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LTTP: Darksiders 2 (Warning: Large Gifs)

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So, I beat Darksiders 2 not too long ago, including all of the DLC, and I've been brooding on my thoughts about the game. So I just though I'd put them here and see what you guys and gals think. I might consider doing more of these, as I've been playing through quite a large backlog this past years and I love talking about games. So, here we go!

First some short thoughts on:

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Now I really enjoyed the first Darksiders, in fact it was probably one of my favorite games of the last generation. It was epic in terms of story, War was a great dark character and the game really felt like a tight, complete package. It never dragged for me, it had a good balance of puzzles, combat and collectibles and the game has a vast array of interesting characters.

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It felt like a more adult, epic version of a Zelda game. The world was varied and interesting, the game made good use of it's various powers to keep you exploring the world and the combat, although simple, was effective and fun, really making me feel like a powerhouse later on in the game.

Although Darksiders 1 was, generally speaking, a simple game, in terms of gameplay mechanics, combat, collectibles and story, it felt tight and complete. It kept me interesting, it continuously rewarded me for playing and presented me with clear goals. Here's a giant freaking tower with a giant evil bastard inside, now find a way up there and kick his ass and save the world! And once you do beat the game, it peaks in terms of excitement:

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As for

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With Darksiders 2, I'm left feeling quite disappointed, and I have to admit that I got really, really tired of the game after a while. Darksiders 2 started to feel like a game that I desperately wanted to end, only to find out that I had to go through like six more immense dungeons, even though I thoroughly enjoyed many elements of the game.

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What I really liked about the game was the overall world. It's absolutely beautiful to look at, it has plenty of varied levels and traversing said world with Despair was a lot of fun. Besides this I also enjoyed the design and variety of the enemies, the cool looking weapons, the fun platforming sections and the soundtrack.

Playing as Death was incredibly satisfying and his character is pretty fun (although not nearly as interesting and fleshed out a War). When the good elements of the game come together, especially early in the game, you feel like a total badass; riding your flaming horse, beating down monsters and baddies with big weapons and taking down enormous bosses
(like the one at the end of the first world)
and for the first ten to fifteen hours or so this feeling remained.

So when you're doing stuff like this, the game works for me:
(this is from later in the game, but I think you get what I mean)

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After playing the game for many, many more hours however, I started to get incredibly tired of the game and especially the dungeons. Maybe I'm just remembering it wrong, but it felt like more than half of the dungeons consisted of one path, branching out into three new paths and one closed path, simply requiring you to go through these three open paths to find some items, open the closed path and defeat a boss. At first I didn't mind it too much, but after a while it started to feel way too formulaic and repetitive. The puzzles weren't all that difficult, with lots of them being sort of copy-pasted throughout many of the dungeons (with small variations) and being very similar to Darksiders 1 and, I don't know, it just started to drag after a while.

Darksiders 2 constantly tries to make you feel like the game is moving towards something epic, like at some point we're going to see the game make this clear point and set this clear goal, as to what you are trying to accomplish and what we as the player are supposed to be excited about. But that moment just never came. After so many hours I got extremely frustrated, because every time I thought "Okay now something cool is going to happen" the game just slaps you in the face with another hour or two of (sometimes just generic feeling) dungeons and more fetch quests with vague and meaningless endings. The story is boring, meaningless and left me with a feeling of "what in the hell did I really do in these 42 hours?". It never really peaks, it just sort of "is there" to keep you going to more dungeons.

Besides this I did not enjoy some the combat sections all that much. With the first Darksiders, combat felt tactical. The game gave you just a few enemies at the same time and required you to make good use of the combo's, blocking and counters to defeat them. With Darksiders 2 however, the game throws a sometimes seemingly endless amount of enemies at you at the same time, especially later in the game, wanting you to constantly be on the move and on the attack. This started to become overwhelming after a while since you cannot block and enemies can seriously hurt you while you are in the middle of a combo. Most of the time, combat just felt like absolute chaos, where I could barely see where I was and what combo I was performing because these section were just crawling with enemies, causing me to often resort to button mashing, and the fact that Death's attacks are full of fast movements, particle effects and bright colors didn't help much either.

