Review: Darksiders
Game: Darksiders
Format: XBox 360
Developer: Vigil Games
Publisher: THQ
As an avid comic book reader, the name Joe Madureira (or Joe Mad as he likes to be called) is a familiar one. Rising to prominence in the mid 1990s as the artist on Uncanny X-Men, Joe Mad built up enough of a following to branch off on his own and create his own book called Battle Chasers.
With a clear influence from Japanese artists, and a fondness for hulking bodies with improbably large swords, Battle Chasers was a top selling book until Joe Mad decided to quit comics and work on another great love of his life, video games. After a number of false starts, Joe Mad’s first game as creative director, Darksiders, has arrived. But is it any good? Read on to find out…
Darksiders puts you in the role of War, one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who is summoned to earth to adjudicate the battle between heaven and hell. The problem is that when War arrives he finds that he is alone, and the ongoing battle should not be happening quite yet. War is quickly accused of being in cahoots with whoever is behind the premature battle, and in order to clear his name he must find and punish those responsible. Simple enough, right?
War wasn't impressed with the demon's morning breath
After the opening, in which War has most of his powers, you are stripped of all of your abilities and must traverse what is left of the planet earth on your quest. At first the combat seems a bit simplistic, the only attack you have is a sword slash which is executed with a press of the X button. As you continue your adventure you eventually unlock more weapons and a number of magical abilities to use in combat. While switching between weapons and spells is not exactly a smooth experience, overall there are plenty of options to choose from in combat.
As well as the magic spells (wrath abilities) there are a number of passive abilities to discover, such as increased damage resistance, that can be switched around as you see fit. New special moves and upgrades to your wrath abilities can be purchased using the in-game currency of souls from Vulgrim, the merchant, who also acts as a fast travel point, enabling you to quickly travel between merchant stores in the different regions you discover.
Vulgrim acts as a merchant and as a fast travel system
In terms of gameplay, Darksiders takes a lot of influence from Nintendo’s more recent Zelda games; you start the game with very few abilities at your disposal, unlock new abilities and equipment in order to overcome puzzles and advance further through the large open world. New abilities continue to be unlocked pretty much until the final boss fight, so you rarely have the opportunity to simply bask in your own amazing abilities.
A number of the items will be very familiar to most gamers. For instance, a boomerang like razor blade used to hit switches that are out of reach seems to have been ripped straight from the aforementioned Zelda series, and the gun that fires two portals, one orange and the other blue, allowing you cross impassable gaps, is clearly a nod to Portal. While they are very familiar, and some may go as far to call it plagiarism, the puzzles that are solved using these familiar items are well designed.
Combat starts out fairly simplistic but quickly becomes more advanced.
A number of critics have slated the game for being too derivative, and made a number of comparisons to Sony’s God of War series. While on a superficial level Darksiders does resemble God of War, it actually draws it’s influences from a far wider variety of games, ranging from Zelda and Portal to Sega’s Panza Dragoon. It is an eclectic mix of influences, but in the end they all mesh together pretty well to form a satisfying experience.
War's enemies stand little chance against him
One area in particular where this game shines is in the boss fights. As you are playing the physical embodiment of War itself you would be forgiven for expecting your opponents to be a complete pushover. While the majority of enemies are fairly easy to defeat, the bosses are almost perfect in terms of challenge. The majority of bosses are gigantic screen filling enemies that require the use of all of your abilities and cunning. The only real criticism that could probably be laid at the boss design’s feet is that on occasion it can be a little unclear what it is that you have to do at first.
The bosses in this game are particularly good.
Level design itself is fairly decent, with a large open world to explore with numerous regions to explore. Each region is visually distinctive and filled with a number of secret items such as runes that will increase your health bar size and the size of your magic metre and passive abilities. There are also pieces of the Apocalyptic Armour to be found which, once completed, dramatically improves your abilities. While there are very few complaints about the overall level design, on occasion, some of the puzzles seem a bit overlong. The portal referenced section of the game in particular could probably have done with being about two thirds as long as it actually was.
