A greatest hits for the last generation.
I'm going to keep this review very brief. Darksiders is fun to play in short bursts. Its art is serviceable if a little uninspired. The cartoon visuals can sometimes look a bit childish, but I prefer this style to an attempt at hyper-realism (stylized visuals tend to hold up better over time, and that is certainly the case here).
The gameplay is a mix of hack and slash combat with short, sporadic breaks to solve pseudo-puzzles that require more backtracking than thinking. Although describing a game purely in terms of its predecessors is considered to be a cardinal sin (as it should be), Darksiders cribs so heavily from other franchises that it is difficult to describe it in any other way. It borrows the broad slashes and contextual takedowns of God Of War, the overworld and thematic dungeons of Zelda, and, towards the end, a limited interpretation of Portal's, er, portal mechanics.
Darksiders does this all extremely well, however, and that made it worth my time. This brings me to my final thought: Darksiders is too darn long. Sections are repeated which require you to visit combat arenas before entering a dungeon, and frankly, the combat isn't interesting enough to make it a centerpiece. Its only when all of Darksiders various mechanics are working together that the game really shines. I wouldn't have minded seeing the credits roll about 5 hours before they did, but overall, its a solid game.
