A better, more emo-y Zelda
Have you ever said to yourself, “Self, I’d really like to play Zelda, God of War, Portal, and Panzer Dragoon in the same game.” Well, if you go out and pick up Darksiders your dream will finally come true. Unfortunately if you’re expecting the same quality as those games you might be a little disappointed. Darksiders is an action adventure game in which you play as War, one of the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The story begins with you starting off the apocalypse, wrecking New York City with demons and angels fighting all around. Not long after you discover that someone has tricked you in to beginning the end war prematurely, and you are sent in to purgatory for about 100 years. The Council (tasked with keeping Heaven and Hell on speaking terms) then tasks you with finding out whose tomfoolery extinct-ified the human race early.
The game unfolds much like every 3D Zelda, you start off quite weak and gain more health and better weapons as the game progresses. And I do mean like Zelda, your inventory will consist of a boomerang-type object that you throw through fire in order to light bomb plants, a hookshot, and a gauntlet that you use like a hammer. Later on in the game you will be given a horse that helps making getting around easier. You even have a helpful fairy voiced by Mark Hamil, except by helpful I mean he may as well not existed outside of cut-scenes. The combat is combo-heavy a la God Of War, you literally get a portal gun (though where you can make portals is very limited), and there is a short segment of the game that is straight out of Panzer Dragoon.
My two biggest complaints with Darksiders are its difficulty and its difficulty. Most of the combat is unbelievably, absurdly, extremely easy. The only times I died were when I jumped in to oblivion or when the game threw 6 waves of tough baddies at me after I had missed health chests. When you aren’t fighting monsters that ignore you while you slice up their friends, you’re fighting overpowered tanks that can take three full life bars with a single hit. The crazy thing about those frustrating deaths is that they never occurred during boss battles, sans the flying bat. Boss battles begin with the camera focusing on their weak spot for at least 5 seconds, it comes off as very hand holdy. My best example of problems with Darksiders difficulty is that I took less damage from the final boss than I did from most random encounters in the world.
Graphics-wise, Darksiders is GORGEOUS. Absolutely the best looking game I have played aside from the God of War III demo on the PS3. The voice-acting is top notch and most of the characters felt motivated and real, I was rather impressed. I really liked the music, but I spent a great deal of the game saying “Wow, this music sounds like God of War/Halo/Battlestar Galactica”. Whilst Darksiders certainly frustrated me at times, I came away with a positive experience overall. With a compelling story, extremely satisfying gameplay, and impressive visuals, Darksiders is a very well put together game.
