Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition Riding Out Tomorrow

The 'Deathinitive Edition' of Darksiders II [official site] will ride onto PC tomorrow, publishers Nordic Games have announced at awfully short notice. It took them ages to even quietly confirm a PC version of the open-world hacking-and-slashing action-RPG's revamp and now boom, here, it's out tomorrow. (John really dug its original release in 2012.) Expect improved graphics, a rebalancing, and a fair bit of confusion over whether current DS2 owners will receive it as an update or not.

First of all, what's in the Deathfinitive Edition? Nordic say:

• Darksiders II with All DLCs included and integrated into the game, offering a total playtime of more than 30 hours
• Improved Graphic Render Engine for higher visual quality especially in terms of lighting and shadows, optimised for PC
• Improved and reworked level, character and environment graphics
• Running in native 1080p resolution
• Reworked and tuned game balancing and loot distribution

Aye, sure, that sounds good. The Facebook page has a few comparison screenshots showing yep, that's prettier. Darksiders II had bigger problems than any of this but it's a remaster, not a remake. And how will you get this stuff?

If you don't own Darksiders II at all, hey, it'll launch with a 20% discount for the first week. If you own Darksiders II on Steam or GOG, you'll be offered an 80% discount during the first week. Some people will receive the Deathinitive Edition for free, but this gets tricky. On Steam, if you own the Darksiders Franchise Pack containing both games and all the DLC and everything, you'll get Deathinitive free, but you must specifically have bought that bundle - it's not enough to own everything in it. On GOG, you'll get Deathinitive free if you've bought both games and the DLC bundle.

What's up with the mess on Steam? Nordic explain:

"Our original plan was to have the free copy unlocked for everyone owning Darksiders II and ALL DLCs but unfortunately this was technically not possible so we were told and therefore we chose the Steam version being the one unit unlocking the free copy which is as close as possible to the content we wanted our loyal fans to own - the Darksiders Franchise pack."

Bit messy, that.

Nordic Games bought Darksiders after original publishers THQ shut down, though not the studio who made it, Vigil Games. Last year they talked about having plans for the series, and hopefully those still extend beyond the Deathinitive Edition. Getting DS2 onto the latest Xbox and PlayStation was probably a fair start for building interest in the series again. Fingers crossed.