Darksiders - Retro Review
Story: You play as War, one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, charged with maintaining the balance between angels and demons until mankind is ready to fight the final battle with the divine forces. However, when a mysterious force triggers the end times a tad prematurely, humanity finds itself caught with its collective pants down in an apocalyptic struggle between the forces of heaven and hell. Framed for prematurely starting the apocalypse, War is stripped of his powers and sent back to Earth to clear his name, restore the balance, and uncover the true cause of humanity’s destruction. It’s a hefty to-do list for even the most reliable agent of the apocalypse.
Gameplay: The game has been described as Zelda exploration meets God of War combat, which is a fairly apt analogy. There is no question that Darksiders stands on the shoulders of many great titles that came before it including Zelda, God of War, Devil May Cry, Metroid, the Legacy of Kain / Soul Reaver games, and even Portal, to name just a few. However, the game is more than just a mismatch of borrowed game mechanics.
Darksiders strength is its ability to blend these desperate parts into a cohesive whole, while at the same time creating a cool mythology of its own. It’s a universe I’m eager to spend more time in and one that I hope is developed further in the sequel.
The game follows the standard troupe of re-visiting areas after unlocking new abilities and thereby gaining access to previously inaccessible areas of the map. I love me some Metroid so I don’t mind this mechanic at all, especially when there is a fast travel option, which Darksiders includes. The system would be much more manageable if more game developers let players create notes or leave reminders to themselves on the in game map. Instead my desk is covered with cryptically scribbled notes reminding me to return to the fire cave, something about a bomb… dammit I have no idea what I meant by this! Sigh, now I’ll never know what was in that box I found ten plus hours ago…
My only real complaint is I think the game world would have been more interesting had the developers not jumped forward in time until after the humans had all been wiped out. There could have been more of a moral choice situation if say War were to stumble upon a three-way battle and have to decide whether or not to intervene. Ultimately it’s a design choice and a minor quibble in an otherwise fun adventure.
Controls: The controls on the PC are playable, but if you have a gamepad that is certainly the way the game was meant to be played. You can remap the controls but between all the combos, secondary weapons, and special powers, I often found myself sticking to simpler attacks that I could reach without dislocating a finger.
Graphics: Although the game came out in 2010, I felt the graphics held up surprisingly well in 2013. The environments are sufficiently varied and include deserts, swamps, and abandoned cities. Enemy units are well designed but it would have been nice to see a little more variety instead of simply altering color pallets and abilities. I did enjoy the finishing moves animations for the various weapons at War’s disposal, each is fairly gruesome and you will only start to get sick of seeing them towards the tail end of your journey.
Verdict: Despite borrowing generously from other games, Darksiders somehow manages to skirt the issue of outright copying. It’s hard to put my finger on it exactly but I think it boils down to a feeling that the developers truly loved the games they sought to emulate and culled the best elements out of them to make something of their own. It’s that earnestness that carries Darksiders above mediocrity into something more.
