Darksiders Review

Darksiders returns to the stories of old in a classic tale of good versus evil and the balance thereof. The game clearly takes inspiration from previous titles in its genre and I say this as compliment. It’s sticks with what works and with a creative director like Joe Mad and the talented dev at Vigil Games, the result is a game that is thoroughly entertaining and whole-fully engaging.

Before I step into my review I’d like to address the smokey billows of game design theft accusations that are floating around the web. Yes, the game does bare similarities to classics like Zelda, Devil May Cry and even Prince of Persia but I’d rather look at it as taking inspiration from rather than an act of blatant copying. Why re-invent the wheel when you can stick with what works and that is exactly what Vigil Games have done. They took inspiration from what works and built a great adventure game on top of that, enough said.

You play the game as War, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse who was given the power to take peace from the world. You have been duped into starting the end of the world and as punishment for your grievous deeds you are sent back to a post apocalyptic earth to slay the ones who are responsible for your fall from glory and earn your redemption.

War starts out with his sword which remains his primary weapon through out the game and because War’s power was rescinded by the council he has to work his way up the skill chain right from the bottom. War’s skill progression moves along at a swift pace and before you know it you’ll be hacking and slashing to a whole new beat of moves, taking absolute pleasure as you disembowel, behead and split your enemies in half. Yes, it is indeed satisfying.

As you progress supporting weapons become available, like the scythe which was made famous as the grim reapers weapon of choice, War’s arsenal eventually includes a myriad of sharp, deadly munitions that be used in conjunction with his sword. The combinations of weapon kills lie solely in the players ability to pull them off, an accomplishment that has been made easy by an intuitive control scheme that makes it second nature to pull off.

The gameplay has been built on three pivotal pillars; puzzles, fighting and boss fights. Each level follows a mixed formula of the three pillars, mixing up the fight and puzzle areas that eventually end in a climactic boss fight. Vigil games have done a great job of pacing the game through the three core mechanics in such a way that one alone never bores you and on completion of a level you feel a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

The games art was directed by non other than the great Joe Mad, the artist behind the Marvel comics “Uncanny X-Men” and writing a review about Darksiders without mentioning its art, would be to not reveal soul of the game. When playing it’s hard to not get the feeling that each and every character in the game has been meticulously crafted to the point where no detail was left to spare. The art style does not end with great characters, the environments are filled with vibrant and detailed textures and the architecture is Gothic and foreboding, exactly what you would expect the end of the world to look like. The game is also pleasantly colourful, much like a good graphic novel. Joe’s artistic talent has most certainly elevated this game to the top of its genre.

Great gameplay is good but with a descent story to support it,it becomes great. Darksiders makes use of a back and forth styled story as its base, from there it develops the characters through many, extremely well executed cut scenes as the game progresses. The voice acting is among the best we’ve seen in a good while and with talents like Mark Hamil(Star Wars) and Liam O’Brian(Afro Samurai) it’s not hard to see why. The games music score is good but what makes it better is the way it’s timed with the gameplay, soft and tempting in the exploration bits to loud and ominous during the boss fights.

Darksiders takes us back to the gaming days of old, where games lasted longer than 6 hours and they did not feed us every step. It’s a game that uses the classics as its foundation from which it creates something new and fresh. Thoroughly enjoyable with some great original visuals and a very commendable first time attempt by Vigil Games. We give it a thumbs up. Buy it and enjoy it.