The combat system works at first, but as the game got harder and harder I felt like I was more often relying on and abusing the special moves rather than actually enjoying and using the combo system. During some of the combat waves I felt too weak and too fragile and the chaos form felt way too weak and short as well.

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Leveling was also just underwhelming. When you look at the entire leveling tree, in actuality there's only eight powers you gain, with many of them just having lots of small upgrades. Many of these powers just weren't that satisfying to use because most of the time it felt like they were only there to help you distract the many waves of enemies. With most of them I didn't feel much stronger or more epic, I just felt like as the waves got bigger, I had more tools at my disposal to keep the enemies away from me.

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The loot system didn't help much either. I had access to all of the DLC, so I started out with some really good weapons and armor, some of which lasted through like 75% of the game, and thank god that they did because the loot system kind of sucks. Now, in principle, the idea of finding and collecting all these armor pieces and weapons sounds cool, and at first I though it was. After the first two dungeons or so however, I started to become annoyed. You find chests and chests and endless more chests of the same looking, same feeling, same playing items, that you almost never equip and more often than not just sell. You're constantly stuck in your damn inventory, trying to figure out which item is worth less than the items currently laying on the ground so you can make the most money and it's just tedious. Most of the loot looked bland and the same too, making no apparent difference between holding a level 1 and a level 30 weapon besides stats.

Creating possessed weapons was kind of fun (although the PC version does not allow you to name them), but after a while I just felt like I was replacing the same weapon over and over again, just looking at a bunch of stats instead of actually feeling like I had gotten some new epic weapon. It kind of feels like the dungeons; at first I really enjoyed them but after a while I felt like I was just repeating the same thing over and over again.

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Collectibles were also tedious and they're just not fun at all to collect. A lot of them are arbitrarily placed in the world, stuck behind some gameplay mechanism that you won't get until many hours later in the game, causing you to constantly roam around to world and going back and forth between these huge levels trying to figure out which ability grants you access to which collectible. Then there's all these stones you have to shoot for stat upgrades that are super easy to miss and artifacts you need for money/ability points and book of the dead pages you need for the tombs.... it's just too much and not fun. In the first Darksiders you could just jump between the few levels, in the second one doing this takes you hours.

Lastly, I think it deserves to be said that the PC port of Darksiders 2 is pretty horrendous. I've experience many, many crashes, I've had to deal with various bugs and glitches and the framerate is incredibly inconsistent, with performance overall being very mediocre. In addition to this the port also suffers from bad stuttering issues that I never managed to get rid of.

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Overall I think the game just didn't know what it wanted to be. It tries to be an rpg, a hack and slasher, a third person shooter, a cinematic adventure... so instead of having this solid, tight game like the first Darksiders with a few fleshed out gameplay elements it just ends up being a bit of a mess, with too much going on at the same time. Darksiders 1 started epic and ended epic, making me feel like I did something awesome and that more greatness was to come. Darksiders 2 started epic and left me feeling like I had accomplished absolutely nothing.

The game has some really good things going for it, and there are indeed certain dungeons, puzzles, combat sections, bosses and questlines that are awesome and fun to play, but when you put the whole thing together it just doesn't hold up. Where the first Darksiders felt like it had a consistent quality, Darksiders 2 seemed to dwindle down the further you got into the game, and as a huge fan of the first game this left me incredibly disappointed.

I definitely wouldn't say it is a bad game and I don't regret having played it, but I just feel like it doesn't hold up in comparison to the first. Basically where I'd rate the first Darksiders 9/10, I'd give Darksiders 2 a 7/10. Not bad or mediocre, but just "alright".




I hope, if there is ever a Darksiders 3, that they pick a genre and stick with it. Scale down the dungeons, scale down the padding and collectibles, make the combat more manageable and make me feel like I did something at the end of the game!

So, what are your thoughts on Darksiders 2 and what kind of game do you want Darksiders 3 to be?
 

Stevey

Member
I dunno. Darksiders 2 gets a lot of hate but I really enjoyed it, hopefully we'll get some more in the series. The only thing I didn't really like was the loot system.
 

