GAME PREVIEW AND OFFICIAL CONCEPT ART FOR DARKSIDERS 2

     


DEATH STRIKES, PART 1 - CINEMATIC GAME TRAILER:



Created by pro artist Joe Madureira, the Darksiders II video game sequel [also abbreviated as DS-II] will be debuting sometime in the summer of 2012, later this year. Joe is the creator of the Battle Chasers comic from the 90s, and back in 2007 he co-founded Virgil Games [later purchased by THQ]. And in 2010 he released the fantasy game Darksiders-I for the XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles - and true fans were overjoyed that the games did not ship late to retail outlets :) Yes, I just had to go there.

Founded perhaps in an alternate reality, Darksiders-I features War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - he is shown on the left. War was designed as a bad-ass warrior with a giant sword that has skull tattoos on it. And the first game follows his quest to find out who prematurely triggered the apocalypse and caused the destruction of mankind on Earth. Taking loose facts from the Bible while blatantly following the classic quest/puzzle/battle game-style of Legend of Zelda, this game received mixed reviews mostly in the mid-80% range; but it was still very entertaining and it featured warrior angels, dark angels, demons and a host of larger-than-life villains and scenery designed by Joe Mad. Uriel, a female warrior angel shown above, also had a big role in DS-I, along with Abaddon, the guy who turned out to be a traitor. BTW, The first image at the top of this article was done by the DSNG Artist, while the other two were done by Joe Mad. I've also tweaked the lighting and added some highlights to the weapon held by Mr. Death in the third image.

And this year, the THQ sponsored game, Darksiders II, is set to feature another one of the 4-Horsemen: Death. And this new game #2 takes place at approximately the same time as the storyline of game #1, in alternate realms / places. Death is like an elder brother to War and his weapon of choice is a special pair of large sickles, often regarded to as giant scythe blades. According to interviews with the game's creative directors, Death [the brother of War] will not see his blood-brother be victim to false accusations; and he is going to go to battle against angels, demons and the "undead" too to prove his brothers innocence - thus he is destined to travel to a city of angels, a city of demons and a city of the undead. He will have a horse and he will have the ability to pick up other weapon such as giant hammers, "wolverine's claws" [as shown on the right], maces and handguns. And he is designed to have a more darker personality than his brother [but honestly they do NOT look like siblings at all].

After much diligence, I've collected a host of images from across the Web,...
...Along with Concept Art by Joe Mad, showing War [the focal character of the original game, DS-I] and Death, the guy you'll be controlling in Darksiders-II. These four images below are courtesy of the popular gaming site www.IGN.com, and according to their timeline, DS-II will be out on August 14th 2012, here in the USA. Some of the massive melee weapons [hammers, scythes, glaives, blades etc]  utilized by Death, the game's lead hero, are shown below:

 

 

If you look closely, there is a poster above that showcases War vs Death; the two brothers from the Four Horsemen are fighting for an unknown reason...

 

 

 
And these other pencil drawings, pinups and concept art pics are from the original Darksiders-I video game:

    

     

The last four images above were concept art pinups released back in 2010 by Joe Mad, showing his vision for the Four Horsemen [which includes one woman] and hopefully he wants to create a Video Game Tetralogy Franchise. After the colored poster of War, you have Death, Strife and Ms. Fury. Of course, their final designs and weapons are subject to change by Joe and his creative art team.

The first Darksiders fantasy game definitely had a lot of humongous characters, as displayed by the screenshot above, which features War [on the right] confronting Ulthane. Just image the sort of impact that the guy on the left will have with a sledgehammer attack against the shorter guy taunting him on the right....

 

Released on the Web last week, this Youtube video below shows a preview clip of Darksiders II - Death Rises and it features game footage and interviews. And hopefully this game will have a solid plot intertwined into the quest storyline....




More artwork from Joe Mad linked to the recent Avenging Spider-man Comic series can be found HERE

And the artwork linked to Joe Mad's Battlechasers Comic showing the sexy heroine Red Monika is located HERE