VITALS
Game: Darksiders
Developer: Vigil Games/THQ
Released: January 5, 2010
Platform: XBox 360, PlayStation 3
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God of War meets The Legend of Zelda. You’ve likely heard that comparison before — and it’s not completely inaccurate. There are chests to open, weapon experience to gain, context sensitive finishing moves to perform, heart pieces lifestone shards to obtain, and even a horse to ride. But the derivative choices Vigil Games makes with its most recent release aren’t necessarily a bad thing.
In Darksiders, you are War, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. As shown in the opening moments of the game, the end of the world has just begun: angels and demons are wreaking havoc in large, metropolitan areas, lots of people are dying, and War is smack dab in the middle of it all. Unfortunately for him, however, somebody decided to start the end-times a little early and War is receiving all the blame. As a result, he is taken before the Charred Council (a sort of supernatural supreme court) and tasked with returning to Earth to set things right. And that’s just the first 40 minutes.
Throughout the next 20-40 hours (largely dependent upon your completionist/achievement whore tendencies) you, as War, will traverse the ruined landscape exploring dungeons, regaining lost powers (as well as earning new abilities), and defeating towering bosses with dungeon-specific items. And on the way, you’ll pass through some truly pretty environments.
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The visuals are actually one of the more impressive aspects of Darksiders. Reminiscent of a slightly gritty World of Warcraft, the cartoony, yet detailed character models and environments add some fairly bright colors to the ruined setting. Green grass and teal ice crystals poke out of the scorched earth from time to time. There’s also the red of blood, of course — lots and lots of blood. When not exploring the wastes, you’ll likely be wrecking the shop of some demonic or angelic adversary. And that’s where the God of War similarities become evident.
Starting off with your basic sword, Chaoseater, you’ll soon gain a scythe, gauntlets, and a host of magical attacks that you can use to punish your foes in a variety of ways. The weapons and attacks may also be upgraded with a system that is a cross between God of War and Ratchet and Clank; weapons will deal increased damage after leveling up from extensive use, while new moves and combos are unlocked by trading experience orbs (or “souls” in this case). And then there are the context sensitive finishing moves, where, after enough damage has been dealt, a button symbol will appear over the enemy’s head signaling the option to perform a devastating finishing move — usually involving some sort of impalement or dismemberment.
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But Darksiders isn’t just mindless hacking and slashing. The sometimes monotonous combat is broken up with dungeons very reminiscent of Zelda. Each one has a map, compass (it’s called a Hoardseeker here), and a new item which will be used to reach and defeat the boss (indicated by a large skull on your map). And speaking of bosses, they’re all a lot of fun to kill. Ranging from oversized bats to really angry demons, each one will take all of your abilities to defeat. My personal favorite involves a battle that marries the best parts of Tremors and Shadow of the Colossus.
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While it does a lot of things right, Darksiders does take a few missteps; the most noticeable of which is pacing. Though there are plenty of differing gameplay segments, a few of them wear out their welcomes. For example, on more than one occasion, you are presented with a large gun and tasked with wiping out dozens of enemies along a linear path. These scenarios can be fun for a while, but they become tiresome after you’ve blasted the umpteenth foe to bits 15 minutes later. Travel can also be a little irksome, even with the fast travel points that are made available to you a couple of hours into the game. The map, although technically open world, is not easily traversed — much of it is funneled through choke points consisting of tricky jumps and winding paths. You also have a horse to aid you in your journeys, but even he isn’t available to use on much of the terrain. And then there are the aforementioned fast travel spots, which must be found and unlocked in each major region. While more convenient than walking from point A to point B, you’ll still have to first locate a fast travel spot, select your destination, and then walk through a sort of limbo shortcut — which isn’t as convenient as an ocarina warp song.
Now, there have been claims of screen tearing present on the XBox 360 version. However, there has been a patch released that was supposed to have dealt with this issue. I didn’t experience any such problems while playing, but I did have the game crash my 360 a handful of times while playing.
So, just a warning: SAVE OFTEN AND ON MULTIPLE FILES.
You can save literally anywhere and it’s worth the two seconds of inconvenience to avoid having to repeat the last two hours (this is especially important when grinding). There is an autosave feature, but it never hurts to have a backup.
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FINAL THOUGHTS
Darksiders is fun. It’s not perfect. It’s not entirely original. But it is pretty enjoyable. Whether you’re chopping the wings off of an angel or sending a demon back to Hell, you’ll likely enjoy yourself. And, with the entrance fee coming in at about $40 (from many amazon sellers + S&H), it’s well worth your gaming dollars.
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This review is based on a retail XBox 360 copy of the game purchased by the reviewer. The story mode was completed in about 40 hours with all achievements earned. Images courtesy of THQ.
And be sure to stick around for …
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Hello, readers. This is the special segment I like to reserve for achievement (or in some cases, trophy) discussion. As some of you may already know, I am an achievement whore. I do things … shameful things for that little beep-boop Achievement Unlocked! sound. And, in this segment, I will relay to you my thoughts on the achievements for the reviewed game.
The topic today is Darksiders for the XBox 360. Let me start by saying that none of these are exceptionally difficult. Not even Apocalyptic difficulty (the hardest setting). You may die more often, but checkpoints are fairly plentiful. Some of the achievements, however, are a little tedious. For example, the Battle Hardened and Dark Rider achievements require you to grind weapon experience and ride 100 miles on horseback, respectively. I had not earned either by the time I reached the final boss, meaning that I had to go back to certain points and employ some tricks. Not so much fun, those two. And then there’s the Aerial Predator achievement, which tasks you with destroying 160 enemies while participating in an on on-rails shooting segment. I think there are maybe 170 enemies in that segment, so I had to retry it 3 or 20 times. Like I said, none of the achievements are exceptionally difficult in Darksiders, just a little annoying.
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