I bought this game on release, played it for a day, then went back to yelling at woodland animals in Skyrim. I was hopping that Yahtzee would have mentioned that on top of Zelda and God of War, Darksiders II is stealing the climbing mechanics from Prince of Persia 2008, of all things.
Overall, I'm beginning to think that a dark and gritty tone just doesn't work in a game that aspires to be like Zelda. In Legend of Zelda, (and Okami, the only game I know of that manages to be similar to Zelda without committing plaigarism), the protagonists convey the sense that they are ultimately Good Samaritans, and so aren't going to be put off by jumping through hoops to accomplish side stuff only tangentally related to their ultimate goal. It might not be realistic, but for a fantasy story it works fine. With an antihero like Death, every time he wonders out loud why he has to do a bunch of arbitrary stuff to get on with the plot, the player starts to wonder the very same thing.