Review: Darksiders

    This game has been thrown around as a complete Legend of Zelda clone a lot could this just mean that this is the dark Zelda game that fans have been waiting for?

    Darksiders has an interesting story using many names and faces from the Christian belief. Long ago a great war raged between those of Heaven and Hell bringing great destruction, then four beings of immense power came down to stop it all and bring balance to the world. The four Horsemen stood as a sign to stop the war between the three kingdoms: Demons, Angels, and the new race Man. Now many years later the Horseman, War, has awoken alone in the midst of another war. There are a wide arrange of characters in this game to give it a specific feel to it. While the demons and angels play their roles well and somewhat obviously, they never feel forced and are key parts to the story.

    This game is incredibly well paced, there are always enemies to kill, things to discover, and temples to conquer. This is where you will see an uncanny resemblance to the Legend of Zelda franchise everything falls under the same path, roam the overworld map, find your next destination, enter new temple, find new weapon/item, use it to get thru the dungeon and defeat the oversized boss. Don’t get me wrong this is not a bad thing, Vigil Games, was smart enough to use a well known and well made style of gameplay and altered it a little bit to give its own kind of style. Dungeons are usually pretty well-balanced, you never really feel confused or frustrated. That said there are a few puzzles that may take you a while but it all helps to make a well balanced experience.

    There are many enemies that stand in your way, and there is a wide enough variety that you never get bored of what you’re fighting. Of course, what would killing enemies be without some weapons to do most of the damage? Luckily this game has a little armory for us, each weapon that you use grows stronger the more you use them increasing their power and the main weapons can be equipped with an attachment giving it a new unique ability. With most of the map being blocked off because of obstacles it may take you a while to search everywhere that you would like to but this game has enough hidden items to keep you entertained until you obtain the next item to get you moving once again.

    The world that you are traversing reeks of the Armageddon that this war has brought upon the Earth, entire cities are nothing but ruins, the areas that are under the great demons controls are in horrible states and those that were unlucky are plenty to see. The music of this game isn’t really much to talk about, but it does do a good job at setting the tone of the places you are visiting and the battles that you are fighting, it may not be Zelda standards but it does its job well. The voices do a good job filling their characters role and help fit everything into the world that they are fighting in, even Mark Hamill lends us his voice for the over powered obnoxious Watcher.

    As I stated above this is a very well paced game and you never feel bored or get to frustrated, and for those are fans of the Zelda games you will definitely feel right at home while playing Darksiders. This game has many secret items to find, many abilities and spells to unlock and purchase, and plenty places to run around on your all new trusty steed. For everyone out there I say play this game, it’ll give you plenty to do until the next console Zelda title comes out.

    I give it a 9/10

                                                                                                          Review: Army of Two: The 40 Day

    In the beginning of Army of Two: the 40 Day, we find our old buddies Rios and Salem are in the middle of Shanghai, when all hell breaks loose around the entire city and the two of them are brought in to do another job that would get them killed if they were to do it by themselves. There isn’t really much to this games story, you and your buddy are in a city falling apart at every turn, with nearby airplanes and helicopters   plummeting down on you. As you try to make your way out of town to safety many people stand in your way but there not just after you.

    The Gameplay for this game is pretty standard and straightforward for a 3 person shooter these days, except for this games aggro system, simply put the more your partner shoots at the enemies the more their attention is drawn to him, therefore making much easier to get around and flank your enemies. The thing about this system is that it may work too well, when your partner’s aggro meter is almost full it practically makes you invisible, even when your only a few feet away from multiple enemies. Well some people may find this pleasant, I find this system a bit ridiculous.

    There are a lot of things to keep the players interested in this and keep you playing for a while, with a plethora of weapons to unlock through the main campaign and enough upgrades for every gun you’ll be able to find something that will suit your mood. Throughout the game you will have to make choices for certain things giving you a + or – in morality, for instance doing a good thing like saving the innocent, capturing the criminals, and not taking the easy way out will increase your reputation in the game. While this does feel kind of tacked on, they did a little extra to counter-balance it, by extrapolating the choice that you made you can see if your good choice really lead to a god outcome. Finally there is a co-op to this game, I can’t say much about it except that it works ... unless you are playing with someone who doesn’t know the difference between the enemy and the wall.

    This isn’t to say this game doesn’t have it’s faults, far from it, multiple times I have encountered glitches with this game, whether it be freezing or the game seems to disappear after a door entailing me to fall forever, making me have to reset my machine. A few other small things that I didn’t really like was your helmets inboard monitor, which acts as your in-in-game heads up display, it shows you were the civilians, enemies and were you need to go next, but it seemed to get in the way more then anything, I found it easier to play the game and tell the people apart by those who are wearing armour and those who aren’t. The sound, while decent, just didn’t really do much to set the tone for the game' especially for what it was showing to the players. The last Army of two game was about two friends and the first game really showed that by having them pat each other in the back and while making jokes about each other, you got they were good friends, while in this game, they seem to be more work buddy’s and that it, they make a small joke or story here or there but overall you didn’t really get the same enthusiasm as they once did.

    Summary: While this game does do quite a bit to get people coming back for another round or two with just about 6 hrs to the campaign, a story that doesn’t do much for anything, I’d have to say it’d be best to your money for other games that are coming out at this time.

I give it a 5/10