Labadal

Member
I liked Darksiders 2 more than the first game. I do feel the game overstays its welcome, but the foundations are good. Fun boss fights, decent combat system and a world I liked to explore.
 

Fezan

Member
I dunno. Darksiders 2 gets a lot of hate but I really enjoyed it, hopefully we'll get some more in the series. The only thing I didn't really like was the loot system.
Yeah I didn't hated loot system but it did nothing for me. Enjoyed rest of the game . One thing that everyone was hyping was combat. It felt very basic
 

JordanN

Banned
I was on the verge of picking up this and the first Darksiders but I backed out at the last second.

I heard negative things about the keyboard controls (on PC) and I worried how much effect THQ going bankrupt affected the game.
 

Slixshot

Banned
Well said, OP. I read most of your post (it's a big one) and I agreed with everything you said. I loved Darksiders 1. It was like a dark comic book art style with zelda gameplay. Darksiders 2 was too big for its own good. Dragged on and on. Gameplay was quite good, but not 30 hours worth good. 10-15 wouldve been perfect.
 

Fred Fredriksson

Unconfirmed Member
Played the first one and lost interest after a few hours.

but this one is my favourite game 2012, by far...

loved everything about it, deaths animations, his voice, the atmosphere and the use of colour, the music

yeah, so i'm one of the few...
 

Sentenza

Member
Overall I think the game just didn't know what it wanted to be. It tries to be an rpg, a hack and slasher, a third person shooter, a cinematic adventure... so instead of having this solid, tight game like the first Darksiders with a few fleshed out gameplay elements it just ends up being a bit of a mess, with too much going on at the same time. Darksiders 1 started epic and ended epic, making me feel like I did something awesome and that more greatness was to come. Darksiders 2 started epic and left me feeling like I had accomplished absolutely nothing.

The game has some really good things going for it, and there are indeed certain dungeons, puzzles, combat sections, bosses and questlines that are awesome and fun to play, but when you put the whole thing together it just doesn't hold up.
I think you absolutely nailed the comparison between the two games here and I agree with you more or less on everything.
 
I played the first Darksiders from start to finish over the course of a few days - I really enjoyed the Zelda-ish nature of the game and world. I was pretty excited for Darksiders 2 as a result, but I just couldn't get into it. At first, I was very impressed with the world design and the music was great, but I'm not sure... I lost interest around 10 hours in. It didn't even really feel like I had gotten that far into the game, but I was ready for it to be over with.
 
I'd give it an 8/10 myself. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I picked it up with my Wii U along with a few other games and I was stuck on this one from beginning to end. I only hated the modern/futuristic city levels. Totally didn't mesh with the rest of the game at all. It was just go from Point A to Point B and kill the hoard when they attack every 5 minutes. I didn't like the shoehorned shooter mechanics during that sequence either. Might've scored higher if not for that segment.

Really hoping we get a third and fourth game so we get to play as all the horsemen.
 

velociraptor

Junior Member
I adored Darksiders 2. I felt it was a pretty good improvement over the first game. You had much more to do, a well crafted world and a vastly improved combat system. The game was a blast to play from start to finish, and Death was a good character.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
Darksiders 2 is a beautiful disappointment. I think the art direction, soundtrack and gameplay were fucking great. The first world looked amazing.

But then the game sort of stalls. The second world is less impressive but takes ages to cut through. The problem also becomes apparent to the player because you'll enter the next dungeon without having earned a new upgrade (= same puzzles and mechanics again). This could use a dungeon or 3 less.

There is another section that should've been cut in its entirety and the ending is one of the most disappointing in recent memory. The game basically added shit to the lore DS1 established.

Another thing that didn't sit well with me was the loot system. They tried to chase WoW or something but it didn't really work. All you needed were those upgradeable weapons.
 

Linkark07

Banned
Honestly, I liked it even more than the original game. Even though it has too many flaws, it was an enjoyable experience.

Besides, what helped me enjoy the ride was Death. Liked him more as a protagonist than War.
 
