Darksiders

Darksiders is a third person action-adventure game, the core gameplay is similar to God of War : hack and slash, solving puzzle, platforming, etc.
When I started playing this game months ago I thought this is just another cheap God of War wannabe. I was wrong.

Darksiders' graphics is really good. The environment is detailed, the characters look tough, scary, and awesome, all at the same time. The art style reminded me of World of Warcraft.

It's War.

The plot revolves on one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse named War, and conflict between Heaven and Hell. Horsemen of the Apocalypse are supposed to be a neutral group who will appear at the final battle between heaven and hell (Apocalypse) to restore balance and order; but somehow, someone triggered the apocalypse prematurely and War was summoned alone, without most of his powers. The apocalypse battleground is on earth (of course, poor earth is always the battleground for everything) and its all up to War to find out who triggered the apocalypse and what is really going on.

The gameplay. Being an action-adventure game you can expect standard combat, puzzle, and platforming in Darksiders. Combat is fun, War has many weapons, items, and abilities to use, although you have to obtain them during the course of the game. Different enemy requires different approach, this is true especially during boss battle, which is really cool and more like a puzzle: you have to figure out their weakness or do something that will make the bosses expose their weaknesses.

 

War can bring 3 main weapons in total: sword, scythe, and gauntlet. All of them have their own distinct moves, they also can gain experience and grow stronger when used. There are also a lot of sub-weapons and items to assist War during his journey, like guns and grappling hook. Usually the items can be used to solve puzzle and also have some function in combat. For example, War can obtain a horn that will open doors when used, but in combat it can also stun enemies. You can also mix all of these weapons and sub-weapons in your attack, because each are mapped to different buttons. That's a good control scheme.

When War killed an enemy he will receive some amount of soul, these souls act as a currency and can be used to buy new weapons, items, and moves. I haven't finished the game yet, but I think its not possible to buy every item and moves in the stores, this will force some kind of decision on the player, eg: do I level up my existing moves, should I get new moves, or should I extend my health bar ? One bad issue is we can't see a preview of the moves we're going to buy, so you should make a backup save before buying anything just in case you don't like it.

Items menu.

The puzzle and platforming section is quite difficult, but not frustrating. The puzzle seems natural and easy to understand most of the time, and you won't feel bored during these part because its interesting. In fact, my sister, who is a non-gamer, likes to watch me play Darksiders because of these puzzles, and she's pretty good at solving them too.

Samael, your breath smells...

In conclusion, Darksiders is a game worth playing. Graphics, gameplay, sound, and story are all good. I've been playing for 15 hours and I think I haven't reach the final area yet, so expect 20+ hours gameplay.

Score : 9/10