The original Darksiders was one of the most unique titles released in 2010. It brought gamers a new take on tired Apocalypse cliches by spinning a unique tale on top of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse story. The first title featured War on a quest to clear his name, while the sequel features Death trying to clear War’s name.

THQ released a new trailer/developer diary today that explores the character of Death in Darksiders II. All we knew so far was that he was a Casey Jones look-a-like exploring the world around the same time as War’s story was happening. This new trailer gives us a bit more background on what’s actually happening.

Many gamers were frustrated when the sequel was going to be taking place alongside the first game since the first game teased that all four horsemen would come together in the sequel. It appears that Death was around the entire time as he was trying to clear War’s name since the blame of the apocalypse was placed on his brother’s shoulders.

It also appears that Death and War won’t be meeting up during Darksiders II. Death’s story takes place during the 100 years that War was held captive before he was set free on the earth for the events of the first game.

Unfortunately, the trailer focuses mostly on the story, and not enough on the gameplay. We do get to see brief glimpses of new characters, gameplay and environments that we haven’t seen before. The big change appears to be in the form of the environments with the addition of snowy mountains. That’s a great change from Darksiders which had rather bland environments.

Check out the trailer below to get all the details on what’s shaping up to be one of the best games to be released this year. I was a little disappointed by The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, so Darksiders II is the next Zelda-like game that I hope gets the formula right.

Darksiders II will launch on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in August. A Wii U version is planned for later this year.