Oof. Your impressions pretty much line up with my own feelings about the first Darksiders, so that gives me further cause to worry. I enjoyed Darksiders for the most part, but the comparison to Zelda that others espoused never quite resonated with me, feeling the game to be more combat-oriented (which felt more like an inferior GoW than some of the other character action titles I adore) and dragging on for too long. It was a competent and solid title, don't get me wrong, but it was never left a lasting impression on me. I'll find out how DS2 stacks up one day.
 

Monocle

Member
Pros and cons:

+ Brilliant combat system
+ Exceptional soundtrack
+ Beautiful art design
+ Great gameplay variety. The traversal options and platforming are unexpectedly well tuned
+ Lots of replay value thanks to the new game plus mode, the arena, and weapon crafting

- Repetitive mission structure
- Big empty spaces (I enjoy the size of the environments, but there should be more to do.)
- Many audio glitches, some graphical and gameplay glitches
- That awful turret-focused Earth level

For me the game's combat and atmosphere outweigh its problems. The combat system is better than it has any right to be thanks to the combat designer Ben Cureton, and I absolutely adore the world of Darksiders 2. The gorgeous environments combined with the score transported me like the best open world games do. It's a wonderful feeling.
 
Really hoping we get a third and fourth game so we get to play as all the horsemen.

Yeah, the ending of Darksiders left me so incredibly hyped.

"No... Not Alone"

*Horsemen dive-bomb towards earth*

Just imagine playing as the four Horsemen with three of your friends, defending earth from the forces of Hell and Heaven, battling huge monsters on your flaming horses with your bad-ass weapons, the visual style of Darksiders 1 and 2 in 1080p/60fps on a next-gen engine...

It could be so incredibly amazing and work so well if they pulled it off right. If they could combine the strengths and fix the flaws of the first two games, I'd buy that stuff day one, so I really hope they manage to find some way to finance the game, because it will still require a large budget to be in the same league as the first two games...
 

sn00zer

Member
Loved both. here's my comparison

Darksiders 1 had an overall better story and more interesting characters

Darksiders 2 had much better combat, world, incredible boss battles, and general exploration, but the game looks like they were given the budget to make a large world, but werent given the tme to finish it, so later areas are more cramped

Neither games combat be truly appreciated unless you play on the highest difficulty...Normal is very button mashy and can get boring
 
I enjoyed both games quite a bit.

I thought the combat especially in Darksiders 2 was much better than the first game, although Wars power up form (Chaos form?) was IMO better than Deaths.

But I do agree that Darksiders 2 for some reason crossed this threshold further into the game where it began to feel a bit more like a chore. You feel like you are are just about finished only to find that there are huge sections left to complete; it kind of wears out it's welcome around 2/3 of the way through the game. Now that being said, the first 2/3 are very satisfying and consisted of 15+ hours, so it was still good. And I really enjoyed the soundtrack for the second as well, especially tracks like Corruption.

I've been meaning to do a replay the next time the DLC is on sale, as I've never tried it.

I do hope we will see a Darksiders 3, but I'm not really holding my breath to be honest. Even if it does happen IIRC Nordic said not to even think about it until 2015.
 

.la1n

Member
Combat was a lot more fun in Darksiders 2 but the dungeons felt like too much of a chore to get through compared to the first game. The "Zelda-lite" elements of the first game worked great in keeping the pace of the game but when they went full on frustrating puzzle every 5 minutes in the sequel they lost me.
 
I do hope we will see a Darksiders 3, but I'm not really holding my breath to be honest. Even if it does happen IIRC Nordic said not to even think about it until 2015.

Yeah it is going to be rough. The chances of us getting a full fledged Darksiders 3 is very small and even if that happens, it probably won't be as large in scale and content as the second one, that's just going to cost too much money.

For now I'm just hoping for a next-gen re-release of the first two. Both games with all the DLC in 1080p/60fps, perhaps with some graphical upgrades... could be an achievable project I think.
 

sono

Member
loved both, 2 more than 1.

In two some of the dungeons were harder.

The artwork, environments and music in two are spectacular.
 