One weaker area of the game is the story and voice acting. At first the story comes across as being a bit limp, as if it were written by a 14 year old boy trying to cram in as much cool stuff in as possible. However, towards the latter half of the game the story dramatically improves. The voice acting for War is a little generic, and Mark Hamill’s performance as The Watcher in particular is a bit of a let down considering the fantastic job he did in last year’s Batman Arkham Asylum. The Watcher is constantly at War’s side, providing hints as to what he should be doing within each level. For the most part his performance comes down to growling his lines and making threats towards you should you fail your mission.
Review Round-Up
Graphics: 4/5 The visual style of this game is very striking; characters have massive bodies and even larger weapons. Level design starts off being a little dark and muted at first, but as the game progresses the colour palette becomes more varied. The design of War himself is pretty cool, although his outfit does look a little like he is the sole survivor of an exploding Oxfam.
Sound: 3/5 While the music is suitibly dramatic and grand, some of the voice acting is a little uneven. Liam O’Brien’s performance as War is a little bland, and Mark Hamill’s performance as The Watcher is also disappointing when compared to his previous voice over work.
Gameplay: 4/5 An eclectic mix of hack slash adventure game, puzzle solving and even a short Panza Dragoon style flight section. Taking it’s biggest influence from Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series, this game comes together pretty well with the only minor complaint being that some sections of the game are perhaps a little too long.
Longevity: 3/5 While there is no multiplayer aspect in this game, the single player game should be more than enough for most people as it clocks in at a good 15 to 20 hours long. That’s without taking the time to hunt for hidden items.Overall: 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse out of 5. While some may deride the game for being too derivative, I personally found the overall experience to be very pleasing. This game is ideal for those that like adventure games, particularly those that have never played a Zelda game but always wanted to try one without purchasing a Nintendo console.
[starreview tpl=16]
And another thing…
Joe “Joefeesh” Finn writes:After a great gaming Christmas I was not looking forward to the new year. I didn’t think there were going to be any games for me until at least March. So when I picked up Darksiders, it an excellent surprise for me. As well as being pretty (especially after THQ fixed that annoying tearing), it’s got fun gameplay, even if it is no more than a megamix of different games. But what’s wrong with that? People come up with great remixes to songs all the time in the music industry, pumping new life into them and expanding the market for that style of music.By this, I mean there are a lot of people who didn’t play Zelda because it was all too tame. Nobody can say that of Darksiders. Well they can, but they’d be an idiot for saying it. As one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, War tears his way through this game with a typical careless, bad-ass attitude.
War rides his horse, Ruin, across the wasteland
There’s a lot to love about this game. If you ever wanted to see what a mature Zelda game would be like or hoped for more adventuring and puzzle solving in your action brawler games, it’s all here.One of the main problems is that health pick ups are inconsistent and cost too much from the shop whilst trying to save for upgrades, so I constantly seemed to be doing my best to never get hit. There is also a lot of running back and forth over long distances with very little reason and hot footing through levels is painfully slow, until you finally get your horse ‘Ruin’ back. When you do get Ruin, it is pretty sweet riding on a beast with a flaming trail. Apart from feeling awesome, it also makes your attacks a lot stronger.Overall, I totally agree with Mightyles’ 4 out of 5. I thoroughly enjoyed this game. I look forward to seeing the other Horsemen in the sequels that have been announced.
Great stuff. I need my next big game now. I’m just finishing off bits and bobs of games now and playing loads of iGames.
Anyone that is even remotely interested in this game should download the demo that is available for the Xbox 360 and the PS3. You get the entire first level of the game, running at about 90 minutes, for free.
Madureira’s got an extremely narrow range of interests, but they run deep. This reminds me of his abandoned BATTLE CHASERS comicbook, in the sense that he’s been quite canny about picking appealing aspects of various other things that he enjoys and combining them into something that is comfortably familiar and fairly charming, but not very ambitious.
I am one of the very few that doesn’t like Zelda games. The idea of the games I really like but I dunno they just get boring real fast. Tempted by Darksiders though…
Download the demo! Come on, do it noawwwww!
Alright, alright alright! Calm down. It’s on my download list as of now, shall download it when I get home from uni
I’ve downloaded it on the PSN, I’ll let you know what I think.
Another game I’m reminded of when playing this is Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. It has a similar art style, story, ang gameplay mechanics. Obviously that’s because they’re both inspired by The Legend Of Zelda, but the point still stands. That may turn some people off, but I loved Soul Reaver when I was a kid.