/update/delete this review should a proper next-gen update ever happen.
