I just finished the bloodiest Zelda game ever. Maybe you have heard of it, it’s called Darksiders. You play as War, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and you are summoned to Earth to do your part in the endwar between the three kingdoms initiated by the breaking of the seven seals as written in the great pact. As it turns out, its all just a setup, and now you are being blamed and since you are War, it seems only appropriate that your next course of action is to week out and destroy the person behind all of this.
The style of Darksiders is very comic-esque in not only the art style, but in the dialog as well. The deep grumblings of War and the ruinous, but vibrant, landscapes of post-apocalyptic earth set a very apropos tone. Then it takes a healthy chunk of Zelda and spins it to more closely fit its theme. Heart containers become skulls, the Hookshot is now the Abyssal Chain, and the Master Sword is the Chaoseater. Zelda is not the only game that came to mind when playing. While in the first castle I had this haunting feeling of familiarity and went and downloaded Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver on PSN to see if I was as similar as I was remembering. War doesn’t throw bodies on to spiked walls, but the dark atmosphere combined with the story of a lone warrior out for revenge confirmed my suspicions. Oh, and block puzzles.
There is a good balance of fighting and puzzle solving, all mixed with some interesting ways to break up the boring times of walking between new locations. One thing that did throw me off were the training missions that you play before the first and second castles. Not only do you have to backtrack the area you just covered to clear the missions, but how they are presented pulls you out of the story and reminds you that you are playing a game. Once you get inside of the castles it moves into puzzle mode. The puzzles are not overly simple, and present a challenge that makes you feel good when you solve. The bosses all feel unique and make good use of your accumulated skill. The intermediary story is just enough to get you on your way to the next castle until you get near the end. When it finally picks back up it was quite enjoyable straight through the ending.
Combat in Darksiders is one of my few contentions with the game. You start with a very limited list of combos which essentially reads “mash X” making early fights visually repetitive. Once you start to buy moves it gets more diversified but you also have spells, the scythe, and healing items to purchase which depending on how you play may get higher priority. There are a total of three weapons that you acquire though the game, and each levels independently. You get to put your sword in one hand and either the scythe or gauntlets on the other and you can weave the two together in combat. Its a pretty cool idea and would have been a nice way to break up combat. I picked up the scythe first thing at the store and decided that I would work on it and the sword simultaneously on my way to and through the first castle. As soon as I was on my way to the next castle it was immediately apparent that I was underpowered. Combat was taking way too long and if there are multiple enemies on screen, sometimes it can be hard for War to attack and avoid hits without constantly dashing out of the way. The only solution was to focus on one weapon and leave the rest unused. By the end of the game I had only just maxed out my sword and after buying all of the moves for Chaoseater and leveling up my spells, I would only then be able to max out the abilities of either of the other weapons. As much as I enjoyed the experience of Darksiders, it could have used an improved weapon system.
Darksiders isn’t perfect, but it does a lot right. Fun combat and well designed castles make Darksiders a great package that can stand its ground against any of its inspirations.
Demon Blood Spilled (Gal): 5186.3