Standing accused and betrayed, as the first horsemen of the apocalypse meet the wrath of War as he fulfils his vengeance
Contains: Strong Bloody Violence, Threat and Dark Fantasy
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Darksiders is a third-person fantasy action adventure game that takes inspiration from the apocalypse and lets you take control of War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
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STORY - 3/5
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To preserve the balance between Heaven and Hell, a mediator group, The Charred Council, sends the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, to intervene and force a truce between the two kingdoms after countless centuries of war. Eons after the truce, The Council foresees that Man will be a major factor in the final apocalyptic battle; this would be marked by the breaking of the Seventh Seal. In the present day, armies of angels and demons fall to Earth where the final battle begins while humans are eradicated. War is summoned to bring order to the unfolding chaos, but discovers from the general of Heaven's army that the other Horsemen haven't arrived and that the Seventh Seal is in fact intact. After being defeated by a gigantic demon, War is then saved from death and sent to the Charred Council who accuse him of bringing the apocalypse upon the world prematurely. Stripped of his powers, War is sentenced to death despite his furious defence that he has been betrayed and won't be held accountable for the Endwar. In his final defence, War demands a chance to find the one responsible for summoning him prematurely and to restore balance. The Council agrees, on the condition he is bound to one of their keepers, The Watcher, who has the power to kill War in the event that he strays from his mission.
Upon returning to Earth, War discovers it has been a century since the demon lord called "The Destroyer" led the forces of Hell to victory and annihilated the armies of Heaven, except for a meagre resistance led by the a mighty angel. All of humanity has either died or become zombies, and the Earth is in ruins. Allying with the conniving demon merchant, Vulgrim, War learns the Black Tower is The Destroyer's lair and is advised to seek out Samael, a once powerful demon lord, for assistance in getting into the Tower. And so War's battle against both angels and demons begins, and his vengeance will be his salvation as he creates his own war.
Although absurd, it's a cool tale that is fun to follow, filled with vengeance and corruption all within a dark fantasy universe involving angelic beings, demonic monsters and the legendary horseman War himself who's at the heart of the revenge-orientated plot, unleashing his wrath on those responsible for the leash around his neck; making them pay in blood.
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CHARACTERS - 3/5
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War's rage wasn't generated due to being suspected of the game's early story event, but for being outrightly accused. It is for this reason he is a presence to be feared, as now all hell will (literally) break loose. War is a powerful warrior with a strong sense of honour who will stop at nothing to gain revenge for being betrayed, battling any obstacle that stands before him. He's also a very determined Horsemen who only negotiates when other options are exempt, quite happy to use his two-handed "Chaoseater" Sword to exact his desires rather than words. Throughout the story, War is bound to and accompanied by The Watcher (voiced by Mark Hamill), a warden sent by the Charred Council to watch over and guide War on his journey. Because of his assigned role, he is actually skeptical and cynical towards War's actions, much to War's anger. He relishes in his duty and enjoys needling War and bossing him about simply because he can. Some characters are central to the story and become recurring at times, such as Samael: a once powerful and feared demon who is now imprisoned with a personal hatred against The Destroyer, and Vulgrim: a demon merchant who provides gear and abilities for War in exchange for human souls.
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GAMEPLAY - 4/5
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Having been sent to Earth bearing a massive weight on him for something he didn't do, War's rage is understandable and will result in great punishment for the armies of enemies that try to prevent his progress. With his sharp blade, brutality is something Darksiders assures frequently throughout, and the two-handed Chaoseater dishes out plenty of violence and results in gallons of demon blood spilling out onto the surface of the apocalyptic world you find yourself traversing. Swinging your blade feels satisfying in War's tight grasp, and upon inflicting sufficient damage, an enemy will be weakened enough to allow for a finisher (a prompt will appear above the enemy). The execution depends on the enemy type, but it's always a gory spectacle that involves limb dismemberment or tearing them in half in some ferocious act of pure strength and anger. There are many combo moves to unlock for this heavy melee weapon from the demon merchant Vulgrim, and you'll come to learn fairly quickly about souls. Souls manifest in 3 forms: Currency, health and wrath. Blue souls are used to purchase abilities, upgrades, and combat moves, and are attained from killing enemies and occasional environmental objects that are interactable. Green souls are for health, corresponding with the same colour as your health bar, and yellow souls are for wrath powers (shown in a separate yellow bar split into segments under your health), which are devastating magic-based attacks that cause serious damage or ultimate defence for a limited time (new wrath moves are purchasable from Vulgrim if available). Through exploration, you'll soon realise all of these different, beneficial souls can be acquired from opening chests that are placed about the semi-open world, and health and wrath can be upgraded by finding a specific amount of fragments concealed within specially hidden chests that are more difficult to find, but well worth the effort. Artefacts are also rare collectibles that can be exchanged for souls, with bonuses provided for completing a set.
