Darksiders

When Darksiders was announced I wasn't too sure what to think.  The concept, a pre-empted apocalypse putting you in the shoes of one of the four horseman of the apocalypse, sounded awesome.  With Darksiders being Vigil Games first game I did at first have some doubts.  Though the more I saw the more hope I had.  Then again it was hard to tell exactly what kind of game Darksiders was going to be.  While many jumped on the "god of war clone" bandwagon it seems, they were wrong...

 

The first hour or two of Darksiders plays out like a mediocre knock off of a bad god of war clone.  The combat isn't very deep and mainly consists of mashing on the square button.  However once you get to a certain point in the game (as mentioned before around 1-2 hours in) suddenly things change and Darksiders goes from just another game to yet another AAA title in Q1 of 2010. 

 

Story:

 

Darksiders begins with the end of the world.  The camera pans around with meteors falling from the sky and destroying an unnamed city.  Suddenly "War" one of the four horseman of the apocalypse arrives prepared to "answer the call".  The only problem is, the seventh seal hasn't been broken yet and none of the other horseman are there.  After a bit of a tutorial session War faces the Counsel and is blamed for starting the end of the world too early.  In order to clear his name he'll have to make things right.

 

The game then sends you on a journey of revenge against those who betrayed him and with a fair share of twists and turns the story carries itself quite well.  There's a decent amount of cliche to be had here but it's done well and gives you a great ending/tease that'll surely have you pumped for a sequel.

 

Gameplay:

 

Darksiders is derivative of a multitude of different games from Zelda to Portal.  The features don't however feel like they were ripped off from these games but Darksiders is able to make them it's own and (in the word of Penny Arcade) makes it more like an "homage".  Darksiders sends you through different dungeons and cathedrals and even a large open desert solving puzzles and fighting off hordes of demons and angels. 

 

At the start out there isn't much to it.  You'll have a few combos and a couple little tools you can use to solve different puzzles.  You'll eventually run into a Demon salesman who, for a price of some souls, will sell you a scythe and some new abilities.  After unlocking some new abilities suddenly the combat becomes much deeper.  Eventually I found myself stringing together long and crazy combos and having a blast.  By the end of the game I had fallen in love with the battle system.  It had it's slow start and from the offset and did get repetitive but it grows quickly.

 

The puzzle solving, once it begins, starts out great and just keeps getting better and better.  There are a lot of games that have puzzles that are either too easy or too hard.  Darksiders hits them just right with puzzles that make you think but are never frustratingly difficult.  There will be moments where you might get stumped but I found that solving each puzzle was greatly rewarding.  The puzzles only get better and eventually the final set of puzzles are crafted perfectly and leave you on an amazing note.

 

Boss fights will have you using your different tools in order to take down each large beast and with the exception of the last fight (which was a little on the easy side) all of them offer up a decent challenge.  This of course brings up possibly my one gripe with Darksiders.  The game's a bit easy.  There are a few moments where you may have some trouble but I rarely felt challenged.  

 

Graphics:

 

Joe Madureira, comic book writer, is behind the art of Darksiders.  His style has transferred quite well into video game form and while the graphics may not be the best the style will most definitely grow on you.  Something that stuck out at me the most was just how much variety there was.  Darksiders is not just some black brown and grey game.  You'll go through a few different locations with all different types of colors.  There were quite a few locations that served as a nice change of pace from the constant brown and greys we've become used to.

 

Overall:

 

Darksiders has a slow start but once it gets started it doesn't stop.  It's got great pacing and the story carries itself well.  There's a decent amount of unlockables and the game clocks in at about 14 hours.  While the game may be a little easy and the graphics not up to what we saw at the end of last year with some other top tier games they can hold their own pretty well.  Darksiders is one of the first games of this year that I'd be willing to label as a must purchase for anyone that is the least bit interested.