Darksiders

Darksiders kicks off with a foot-stomping, bombastic beginning, literally. You’re thrown into the apocalypse of the human race, policemen struggling to put up a futile fight are dwarfed by hellish creatures, buildings are falling, and vehicles are being thrown around like marbles. Above you are magnificently designed winged warriors taking down helicopters and the ambience is a symphony of explosions, screams and mutilation. Thankfully, all of this horror is presented in one of the most beautiful art styles I’ve seen in a game, next to Batman: Arkham Asylum, Darksiders is the closest games have come to looking like a comic book. The world is full of colour with textures painted with broad strokes, the character models are expressively sculpted and gluing all this together are some incredible particle effects, so detailed and expressively animated. I’ve never commented on a games use of particle effects before but there’s real artistry involved with them here. The screenshots and trailers do not do this game good justice, when you start playing it you’ll understand.

As you run through the chaos, not knowing what’s happening, slaying demons and angels alike, slowly learning the basics of an intricate combat system you quickly turn a corner to one of the largest creatures imagined into a video game, a beautiful, towering rock monster smoothly animated as it stomps down the city streets. Such is the confidence Darksiders has of its art that it doesn’t make a big song and dance about it, no elaborately choreographed extravaganza, you don’t fight it, it’s all there just for spectacle, and a spectacle it sure is, a strong start.

I went into this game not knowing too much about it, the marketing for it was shadowed by the large releases of Q4 ’09, originally slated for a November release, this is one of the first games that slipped out of that spot to come out post-modern warfare 2. If the trailers THQ released are to be believed Darksiders is nothing more than a new take on the God of War formulae with a different art style and this is what I assumed through the first two hours of the game but that’s fine, I like those sorts of games and I appreciated the combat style mixing in Devil May Cry with some Prince of Persia elements, my notes taken while playing the game for the first time state, ‘I like the navigation of the environment over DMC/GOW, you’re not boxed in by invisible walls, feels more like Sands of Time.’ It’s worth noting at this point that I played the game on hard because medium has always been too easy for these types of games for me because it’s at 2 hours in that I realised what sort of game this really is. 

It sneaks up behind, without you noticing but you slowly start to realise that Darksiders is a pure adventure game more akin to Zelda and Legacy of Kane than it is to God of War. The more you play the more this becomes apparent, the game sweetly introduces you to the puzzles, exploration and environmental navigation that soon become the cornerstones of this game. The transitional period from brawler to epic adventure is clearly punctuated once you reach the first real dungeon, the ‘Twighlight Cathedral,’ Ring any bells? The moment you arrive you’re presented with an homage to the last ten years of Nintendo design; there’s camera sweeps hinting at triggers to puzzles and objectives, secrets marked by familiar sounding audio cues, treasure chests and a multi-levelled dungeon brilliantly designed so that it tell the player where to go without holding any hands. It’s a great moment; you’re looking at the cathedral knowing you’re going to have to get through it all the way up to the roof where the boss lays waiting for you. Much like how in Demon’s Souls when you see the Dragons snoozing on the cliff far ahead of you in the first level you think ‘shit.’ Except that Darksiders is a lot more forgiving than Demon’s Souls...thank God.

On the hard difficulty it felt just right apart from a couple of minor hiccups which really frustrated me, the first was when you’re introduced to a semi-boss on a broken highway, the damn thing is so fast and powerful, only taking two swipes to kill you I had to resort to spamming a stun move followed by a stab then dodge, stun, stab, dodge, stun, stab, dodge…lasted forever. It was very tense but I felt the only way to beat it was to cheat the game. Aside from a couple of moments like this I recommend playing it on hard because within the first third of the game you’re granted a power which is so devastating that it temporarily renders you invincible, on medium this power becomes too easy to exploit rendering most skirmishes pointless annoyances instead of the tense, intricate battles they should be.

The combat system easily holds up next to God of War and Devil May Cry (perhaps not Bayonetta.) You have the usual light and heavy attacks and special attack, respectfully they do not have any QTE’s, once an enimy is beaten down enough you can finish him in a spectacularly gory way by just pressing B. The payoff is fun to watch and proves that you don’t need to hammer a button to portray a sense of struggle or power. Each felled foe exhales souls which act as a currency to buy more moves and equipment, the rate at which you earn and spend money is very similar to Devil May Cry, meaning that you have to consider how you spend your money.

You may have noticed that I haven’t uttered a word about the story or setting of this game, this is because next to the gameplay it is very secondary, that isn’t to say that it’s an afterthought. You play as War, one of the four horsemen of the Apocalyps, the lore is that the conflict between Heaven and Hell is held in balance by another powerful force who constructed the middle world of Earth. When the game begins War is summoned to Earth to initiate the apocalypse but his brothers, the other horsemen are nowhere to be seen. It seems that all the ‘seals’ that form the balance were broken bar one, this causes both the forces of Heaven and Hell to think that you are responsible and they are both out to get you. Stripped of you powers you are given one more chance to find the one responsible for the conspiracy. 

So the set-up is relatively simple and predictable but the characters you meet on your way form a band of fiendish, untrustworthy demons and ancient beings. All are interesting company to keep and the voice work is above average with Mark Hamil producing an even more sinister variant of his Joker voice. Overall this is an impressive package, on their first attempt Vigil games have made a well produced game which rarely stumbles, the art is just mind-blowing in places, the environments shifting from obliterated cities to wondrously colourful gardens, dark caves and beyond. The player is constantly rewarded with new goodies to play with including a Dark Sector like Glave which has the lock-on capability of Links’ boomerang. Most of all this game just feels right. At the same time it’s a brawler and an adventure with a lot of RPG elements and even has a World of Warcraft feel when you go off the main path and explore the unknown locations. I love games which house a world that you feel compelled to explore and this games world is as developed as any other.

Darksiders is up against some stiff competition this month and while it’s not as exceptionally produced as Bayonetta, there’s so much to get out of this game. Biggest surprise game I’ve had for a long time, January is looking like a great month with this, Bayonetta, Dark Void and Mass Effect 2, it makes me wonder what on earth Dantes Inferno could possibly do to contend with such heavyweights. I’m aware this is a gushing review and I apologise, there are negatives to this game but they are so minor that in this spotlight it’s only worth talking about how this game made such an impact on me. 

Awesome, 9/10, 4 stars, 90%, -A however you want to look at it, it’s just brilliant.     
Written by me (Michael Manning) www.crudepixel.com