Enemies get tougher as your combat prowess sees advancements, your physical body is upgraded and your arsenal of abilities grows larger, so the game never gets easy or repetitive before a stronger enemy or powerful new item is introduced for various uses. The world that is free to explore can also be traversed at your leisure once you've unlocked an area or acquired a certain weapon or item to do so. It is for this reason you'll notice hidden chests that are impossible to reach early on, but through story progression can be reached later, and so backtracking is a major part of the game, but not a negative one. Vulgrim locations unlock Serpent holes which allow you to reach a discovered location more quickly, allowing you to travel around and do what you want. However, linear progression is still a big part of the game, and while levels allow for exploration, they aren't larger enough to be described as open world, thus funnelling you towards objectives if you wish to see your next reward. One of Darksiders most credible points is how it rewards you. You are constantly encouraged to continue due to the great way the game provides new abilities fairly frequently, and searching carefully rewards you even more, sometimes to the extent that you gain special abilities. Apart from the Chaoseater, you'll quickly snatch up a Scythe, one of the secondary weapons that can be integrated into combos along with your big sword seamlessly. In scattered chests you may come across rare enchantments which, when assigned to a specific weapon, allow you to reap the rewards it allows. They can vary from the common traits such as: deal extra damage, or give more experience; to special enhancements like: siphon off health, reap extra souls from inflicted damage, and even alter the appearance of the weapon in a very cool way. It's these kind of things that make Darksiders worth playing all the way through, since you never know what you may find enclosed in a chest, or given as a reward next.
Story-related abilities that you get at necessary points in the story will have uses within and outside the realm of brutal combat, and prime examples of this include projectile weapons like the Crossblade, which is a lethal boomerang that delightfully bleeds enemies when tossed at them, but also has its uses to get past environmental obstructions where your sword can't solve the problem; Mercy: a high calibre revolver that fires unlimited supernatural rounds; and a Chronomancer that briefly slows down time when hitting the required switch nearby. Another special attack is the ability to temporarily transform into War's Chaos Form which makes him large, resistant to damage and cause heavy damage with each strike. This form is unlocked after sufficient progress in the game is made, and can be activated once War's Chaos meter is completely filled by combating against enemies.
War isn't just a powerhouse in combat, but proves he is as wise as he is powerful, having to solve mind-bending puzzles, and navigate endlessly deep chasms through some precarious platforming. Most of the puzzles during the course of the game are satisfying, challenging your mind to logically work out the solution to the obstruction before you, and the platforming is largely problem free. However, near the end of War's catastrophic revenge streak, the game goes too far, and implements a level that revolves solely around problem solving and painfully tedious puzzles that threaten the fun factor and your patience, inevitably crossing the lines slightly in both the aforementioned territories. You have to give the puzzles credit for the challenge and amount of thought-provoking they exhibit, but overall this portion of the game is slow and frustrating, and drifts too far away from the brutality of the hack and slash action you feel comfortable engaging in. The puzzles within crop up in the form of inspired gameplay from Portal 2, in which you form portals to get past goal-blocking obstacles, but in this case with a bit of macho action intermittently placed to keep you awake and to aid with moving important objects around. But the attempts at trying to console you only pauses the annoyance, not drain it away, leaving a bitter taste on the experience as the pace is dragged down to a crawl, and your reflection of the game altered in the opposite direction to which it was heading up to that point. Rather than feeling satisfaction upon completing the environmental-based puzzle, you'll feel only relief.
War eventually encounters large boss opponents that are both giant in size and deal heavy damage, and are themselves puzzle-based battles requiring certain methods and weapons to defeat, and in some cases quick time button events to dodge or deal attacks. The boss battles are touch and go though, since some of the boss fights are enjoyable, whilst some are unclear on how to beat them, forcing some trial-and-error before you eventually understand what you must do. Darksiders has many comparisons to other games in the hack and slash action adventure genre, but still veers away from blatant copying to make a game that is uproariously fun in its own right. The gameplay is solid and enjoyable, which isn't without its annoyances, but the blood factor outweighs the lows of this dark fantasy adventure, and the rewards ensure you keep playing until the last act of vengeance.
