Darksiders

Great story, awesome artwork, well-done characters and smooth gameplay are the characteristics Darksiders have to offer. As an action-adventure, single-player game, it can be considered a mixture of the combat inspired by God of War and the puzzles and tools that The Legend of Zelda games are known for . I also could see some ingredients from Uncharted in the mix but since it may cause misinterpretation don’t mind me till you play it for yourself. Darksiders nicely balances its action and puzzles, which are mostly challenging but not frustrating.

You play as “War”, one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse who has been prematurely summoned to Earth during the final battle between Heaven and Hell. You’re goal is to find who is responsible for the premature apocalypse to clear your own name.

The game is quite linear, but it doesn’t feel that way. Where possible, it gives you some freedom to play around and doesn’t restrict you in a lot of aspects. The way this game drives you to places gives you the feeling that you’ve chosen to go there rather than you had to.

Although the single button combo combinations has led some to think of it as a button mashing game, let me tell you that button mashing works only on smaller opponents and it can only get you so far. Later in the game there are so much more things to deal with and much more to use. One of the cool features is that you can pick up cars, tables, chairs, etc. and throw them at your enemies. You can even break a lamppost and use it as a weapon! There are also weapons and upgrades available to purchase and the currency is the souls you collect while killing enemies.

In my opinion , Darksiders does a good job not to bore the player with repetitive actions and scenes. The setting, the enemies and sometimes the whole game experience changes as you move along and make your way towards the end.

Now let’s get to the dark side of Darksiders:

Some actions require button combinations which I found extremely uncomfortable. Is it just me who can’t easily press Triangle and X at the same time?!

While you can pick up a lot of items and use them or throw them, the game does not let you pick up the weapons your opponents drop when they die which could add a lot more fun to the game.

At some points in the game, you pick up a boomerang-behaving, supersized ninja star-looking blade (It’s not as weird as it sounds!) which can hit multiple targets and comes back to you. Some opponents can only be killed by this weapon because they fly and are not reachable by other weapons you have at the time so there is no way to avoid using it. Now to use it, R3 is to switch to aiming mode, L2 is to lock on object(s), Holding R2 charges it and releasing R2 throws it! If that is not confusing enough, I have to add that the L2 will not work if they are not close enough or if you don’t place the cursor exactly on the target! It took me a while to realize why I couldn’t lock on some opponents while they are shooting at me!

Conclusion:

Darksiders is a fun, entertaining, 15-20 hour game which is well worth checking out. As much as I enjoyed playing the game, its replay value is just for those who would like to get its platinum trophy on PS3 or achievements on Xbox 360. For gamers who only like to play through a game once, a rental will probably suffice.

P.S. Darksiders and Bayonetta came out on the same day in North America. In response to the question of “Darksiders vs. Bayonetta” I have to say it all comes down to which one interests you the most . They are both fun but different. I may prefer Darksiders but I can totally see someone else would favour Bayonetta. If you have to choose and haven’t made up your mind, the best thing I can recommend is to read both reviews, watch both videos and decide.

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