Darksiders - First Impressions

By ttocs January 6, 2010 26 Comments

 
Darksiders was a game that wasn't really on my radar until about 2-3 weeks ago.  While at work I was looking for some videos to watch while I ate my lunch and stumbled across some developer diaries and trailers on the game.  After seeing the Zelda meets God of War gameplay, I was immediately intrigued.  Two great game styles merged to form a game where you play as one of the four horseman of the freakin' apocalypse...premises just don't get better than that.  So, on January 5th, I headed to my local Best Buy, picked up the game, and began playing.  About 6-7 hours later, here are my initial impressions.
 
The reviews are correct, this is a game that relies heavily on Zelda like puzzles and means of travel.  The boomerang in Darksiders is used in almost the same way it is in Zelda and the puzzles just scream Zelda in every way.  The combat on the other hand is very God of War.  Instead of leveling up your character, you level up your

weapons kind of like you would in God of War.  The more you use it, the more powerful it becomes.  Opening chests sends skeleton orbs into the air that are adsorbed into your body much like God of War also.  If you are reading this thinking, "what a ripoff, they stole everything!", don't!  The developers didn't steal anything, they simply lovingly borrowed it.  It's almost like the developers are paying homage to the two game types.  The puzzles are really fun to solve and the combat is amazingly addictive.  I found myself running through levels before leaving just looking for more stuff to kill.  It may not be their own ideas, but they did one hell of a job putting into play.  
 
The other big draw for Darksiders was the art style.  Comic book artist Joe Mad did a great job creating the warrior of the apocalypse with his exaggerated hands and feet, war horse, and humongous weapons.  Each and ever enemy seemed to show off a little more of what the creative team could do and I looked forward to them all.  I was really excited to hear that they are planning on possibly turning this game into a movie or a comic book series in the near future.  I can honestly say, with the way this game looks that it would be awesome from a creative standpoint.  The only issues I had with the graphics in this game was a little screen tearing during some moments in the game.  One time it happened a lot in a hallway and then never again after that.  

 
The story is pretty good, but basically just there as a backdrop.  If you don't know already, you play War, one of the four horseman of the apocalypse, and you inadvertently set off the apocalypse by "answering the call".  Only problem is the call wasn't made and now mankind is being wiped out because of it.  So, you set out of a path of vengeance to find the Destroyer.  Yeah, it's about as campy as you'd expect.  No big plot points in what I played so far, but it's no bad.  Not great, but not bad.
 
Like I said, I'm about 6-7 hours into the game and I'm loving it so far.  The developers did one hell of a job mixing Zelda with God of War and it makes one interesting mix.  If you were ev

er a fan of a Zelda game and you like some good old fashion button mashing, I recommend you pick this bad boy up.  You'll thank me for doing so.  It may not have multiplayer and when you finish the game you might not have much reason to play through it again, but it's worth you taking a look at it. 

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