I didn't play Darksiders until its PC release, which meant I'd already heard a million people compare it to Zelda and God of War. What a pleasant surprise to play the game and find that it had character of its own and kept rewarding me with new toys throughout its substantial and entertainingly silly story. Sitting down to play the sequel I thought it would just be more of the same. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Before I talk about the game, here's some info on where I played it. In a church, in Amsterdam. I'm not telling you this because the setting matters, if the game is good I'd gladly play it in a cardboard box in Slough, but because the placement of the things inside the church on that particular day was pleasing. The nave was full of 360s, lined up awaiting eager journalists but I was ushered past them and directed to the elevation of the crossing, between the transepts, right before the altar. That's where the PCs lived.

When I'm invited to play a multiplatform title before release I expect to be plugged into a console so it was a pleasant surprise to have the PC build ready and waiting at all, let alone literally looking down on everybody else. The good news is, this time around we won't have to wait for a late release on PC. Development has been parallel across the platforms and although I was playing with an Xbox controller (as I will on release; it's that sort of game) and didn't have the chance to mess around with any settings beyond inverting my y-axis, it's clearly a handsome devil.

Now, onto the reasons why I was getting ahead of myself by expecting a rehash. The big difference between Darksiders and Darksiders II is the protagonist. At times as I played through the final parts of the game's first substantial realm I was convinced that I understood the formula entirely; design a protagonist and then build a game around him. Levels, abilities, enemies, dialogue, worlds – all are in service to Death, the spider-like, dodgy, jumpy horseman whose story this sequel tells.

Temporally, all of the action takes place alongside the events of the first game. While War was stomping around our Earthly post-apocalypse, smiting demons and angels alike, Death was traversing other, more mysterious realms. By more mysterious I mean more imaginative. It's not that I didn't enjoy the setting of the first game but I'd seen it before. I play games so burning cities filled with angry demons are as familiar to me as my own kitchen.

Darksiders II moves away from the familiar and into more inventive territory. The Makers' Realm that I explored is part traditional fantasy, part proto-mechanical golem factory and altogether Vigil's own creation. As in the original, strong voicework and an interesting companion contribute to the world-building but it's Death himself who makes this a sequel that is more than a retread.

In some hands, a change of protagonist could mean a change of skin but Death is not War, though obviously related in many ways. It's a third-person action adventure with a similar visual style but, to return to somewhat lazy comparisons, this is less God of War and more Prince of Persia.

The towering, crumbling structures of the Makers' Realm are pathways as much as obstacles, tracks along which Death can clamber, climb and wall-run. I spent less time scything down enemies than I did looking for hand-holds, overhangs and broken machinery from which to swing. There's still plenty of combat, which involves the expected combos and side-splitting finishing moves, but it's once an area is cleared that Death shows what he brings to the party.

Running along walls above spitting lakes of lava, scaling a toppled tower, activating ancient and ominous machinery; that's what he does best. The Makers, from what I can gather, are the Genesis of all things and their realm is one of creation. Accompanied by one of the beings, best described as a giant dwarf, Death is attempting to activate a huge automaton that will assist him in his quest. However, a corruption has taken hold in this world and, presumably, all others, a webbing of dark fluids and crystals growing on surfaces and infecting some of the Makers' own machinery.

To clear it, Death can hop onto Custodians, large humanoid structures that have a sphere in place of their legs and trundle about smashing enemies into pieces. They're not just battle-mounts though, they're also the only means of clearing the corruption and therefore accessing new areas. And that's not all either. They can also fire large chains, slamming into distant walls to create a bridge. More still, as those spheres they roll about on fit perfectly into indents in the floor; parking on top of these changes the