Rolf NB

Member
The Forgelands part of DS2 felt really unpolished in a lot of ways, but it also housed most of the tutorial/training wheel necessities of the game, so cutting it entirely was probably not an option anymore. It's unfortunate. I really liked the later parts of the game, but it's true that you're already starting to feel a little burned out even starting the Land Of The Dead. Which is a bummer, because that world has amazeballs overworld / dungeon design and secrets throughout. If the game started there, it would have felt amazing, but then again, it already assumed some collected powers and lessons learned from before.

The final world and dungeon are totally fantastic as well.
 
The Forgelands part of DS2 felt really unpolished in a lot of ways, but it also housed most of the tutorial/training wheel necessities of the game, so cutting it entirely was probably not an option anymore. It's unfortunate. I really liked the later parts of the game, but it's true that you're already starting to feel a little burned out even starting the Land Of The Dead. Which is a bummer, because that world has amazeballs overworld / dungeon design and secrets throughout. If the game started there, it would have felt amazing, but then again, it already assumed some collected powers and lessons learned from before.

The final world and dungeon are totally fantastic as well.

The Boss in the level
(Samael)
was a glitchy piece of trash though. At some point you
run up to him as he seems knocked out
, and he then
grabs your hand and throws you back
. At that point he was supposed to
teleport onto the platform you are on to continue the fight,
but instead he would just
get stuck near his throne
. Took me like three tries to finally get him to not do that after the cutscene.
 
The fact they end the game by just retelling you how the first game ended is just about one of the laziest/lamest things I've ever seen in a game.
 
The fact they end the game by just retelling you how the first game ended is just about one of the laziest/lamest things I've ever seen in a game.

It's not just that, the whole ending just seemed pointless. First they go
"oh, oh, looks like Death is going to have to sacrifice himself"
, but then a minute later it's
"never mind, he's fine, just because"
. Like what is the point? What did I accomplish? I'm told that I
resurrected humanity
but I didn't actually get to see that, and I'm supposed to feel bad about
the death of the Nephilim
, which I never really got to see either. They ended two games in a row with "look at how awesome the sequel is going to be".
 
This game is so rushed. It gets gradually worse the more you play. The first world really is great; it has the most side-quests, the best atmosphere and the best boss. The final boss in world one beats all other bosses.

To those of you considering playing this game; imo ending at world one and pretending that's the end isn't a bad idea. It's the longest world too. Second world is okay too.
 
This game is so rushed. It gets gradually worse the more you play. The first world really is great; it has the most side-quests, the best atmosphere and the best boss. The final boss in world one beats all other bosses.

To those of you considering playing this game; imo ending at world one and pretending that's the end isn't a bad idea. It's the longest world too. Second world is okay too.

To be honest I'd be more inclined to advise people to take a break once in a while. The problem is that the good parts are just scattered throughout the game. For example, I really enjoyed
The Dark Fortress with the jumping-through-time mechanic, and Samael was a cool boss-fight (just as long as it doesn't bug out like it did with me)
, so it is worth it to see whole game in my opinion. Just take it one dungeon at a time and take regular breaks.
 
No block, lots of enemies, particle effects, combos...sounds like Darksiders 2 was trying to be DMC.

The only great thing I know about Darksiders 2 is the soundtrack by Jesper Kyd.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Worth a playthrough for Death's voice acting alone, super awesome. The music is stunning as well. Like, seriously amazing.

It's bizarre, I played up until the second world or something, I really enjoyed it but somehow never continued playing.
 

Mman235

Member
I don't normally say games should cut down their length (I think games should make their weaker parts better rather than just cutting them out), but Darksiders 2 really needed some restraint. If it had ended soon after the second world I would probably be praising it as one of the best games of the gen, but then it went on like 15 hours more and by the end I just wanted it to be over. 90% of the story being completely irrelevant fetch-quests didn't help.
 
I vastly prefer Darksiders 2 to its predecessor. Specifically in the combat; It felt more visceral and speedier. Seeing the damage numbers helped make each hit a little more tangible, giving each attack some more oomph, especially when you are scoring crits. The loot system, while interesting, was kinda annoying. If I recall correctly, I just tried to have health stealing properties in order to mitigate damage, allowing me to play more recklessly.
 
