Darksiders 3 could be smaller in scope (if there is one)

Darksiders II lead designer says more polish is more important than greater scope.

Darksiders II developer Vigil Games is already thinking ahead about the possibility of a Darksiders III, assuming THQ would green-light another sequel. Assuming the publisher did, though, Vigil would consider reducing the third game's size and scope, according to a VideoGamer.com interview with Haydn Dalton, Darksiders II's lead designer.


"If Jason [Rubin, THQ's president] sat there, and we go and sell 4 or 5 million units [of Darksiders II], I'm pretty sure he won't say, 'Let's go and do something different now.' Maybe what he might do is turn around and say, 'We'll do another Darksiders game, but we'll try and reduce the scope so that we can make it even higher polished.'" said Dalton. "Because our scope is huge. Maybe he says, 'Bring the scope down a little bit, we'll still do another game but it's a lot more focused'. That's not such a bad thing to do either."

I don't know about you, but that doesn't make me feel very good about Darksiders II. Why would Dalton be immediately thinking about reducing the scope of the project for "polish's" sake? Remember, Darksiders II was already delayed from its June 2012 date to Aug. 21 for "polish" reasons. Maybe Darksiders II could've benefitted from a smaller scope too. I really don't mean to spin this in that direction, but how else would you interpret Dalton's words?

"Initially it seems like if you make [the game] smaller that's not as good. Well, that's not necessarily true. Quantity is not about quality. Just because you make something bigger doesn't mean it's better. That's something people are saying to us: 'You keep quoting about size.'" he said. "I tend to not really go on about the physical size of the world so much because it's more about what you're doing within that area that's important to me."

We'll have to wait a few more weeks to see if Darksiders II and its larger world are indeed polished enough. Hopefully it is, and THQ won't have to send Death himself after any planned sequels.

Staff article by Jonathan Davila (July 27, 2012) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this news article, you can update your bio from the Settings page.