Darksiders Review

I knew little of Darksiders before it was released and I was glad to have played it because it turned out a real pleasant surprise. This isn't a game of ingenuity. Rather the developers took some key concepts from games of different genres and cram it all into a single game. And they aren't especially subtle about it either. If you've played a lot of games, you'll easily see where this game gets each gameplay mechanic available.

The core formula is like the Zelda series to the letter but the combat is a copy of God of War. There's a whole flight sequence that might have as well been ripped from Panzer Dragon, a boss fight which I think I already had in Shadow of the Colossus, and even portal puzzles the likes of which you'll find in Portal.

The Horseman cometh!

Despite the heavy lifting, Darksiders has a tone and feel of its own. You play in a post-apocalyptic earth, now inhabited by the armies of heaven and hell, and both sides are out to get you. The visuals are really sharp, and for what is to be a destroyed earth, the environment looks spectacular. The worlds is separated to a few different areas connected by a hub location. I especially liked how vastly different of the areas looked. Much like Zelda, as you get further into your journey, you'll acquire new equipments to get you to places you couldn't get to before. Another interesting aspect of the graphics is just meticulously detailed the creature designs are. The demon Samael, for instance, has got to be the most good looking demonic creature depicted in a video game.

I couldn't get a good picture of Samael, so here's Tiamat instead

The story is another aspect that sets this game apart, without giving away too much, you're the horseman of the apocalypse, War, and you're out to set the situation right. The story starts out strong, but you'll be given almost no further exposition until very late in the game. Even so, I still think the ending was pretty satisfying. The voice is pretty good as well, although the only character whose voice I think did not do justice was War himself.

You'd think the result of all this mish mash might be junk, but Darksiders suprisingly manages to blend together all these mechanics really well, which results in a game quite unlike anything available currently available for the 360 and PS3. However, being a copy, it doesn't go to the full extent of the games it bases its design on. On a gameplay perspective, Darksiders is the dictionary definition of a jack of all trades, a pretty good one at that.