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U.S. stores alongside Bayonetta, setting up an inevitable competition for gamers’ attentions, another Hideki Kamiya classic versus Madureira’s chaotic action-adventure, franchise debut.
Darksiders puts you in control of War, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The apocalypse has come early and wiped the human race off the face of the earth, leaving the balance of power in favor of the forces of evil and the mysterious Destroyer. War is blamed for the premature end of the world and is sentenced to wander the planet until all is put back in order. There is a catch, though. War has been stripped of most of his powers and is chained to the sadistic and cynical Watcher (voiced by none other than Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame). The Watcher does exactly what you’d expect him to: he watches War to make sure he does what he’s been assigned.
Aesthetically, Darksiders is worlds apart from its release date partner, Bayonetta. The graphics are a tad dull and feel like they’ve come out of a cataclysmic rock video. Instead of button-mashing mayhem with a variety of combos and moves, War is limited to fairly static combat: Press the “X” button to smash enemy. Press “X” twice to smash them more. It’s pretty simple. The game is not as action-packed, but that is not necessarily a downside. With such a simple fighting system, the combat and even the boss battles are not as intense or challenging. It pits your wit against the boss instead of how many combos you can link together. Each boss has a particular weakness that must be exploited, and it’s fairly obvious each time.
So if not in the combat, where does the challenge lie? Puzzles—lots and lots of puzzles. The game has been compared to Legend of Zelda for its addiction to dungeons. Before you can fight any of the bosses, there awaits a few hours of slogging your way through countless maze-like, puzzle-filled corridors. There is even a section of the game where you’re given a portal gun. The entire last half of the game revolves around the mind-bending concept of teleportation.
This is both the best and the worst part of the game. The puzzles are tricky enough to keep you guessing for a while and just hard enough without becoming maddening. The game shows you a brief cut scene after entering each new section of the dungeon of where you need to go. It will do this once and then never again. Even the Watcher, whom the game announces will help you out of a jam with hints and advice, will look at you like you’re a moron when you ask him where to go. I spent at least two hours of the game, if not more, running around 90 percent of conquered dungeons trying to find the final boss, all while the Watcher yelled insults instead of helpful tips. Even the map betrayed me with its three-layered system that will only show you a door if you’re on the right tier.
A weak fighting system, coupled with ridiculously easy boss fights and cabin fever inducing dungeons will leave the average gamer with a sense of relief in just sticking the whole ordeal out. After completing the game the first time through, there isn’t much that will leave you begging for another round; it’s a great game for a rental.
Verdict: 3/5
