Gamespot score:8.0(Great)
my score:7.8
(+)Pros:-Great combat mechanics,-many unlockable skills, weapons and other flashy combat related stuff,-amazing game world that is packed with interesting and intense environments,-innovative creature design.
(-)Cons:-Very unoriginal in many ways,-story is total crap and soon develops into more crap,- puzzles are frustratingly long and oftenly chop up the pace.
Gameplay time:10-20 hours
Darksiders, unfortunately, has one of gamings most straightfoward, predictable, and confusing stories. The plot gets very predictable especially later on, and most of the time, you probably wont understand whats going on, given the constant usage of very weird terms that you have never heard before. Basically, the armies of heaven and the legions of hell are at war, and they basically hold their war on earth, which inevitable brings about the fall of mankind, since man is still weak as shit. With this, the seals of war are broken, and the horsemen are to be summoned to the field. However, only war is summoned, and as he proceeds to end the troops of heaven and demons of hell, he starts to loose his strenght. After getting beat by one of the gurdian demons, war is framed by the council and said that he broke the forged rule, that he wasnt meant to interfere, and that he proceeded to the fight even though his other brothers werent called. So the story is all about war going on a journey to clear his name, traversing the already destroyed earth, and uncover the mystery behind the war.
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| War is definetely no stranger to big and bad enemies. |
Darksiders is pretty much an open world game. While the combat and such is pretty much similar to games like DMC and GOW, it has something different that those 2 dont, a pretty open and badass world. As war, you traverse the fallen land of mankind, moving through destroyed cities and barren wastelands that used to be earth. And inhabiting these areas are the many varieties of enemies. Be it angels from heavens or demons from hell, you have quite a variety of enemies to battle with. While most of the enemies are demons from hell, all of them look great, and you probably wont get tired of fighting them, since they all attack you with different unique ways.
Combat in darksiders is pretty much like GOW or DMC. As war, you pack your signature sword, but as the game proceeds, you get access to more weapons and moves, most of them from vulgrim, your friendly neighbourhood soul scammer. The more you proceed into the game, the more stuff he has available for you. These items are bought with souls, the currency of the game, which are mostly obtained by defeating enemies or opening soul chests. Of course, thats not the only way to get weapons and moves, as you proceed deeper into the story quests, you also unlock weapons and skills needed to complete puzzles that you previously could not. There's quite a variety of weapons that you can achieve, and they are all pretty much different, making unlocking weapons quite something to look foward to.
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| The chain is a fancy weapon that drags you to opponents. |
Of the weapons you unlock, most of them are pretty cool. You have a shruiken that is able to multi target enemies and hit many targets at once, a pistol that shoots repeatedly, a pair of gauntlets that can bash through enemies' skulls, a fancy scythe does many tricks and crossups and more. You can switch between weapons anytime during combat, making the fighting fun and flashy. You can hit the enemies with your sword and make them fly far back, then switch to the scythe to hit them back to you, switch back to your sword and start hitting again. You even get to enter chaos mode, where war becomes a big nasty demon that takes no damage and has the ability to do crazy damage. The combat is great and plays a big part in the game, but there are also lots of puzzle and platforming section.
For each of the many great areas you visit, there will be puzzling and platforming sections that stand in your way. Many a time you will need to use the weapons or tools you already have on you to cross these parts. The puzzle areas are usually big and very intimidating, usually when you walk in you will feel very small and helpless. You will probably take a long time to solve them, but yeah, the feeling of satisfaction is there. Later on, you even get to ride a horse! Awesome stuff, definetely.
Darksiders has ridiculously fun combat, but there are many other points that drag it down. For one, the story is ridiculous, as said earlier, its far too confusing to make any sense, and the plot is way too predictable. The puzzling sections as well. While they are challenging and smart, they take too long to complete and some of them require some very precise timing, you will be failing most of the time. You will take ridiculously long periods of time to figure out puzzles, so much that it chops up the pace. And lets face it, darksiders isnt the most original game. We have seen many of these mechanics before. Combat from DMC/GOW and puzzling and platforming from zelda/GOW, its pretty unoriginal. We have seen many of these before, and it isnt as amazing as when we have 1st seen it.
Darksiders is a good game with good combat that is fun and flashy. The puzzle and platforming add some variety to the game so it isnt all just smashing the heads of enemies, but they are somethings abit too long and frustrating to solve. In all seriousness, an FAQ is recommended, for the puzzle and platforming at least. Lets hope darksiders 2 has some different gameplay mechanics and a more decent story this time round.
Happy gaming.
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| Meh, its just a fat bat. |
