Game Review: Darksiders

Written by Austin Ashby Thursday, 21 January 2010 15:25

Darksiders is by no mean original. The game draws from a lot of other well-known games like Zelda and God of War. However, Darksiders shows respect to each game that it draws from. Even though Darksiders draws from a lot of sources, it maintains one important item, its soul. After finishing the game, which will take around 15 hours, the only thing you will think about is hoping that Darksiders receives a sequel.

Game Details		Loading Reality Scoring

Format	Xbox 360 (all Xbox 360 reviews)	Score Meaning: Very good. Most gamers, regardless of genre preference, will be able to look past small issues and enjoy the numerous positive qualities. If a "final score," the game is probably worth owning.
Publisher	THQ
Developer	Vigil Games
Category	Action/Adventure	Presentation
ESRB	M	Gameplay
Online Players	0	Graphics
Offline Players	1	Sound
Price	59.99	Value Factor
Release Date	January 5, 2010	Final Score

The Best Fake Zelda on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Everyone in his or her life has met someone whose personality slowly changed into another type of persona. For example, a person could be a gentle, loving individual at first sight, but knowing them a bit longer may reveal this person loves to throw puppies into a blender and drink their remains. In a way, this is Darksiders, but instead of grinding puppies, it brews loveliness.

In the first couple of hours, Darksiders seems to be a pure God of War clone. If this was the case, then it would have been a decent game. Yet, something happened while playing Darksiders; its true colors were revealed. The colors it showed were unexpected that it was a darker, yet brilliant recreation of the Legend of Zelda's mechanics.

darksiders-360-screen-warlock-horse

The outcome of Epona joining the dark side.

The premise of the plot in Darksiders is that Heaven and Hell began the apocalypse on Earth a tad earlier than expected, and War, one of the four horsemen, is summoned to earth to face the two realms. Certain things transpire that force War to go back to the neutral party that controls a balance between Heaven and Hell, The Council. Then, War is sent back to earth to remedy the problems with his own personal “Navi” known as The Watcher.

The plot seems to muddle around in the mud for a while after introducing the characters. The story had potential to do something grand, and until the end, the story never jets off to reach that potential. Even so, the plot isn’t bad (it works); it simply never reached the point where I had to know what would happen next.

darksiders-360-screen-impale

I would not want to be on the receiving end of that attack.

The combat in Darksiders relies heavily on the Devil May Cry or God of War franchise. For the first couple of hours, the game seems like a button-mash marathon; thankfully, that problem slowly resolves itself over the course of the game. However, there is a problem with the combat, the ability to dodge enemies effectively. There are several reasons that dodging is a sloppy: One reason is blocking is assigned to the dodge button and dodging doesn’t feel smooth or responsive in comparison to the latest action-adventure game Bayonetta. Even with its flaw, the combat is fleshed out with variety of abilities to acquire, which these skills will slowly make you feel like a bad-ass.

Enough about the combat, it’s time to explain how this game is similar to the Legend of Zelda's franchise. The list that could be compiled comparing the similarities between Zelda and Darksiders would be a big list. To name a few examples right off the bat: the items are extremely similar (i.e. the horse, boomerang and hookshot), a dungeon that holds a new item being the main (and usually only) focus for the dungeon and countless numbers of puzzles. Some of the puzzles are simply amazing (and challenging). One of my favorite puzzles involved transferring beams using a gun that made portals (another inspiration Darksiders draws from is Portal). In total, there are five dungeons each having their own little spices to them. The Zelda formula is used in a way that is unique to Darksiders and makes it more than a pure clone.

It doesn't matter to War if he's kicking a demon or an angel ass.

Darksiders has some solid visual. The art direction is terrifically done, which is no surprise because of Joe Maduriea, renowned comic book artist/writer, is the creative director. The killing animation helps enforced the art direction that was chosen. Darksiders feels like a game that could be translated into a comic series purely based on its art style. Several other highlights are the well-done score and the strong voice acting. Mark Hamill brings his character to life and delivers a strong performance of his character, The Watcher.

The game has a few flaws worth noting. Before playing through the game, I never truly grasped what was the big deal about screen tearing (this review is based on the Xbox version). The understanding of screen tearing quickly came as the tearings are atrocious in this game (the bright side is a patch is being made to fix this problem). Then, one part of the game that was very unnecessary was backtracking through the overworld to gather items needed for the final confrontation.

Darksiders is a very solid game that had little hype to it. The game was badly marketed that made the game look like a generic God of War clone. However, anyone who gives the game a chance will find out how much more the game truly is; Darksiders takes an aging formula (ie. Legend of Zelda) and gave it a fresh breath of air.

4 / 5