Dungeon Lords - Steam Edition

Last year when playing Outward, I started reminiscing about Dungeon Lords: another third person action RPG -- little known and one of extremely janky nature. The game was originally released in 2005 with a lot of stuff missing. In 2006, when I beat it, the game was rereleased as more complete Dungeon Lords Collector's Edition. After the game's publisher Dreamcatcher Interactive's remains were acquired by Nordic Games (now THQ Nordic), the game got yet another rerelease: Dungeon Lords MMXII (2012). And finally, in 2015, the game's latest version Dungeon Lords Steam Edition came out.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

THQ Nordic had at some point acquired the rights to the third person action roleplaying game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning from EA and commissioned Kaiko to remaster it. (Kaiko had previously put together the Darksiders Warmastered Edition.) The remaster, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, was released in 2020 and came with all its old downloadable content, which include two expansions I had never bought nor played. Kaiko also set out to develop a whole new expansion for the game: Fatesworn, which came out in 2021.

Darksiders Genesis

Fans of the Darksiders series have been speculating how the final Horseman's game would work since his signature weapons are dual pistols. Would the fourth Darksiders title be more of a third-person shooter than a hack and slash game? Or will Strife even get his own game? Not necessarily answering either question, Strife is instead introduced as a playable character in a spin-off prequel Darksiders Genesis.

Darksiders III

Vigil Games' founder David Adams moved with most of the studio's people to hastily established Crytek USA when THQ went bankrupt in 2012. Adam quit soon after however, and founded Gunfire Games with many of Crytek USA's leads as staff. THQ's Darksiders IP was bought by Nordic Games -- now THQ Nordic -- who hired Gunfire to develop Deathinitive Edition of the second game and then finally Darksiders III. Thus the franchise continues to live on with the people who created it. THQ Nordic also acquired Gunfire Games in last year's August, pretty much ensuring the fourth game will come from the same people as well.

Darksiders Revisited

I started a new game plus in Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition to get remaining Steam achievements. To my unfortunate surprise however, something had changed and the game had become very unstable since I played it last year. Maybe they included the beta patch or something but crashes had definitely become common.

Darksiders II

Darksiders II's events take place concurrently with the first game. You play as Death who has taken as his task to redeem his brother horseman War by restoring the Third Kingdom (ie. humans). He does not know how exactly is he supposed to do that, though, and the quest takes him across many realms. Thus you are not stuck on the overgrown ruins of Earth like in the previous one.