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GRAPHICS - 2/5
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Darksiders is set in the ruins of a once densely populated Planet Earth, but now the only inhabitants are the demon spawn from the fiery pit below, and the angelic beings from high above the clouds. There are some nice locations that you travel to, and they link together well. From the dusty Ashland's that are patrolled by gigantic worms which slither through the sandy dunes awaiting trudging footsteps to set them on alert, to the Iron Canopy that is smothered in cobwebs and a fortified lair to the monstrous spider queen littered with her arachnid spawn, each area is different and contains related enemies, puzzles and imagery to convey that place you look at. Unfortunately the graphics are nothing special, and while the artwork can be catchy on the eye, from a visual perspective, it's a game in need of polish. Movement isn't completely fluid, the framerate is a bit rough in certain areas, and the first impression of the graphics isn't positive. You'll get used to the visuals, but it isn't a stunning game and proves itself a little rough around the edges for those who go inspecting.
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SOUND - 4/5
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The dark and thematic music suitably ties in to the general theme of the story, arcing between hellish undertones and high angelic notes that greatly resemble the setting and apocalyptic feel, giving an atmospheric sense to the soundtrack. The voice acting dutifully delivers the script and War is voiced convincingly, while Mark Hamill is noticeable as The Watcher as he puts on a voice very similar to that of The Joker from the Batman series. Great sound effects enforce each action, such as the clashing of swords and the grisly limb dismemberment, and the bloody noises are music to your ears as you shed demon blood and collect the expelled souls from the corpses.
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CONTROLS - 3/5
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The control scheme is a minor flaw due to it's complexity. Most of the assigned buttons work well and correspond naturally like in any hack and slash action adventure, but some seem overly complicated and don't feel comfortable to get used to. Slight unresponsiveness should also be expected, primarily when attempting to block, since after you've attacked, there is a noticeable delay which may require you to press the L1 again in order for it to take effect. And since you may be outnumbered and rapidly losing health, you'll be annoyed when you have to repeat a button press in order to avoid further blood loss which could spell danger to failure.
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ENEMY AI - 3/5
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The varying amount of enemy types shifts you to and from offensive and defensive, forcing you to dodge, counter and attack in order to defeat them, especially the larger foes. The simple demons can be harvested with little effort, but the lesser hell spawn are nothing like the bigger beasts. The bigger monsters take more hits, deal incredible amounts of damage and require skill with timing to conquer successfully. Blocking becomes essential for their light attacks, and evading is crucial in order to avoid the hard, vicious strikes that are lethal when put into a deadly combo. They aren't intelligent, and are generally just anxious to see you dead, but they do contain some attack and defence skills that implore you to be wary when fighting them, it's just a bit disappointing that their move set is fairly limited and their attack patterns quite repetitive.
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LENGTH - 5/5
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Darksiders is a long and satisfying single player game that will definitely take you over the 15 hour mark, and depending on how in-depth your exploring is, and your skill at overcoming challenging puzzles, you could be playing this dark fantasy adventure for up to 20 hours.
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REPLAY VALUE - 3/5
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A necessity for any game is to keep you engaged the entire time you are playing it, and Darksiders accomplishes that feat remarkably well. By rewarding you constantly with neat items or special enhancements (the best ones have to be earned by exploring) the further you journey on War's wrath, you can guarantee that every minute is well invested not only to gorge your bloodlust, but to gain new abilities and unique modifications for going that extra mile. It's for this reason that Darksiders becomes a game worth keeping, because a second playthrough may see you encountering different enhancements than a previous playthrough did, and maybe consider gaining more experience for your other trademark cutting weapon and battering gauntlet, thus granting a wider selection of attack upgrades.
The fictional story and revenge-orientated script are fun to follow if you can look past the implausible premise, which includes both angels and demons within a dark fantasy setting based on an apocalyptic Earth, and the campaign runs to a very good length that rewards you as you progress. The core of the gameplay is the tough and brutal combat, which is only letdown by unwelcome and annoying environmental puzzles, some very minor control issues and average graphics. Overall Darksiders is a great adventure that sees you take command of War, the first horsemen of the apocalypse, and is a dark game that only ends once his vengeance is complete.
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OVERALL SUMMARY - 8/10
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Good Points: Dark fantasy-themed story that involves angels and demons is fun to follow, Hack and slash combat is brutal, Plenty of worthwhile items and hidden collectibles to find in a large apocalyptic world, Long single player campaign that constantly rewards you as you progress, Suitably dark and thematic music undertones.
Bad Points: Some slow and frustrating puzzle sequences aren't welcome, Graphics are nothing special.