War. He speaks softly but carries a BIG SCYTHE.

One of the main things I like about Darksiders was how it really surprised me.  Surprised me by how good it was in a below the radar dark horse (pardon the pun) sort of way.  I feel this game stands up well against your triple-A high profile titles like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta.  That being said, this game is not simply a brawler.  It is a true adventure game in the style of the popular Zelda series.  Having read and heard a few reviews of the game while deciding if I should buy it or not, I heard the Zelda comparison often.  But the similarities are obvious and in-your-face – from the grappling hook, to the horse, to the boomerang.  All the other aspects are there as well – puzzle solving, exploration, collecting health boosts (not hearts :p ), and of course the combat.  I’m not a Zelda expert, but I do enjoy the series, most recently having played through Twilight Princess on the Wii.

In Darksiders, you play as one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, War.  The game starts off with War coming to Earth believing that the apocalypse is at hand, ready to crack some skulls.  He finds it odd that his three horsemen brethren aren’t there with him, and soon learns that he was duped into believing that the seventh seal was broken and that in fact there is no apocalypse.  Don’t tell that to the humans though, because they’re wiped out in the aftermath of the fighting between the demons and angels.  War gets called before the Charred Council, who the Horsemen work for to keep the peace.  War takes the heat for the screw-up but convinces the council to let him go back to Earth to clear his name.  The council reluctantly agrees, with limitations.  War must be followed by “The Watcher”, a demon who keeps a tight leash on War, making sure that he keeps the council’s best interests at heart.  The Watcher is voiced by Mark “The Joker” Hamill, who does a pretty good job with it.  Also, most of War’s powers and weapons/skills are stripped from him – which of course you regain as you play though the story.  So War goes back to Earth – and thus ends the first 15 minutes of the game.

The rest of the game proceeds similar to your standard Zelda game – go to dungeon, solve various puzzles, beat dungeon boss, collect object, get rewarded with item/skill that allows you to beat the next dungeon – rinse/repeat.  The game does vary a bit with some arena style battles- kill x number of enemies using this skill, etc.  Also, there is an in game economy – the currency being souls – which you can trade with a demon merchant for skill combos and powerups.

The combat is fun – not too difficult (I played on the medium difficulty).  You can get technical by using certain combos in order to keep enemies at bay, or you can get by with simple button mashing with the occasional dodge thrown in.  There is good variety in the combat as well, with three different primary weapons combining with a handful of secondary weapons.  The three main weapons – sword, scythe, and a gauntlet/fist weapon – each have a powerup slot that you can use to boost the weapons damage, soul collecting ability, etc.  The enemy variety is good, fighting angels (who think you started this whole mess) and all manners of demons.  The boss battles are fun and varied – one on horseback with your hand gun, Western style for example.

Graphically the game is good, the 360 version had obvious screen tearing and frame rate issues, but they seem to be fixed with the recent patch, and weren’t game breaking.  No complaints.  The voiceover work was another pleasant surprise, I enjoyed listening to War’s dialogues with the various characters he came across in the game.

The final boss battle was a bit on the easy side, maybe because I had the pimped out armor and legendary weapon mods, but it set up for a nice sequel if one gets made.  I surely hope it does.

All in all, I put about 20 hours into this game, spilled thousands of gallons of demon blood (it keeps track, there’s an achievement at 3000 gallons) and enjoyed every minute of it.  If you’re into the Zelda style adventure games with a twist, you can’t go wrong with Darksiders.  I’d recommend it to anybody.

Tags: Reviews