If I recall correctly, I just tried to have health stealing properties in order to mitigate damage, allowing me to play more recklessly.

Yeah this was pretty much the way I played as well. I went with mostly healing stats for my armor and mass critical damage and hit % on my possessed weapons. God I lid love swinging those huge weapons around. They felt powerful.
 

Sentenza

Member
Yeah, the first one was superior in basically every way.
Not in every way, but it was generally a better package as a whole.
It's also a bit baffling to me how some people keep pointing the wrong "issue" even when rightfully identifying some problem (i.e. "DS2 had too many dungeons and too many side quests". Uh, no? That's not the problem. The problem was that they were poorer in quality and pacing, especially compared to the highlights of the first).
The combat was arguably improved a lot in the sequel, too bad that part was a bit drowned in poor itemization (too many random stat weapons, too many way to break the balance, for instance), the loot-whoring pandering was awful (I love to get a fixed pre-established reward out of my achievements, I don't like to kill a massive boss or find a super-secret chest and learn that it contains just the same random crap that can drop anywhere else) and Death was a far more likable and better voiced character than War for me.
 

Paertan

Member
To much "do three things" but other than that I liked it. They could have shortened a bit and simplified it a bit but if was enjoyable enough. Darksider 1 was better. Still would be interested in more Darksiders. A 4 player coop please.
 

Feindflug

Member
The op describes quite well how I feel about the game, DS2 was a mess without focus at all.

Sure the combat was without doubt a big improvement but everything else was inferior IMO...the pacing was totally off, I didn't like the inclusion of loot, characters and story were dull and boring and while the world was bigger it felt empty and lifeless. Also the frame-rate and especially tearing were so distracting.

I never bothered finishing the game, overall it's the most disappointing sequel of last gen (along with Gears 2) IMO.
 
Loved 1, couldn't get into 2 at all. I agree on it being a mess of a game and having a plot that feels unimportant. I just couldn't find a reason to care about anything going on in 2.

I would hope if they made a third it would be more focused like the first was. I also want to see Fury as the lead.
 
I'm at the end of Darksiders 2. I'm gonna miss this game. I loved it! I want more! My favorite IP of last gen along with Mass Effect.

Also, I gotta give props to the designers for the
part that is set on Earth. The gameplay gives you a nice break from puzzle solving and goes straight hack and slash and explore with some decent set pieces. On top of that, there's the option to play it as a TPS if you wanna use the guns given to you throughout the Earth area.

I actually wish there was more. Please, please give us Darksiders 3 if the devs manage to see this thread.

As for Darksiders 3, I think I'd be interesting to see where they go with it. I'm thinking Strife would certain change up the gameplay as he's apparently more of a gunman. Could they pull of a TPS with the same kind of exploration elements of the previous games? Also, I imagine Strife's Transformation will be mechanical, like some kind of giant heavily weaponized mech or robot.
 
I loved both games for different reasons. If I had a gun pointed to my head, I'd probably say I enjoyed the original a little bit more, but the improved combat and traversal and the pull of loot was pretty awesome in DS2.

The Darksiders games were the best Zelda games released last generation.
 
Okay, I made myself laugh.

I was just fighting one of the tree bosses in the Crucible a few minutes ago. It was doing some damage to me. So what do I do? I yell out "Fuck you, Groot!"

Anyways, I obtained the
Abyssal Boots
but I am disappoint they aren't as good as I thought. I read that these were the best
boots
you can acquire in the game but nope, that's not the case it seems.

Also, for anyone who has started playing or thinking about playing, some friendly advice. Possessed Weapons are the bomb! Even all the difficult to obtain Legendary Weapons have nothing on the Possessed Weapons from my experience. Also, for Secondary Weapons, I find it's best to use any of the 'fast' one's like the Claws or Gauntlets. I use these more than my Primary Weapons. The fight with
Samael
was so easy it was not even funny. I actually expected the fight to be hard but Possessed Weapons ftw!

Man, I love this game so much! It's the next best Legacy of Kain imho.
 
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