I don't know how they manage it, but every single Darksiders game is different from the one before it, and somehow they're all good games. Not incredible masterpieces, but just really solid single player (except for this one) games. Hell, even the novels like Abomination Vault are well written, enjoyable books. It even survived the fall of THQ, clawing its way out of a certain grave. It's really a franchise that defies all logic or expectation. I guess the only knock against it I can think of would be Darksiders 3, but that was mostly because of the really shoddy state of it for the first 2 or 3 months following launch. As someone who played it on PC after it was patched a fair bit, I thought it was a really great Soulsbournesque (that's a mouthful) game.

Then here comes Genesis, and they've once again tried something completely different, and made a really great isometric action game. People automatically assumed this was going to be a Diablo style loot based game, but in actuality it's much more akin to something like Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light or X-Men Legends. I'm only at level 5 or so, but there have already been a ton of hidden paths I'm not able to get to, because I'm probably missing abilities I'll find later on. It also doesn't seem like you unlock Apocalypic (Darksiders series' hardest difficulty setting) until you've beaten the game, so there's plenty of incentive for a second playthrough. Also worth mentioning is that Gareth Coker (Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps) did the music for this, and it's incredible.

The Creature Core system is also really cool, reminds me of Castlevania Aria/Dawn of Sorrow, but with an actual tree. It's actually really refreshing playing an isometric action game like this that isn't a crazy loot grind for once. It focuses instead on items hidden in the environment, exploration and puzzles, and plays best with a controller instead of M&KB. In fact, the M&KB controls are straight up ass, which is weird because this isn't out on console until February. Speaking of M&KB, it's really well optimized on PC, looks great and runs great. I'm running it on a GTX 1080, i7 6700k, 16GB RAM, and getting 120+ fps at 1440p.

The character swapping is really fun because you can do it at any time, and it instantly returns you to the ground. So you could, for instance, pop an enemy up into the air for a combo, switch mid combo and combo them with the other character. It really lets you mix up the way you play, and encourages experimenting. The dynamic between the two Horsemen is pretty entertaining as well, War playing the straight man to Strife's levity. Haven't tried the co-op yet, but I hear its good. No matchmaking though, unfortunately.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this game?

It's a cool series, and I was into 3 before all the patching so I'm curious what changed. The first was basicslly pitched as Dark Zelda and nailed it. The second felt more like Soul Reaver to me, though I never got around to finishing it. And 3 was a cool, tight experience. They all had different design but felt cohesive enough to be part of the same series. It's kind of impressive and baffling at the same time.

I was really looking forward to Genesis til I realized it launches on console in February :(

I'm looking forward to playing Genesis. I'm a fan of the series (hence the avatar) so I was going to play it at some point anyway, but after reading some of the reviews I was happy to find out it's more of a Darksiders game than I thought it was. I thought it was just going to be an offshoot set in the same universe but not really a "proper" Darksiders game, but it sounds like they've actually made a game that's true to the series, just from a different perspective (literally).

As people like to say “I wish this game was on the Switch” I’ll say that I’ll happily play it when it comes to Game Pass.

relatedly- has anyone played the switch port of the original?

i've had it in steam for years and have been meaning to get to it, but i think playing on switch is the best shot i have (provided it's a good experience).

I really liked 2 but it had a game ending bug where it crashed constantly at the end on xbox 360, I bought it again on pc but never got passed the first few hours. Never played 3, but this looks pretty cool but I'd rather it actually be a diablo type ARPG though.

The main character seems like a bootleg Cayde 6 from destiny though, and from what I remember doesn't match the tone of these games at all.

@oursin_360: I played 2 on PC and it seemed real weird at times. There was a moment where I couldn't make a jump until I restarted the game that made me question every single platforming puzzle from that point on.

This sounds cool. Like you mentioned OP, I like isometric action games but hate the loot grind. I also hate how mindless a lot of ARPGs are. It's something I will check at out some point for sure.

Man, it's such a great game but the bugs just killed it (literally for me lol). I loved the loot and weapon system from what I remember.

I'm kind of fascinated by the idea of this game except I haven't been a huge fan of the last couple of Darksiders games. I think I really hated the crow/bird thing that followed you along in 2 and gave you hints for the puzzles without the option to turn it off - like I just wanted to figure things out on my own without a hint system being mandatory. Never got very far in that one, but this looks different enough that I might give it a whirl!

I admire their willingness to change up the type of game it is with almost every iteration, but I'm disappointed with the absolute jaw-drop of the first game starting mid-apocalypse in the modern day, and...they just sort of abandoned that incredible concept, even within the first game.

And while I get that they revisit the plot of War being tricked into triggering an early Apocalypse, the direction they went with it felt...very dull.