Top 10 Bosses in Darksiders II

Top 10 Bosses in Darksiders II

When I make top ten lists about bosses, I take into consideration three things: the quality of the fight, the art design and fighting style of the boss, and the motivations, from a story perspective or from a pure revenge standpoint, for me to defeat the enemy.  Also, for Darksiders II, I had my difficulty set at Apocalyptic from the beginning.

10. Ghorn

By itself, the boss fight against Ghorn is fun, but nothing to write home about.  He does have a pair of unique moves that spice up the action with geysers of lava erupting out of the floor and detonating himself for an AoE move.  Nonetheless, the fight feels fairly familiar considering the enemies strewn throughout The Forge Lands.  The thing that makes him interesting is that he is one of the only bosses that harasses you throughout the dungeon.  As soon as you enter The Scar, Ghorn makes an appearance, destroying a bridge you're walking on.  Later, he causes a pool of lava to rise as you ascend a series of tricky handholds.  By the time you fight him, you can't wait to bury him elevating this boss to the top 10. 

9. Gnashor

The Gilded Arena's champion, Gnashor  can separate his head and spinal column from his body using them as either a club or as a underground snake monster.  Don't try this at home, kiddies. As he smashes his way across the battlefield, Gnashor actually does feel as though he could be an arena champion.  Not the best designed boss as he is a recycled version of the Ice Giant, his unique move-set and mechanics necessary to beat him make him a pleasure to dethrone. 

8. Bheithir

One of the three Nosses (optional boss) on this list along with Ghorn and The Deposed King, Bheithir's battle challenges the player due to the narrow battlefield.  When she lands, she immediately spews highly-damaging fire across the entire platform, forcing you to drop down and grab a ledge for safety.  It's an exciting mechanic that mixes up the formula.  For a completely optional and easy to miss boss, it's a lot of fun to be surprised about a boss encounter. 

7. The Wailing Host 

The final encounter of the story missions in the Kingdom of the Dead, The Wailing Host battle surprised me with how much fun I had during it.  I had seen footage of the fight before the game came out and was not initially impressed.  However, when you are actually in the midst of the fight, it becomes a hell of a lot more fun.  His attacks are surprisingly difficult to dodge, his minion summoning rounds were actually entertaining, and he looks plain cool.  While not too taxing in terms of difficulty, the battle actually energizes the player, jacking up the adrenaline levels thanks to the sheer atmosphere.

6. The Guardian 

The well-publicized battle with the colossus lives up to all it's own hype.  The only boss that allows you to ride Despair, it already gains points for ingenuity.  Obviously this boss's appearance is intimidating and over-the-top as he literally blocks out the sun during the fight.  While his attacks are limited and fairly easy to dodge, they're also heavily damaging and earth shattering.  The down-side to this boss is that it's just not long enough.  With only two stages, one of which the game spoon feeds you the strategy, The Guardian goes down without enough of a fight.  Nonetheless, his relevance in the story, the physical changes that he makes on the game environment, and his sheer size make this a notable and exciting battle.  Plus, the soundtrack during the fight is absolutely addicting . 

5. The Archon

One of the two 'angel' bosses in the game, The Arhon's art design is absolutely stellar.  Four gigantic wings outstretched behind a hooded and cloaked figure whose face emanates a blinding light.  Combine that with the fact that he wields a staff that you gave him with unimaginable power and you have one cool bad guy to go to work on.  The fight itself stands out as well with a series of well-choreographed moments and the necessity to utilize a number of specialized skills.  Still, The Archon doesn't have a lot of HP and he goes down too soon for such a good-looking boss. 

4. Avatar of Corruption

The final boss of the game certainly looks the part.  A cool design and fairly challenging fight, the Avatar of Corruption is one of the few bosses with meaningful story impact.  It's nice to actually care about beating a boss.  I also enjoyed the evolution of the battle through it's three stages.  While not as interesting as Basileus and Achidna, it's still cool to have to change tactics mid-fight. Also, when this guy hits you, it hurts, adding urgency to the fight as you hope and pray not to get hit by his gigantic axe.  Fun on every level, Absalom ends the game with a bang.

3. The Deposed King 

Of all the bosses in Darksiders 2, The Deposed King murdered me the most.  He only has four maneuvers but the fact that he can be accessed relatively early in the game, his propensity for blocking, and his massive ice damage make him one tough S.O.B.  While difficulty alone doesn't make a boss fun, the fact that the rest of the game's bosses were not all that challenging, it was actually refreshing to die a few times to a boss.

2. Basileus and Achidna

One of the three Undead Lords that needs to be hunted down for the King of Bones, Basileus proves to be a far greater adversary than either of the preceding Lords. Why? Because he has a giant, electric spider as a pet.  Even before Achidna appears, Basileus is no push-over with a plethora of a heavy counter-attacks and vicious ripostes.  Once Achidna arrives, its a whole new ballgame.  I love the way this fight evolves as it progresses, going from a one on one, to a giant monster mash to a mixture of the two. This boss is just a blast to battle and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. 

1. Samael

Whether or not playing the first Darksiders gave Samael an unfair advantage on this list, he was the clear choice for number one.  First off, Samael looks purely bad-ass and is easily one of the best characters that this series has to offer.  Voiced to perfection with a blend of arrogance, menace and guile, Samael spends the majority of the first game manipulating War.  While he doesn't appear until well into the third act of Death's tale, Samael's power in the series is still unmistakable.  Once the actual fight starts, the epic music begins and Samael punctuates his laughing with random teleporting attacks and fireball manifestations.  Still, he seems fairly easy to begin with.  That's when the real fun begins, when you go up to him sitting in his throne to beat on him because he appears stunned and, gasp, it turns out he's just playing with you.  His partially invincible mode does monstrous amounts of damage if you take a hit and his geysers of fire inflict serious fire damage if they tag you.  Overall, the fight with Samael, combined with trekking through both the past and present of his  home dungeon, The Black Stone, are the best parts of Darksiders II.