[360/PS3] Darksiders Review

[TrackZero]

Darksiders Review

Title: Darksiders
Platform: PS3/360
Developer: Vigil Games
Publisher: THQ
ESRB: M (Mature)
MSRP: $59.99 (PS3/360)
Editor: Andrew 'TrackZero' Hodder

What's Hot: Great combat system; Solid puzzle design; Delivers what it promises; Beautiful art design

What's Not: Possible broken Vsync or lockups on the Xbox 360 (patch coming soon)

Darksiders is the type of game I wish we'd see more often. Solid production value, blatantly borrowed gameplay design (from titles that already have a warm place in our heart), followed up with some good old spit and polish. This is the type of game where you actually have to go out of your way to find things to complain about. It's certainly surprising to have this quality of a game coming from a new studio in Vigil Games. Traditionally, fresh developers come out of the gate presenting some kind of new gameplay hook to get noticed. However, Darksiders obviously knows its roots and sticks to them well.

Take the core of Zelda, add a dash of God of War, mix in some Gears of War and you're kind-of-sort-of getting an idea of what Darksiders is. Now that's not to sell Vigil Games short. It's certainly no mean feat to take such a variety of influences and manage to not just get them to work together, but to do so well. Fundamentally Darksiders is a mix of combo-move combat tied to a nice puzzle based progression.

You'll find yourself exploring a Metroidvania style open world, clearing out what are essentially dungeons (though not always in so obvious a format) via combat and puzzle solving. Always chipping away at previously inaccessible areas with each new item you acquire to find powerups, maps, crystals and so forth. Puzzles often focus on a particular theme for the area you're in, but as the game progresses, you'll start finding a nice mix of all the techniques you've had to learn previously. Expect to see a number of the traditional favourites: boomerang, hookshot, block pulling and using mirrors. You also get into some new designs, including what is a more simplified version of the Portal gun being integrated into more traditional puzzle solving as well as another item which slows time.

Combat is fast and furious, while being forgiving. You'll unlock a tree of different moves between a handful of core weapons, each modifiable with glyphs which enhance certain aspects. Tied in to that, many of the puzzle solving tools you'll be using are also applicable in combat and often required with bosses. Your weapons also level based on your use of them, giving further customization as the game progresses.

Each type of enemy you encounter has their own tactics. Since they often come in mixed groups and there are a large variety, this leads to a nice flow of adaptation in the moment. Being that a large part of the game is also puzzle based, the combat areas often provide lots of ledge space to knock your opponents off of (strangely there always seems to be plenty of room for you, however). Fighting on horseback is also present in many areas of the world, allowing you to keep distance from your opponents while balancing out with extra damage when you do get up close and personal on your ride, Ruin.

Graphically, Darksiders definitely oozes beauty and style. This isn't necessarily surprising since the Creative Director of the game is well-loved comic artist Joe Madureira (or Joe Mad for short). The world is stunningly designed, leading you to stop and smell the proverbial roses on many an occasion. This also ties in when you're searching around for hidden chests or ledges to access. Character design sticks to a comic book style (again, not surprising with Joe Mad), with disproportionate body types, which fits with the story, keeping an easy tone and not taking itself too seriously (which is saying something, given the material the story is working from).

The sound isn't to be missed either. Aside from a few extra-loud effects, everything hits on the nose. With excellent directional, distance and atomospheric effects altering what's coming to your ears. The music works to set the tone well, though tuned down so that it never fully steals your attention away.

The only issue of note with the game is unique to the Xbox 360 version. The problem issue is with random screen tearing (which the intensity seems to totally vary person to person) which on occasion can also result in a system lockup. Thankfully Darksiders seems to save your progress constantly and I only ran across a crash once in my 20 hours of gameplay (lost about 30 seconds of what I had been doing). Vigil Games is currently working on a fix though. As for the screen tearing, I can only speak for myself, it only happened on occasion and often when nothing was really happening onscreen, personally I didn't really notice or care. If you really need that Vsync enabled at all times though, look at a PS3 copy.

Ultimately, it's what doesn't need to be said about Darksiders that speaks volumes. There's no trade offs or weak design. The game takes you by the hand from go and shows it knows what it's doing. There's no new big gameplay breakthroughs to be had here, but at the same time there's no loss of balance or time taken away from polish. Vigil Games managed to successfully merge the Zelda style world and puzzle design with more modern action titles. Darksiders delivers a great presentation and a fun story, wrapped in already familiar gameplay dressing and lets you just enjoy from start to finish. That kind of trust is something every gamer should have when they open their wallet.


Score: 4.5 out of 5 CoGs


Drew says, "Darksiders is a fresh IP from a new studio that uses tried and true game design. It delivers a great experience through the end of the credits, which is something more times should aspire towards."

*Note - Review based upon the 360 version of game.

**Disclaimer - Please be aware that one of the games producers, Anjanette Stach (Backseat Killer) is a member on Colony of Gamers. We've made our best effort to ensure this review is fair and balanced, but feel free to take this writeup with a grain of salt. Anjanette is offering to answer any questions posted about the game in this thread.

[Karak]

Very well written review. I can't say I agree with all of it but thanks for writing it up.

[KidCactus]

I played through the game (on PS3) in two days. Not because it's short — it took me 15 hours to finish — but because I just couldn't stop playing. I was more or less perfect for me; the tempo, the mixed up styles of gameplay, the overall comic book feel, and I very much agree with the review and the score.

[roboninja]

Well, this game is definitely on my potential buy list now, whereas it was not before. Good review.

[LordDon]

I'll almost forgive Joe Mad for stopping his work on Battlechasers for this.

[Wilkz07]

I played it, had fun with it, got stuck on a puzzle and gave up. I'll come back to it later. Great write up, the game had good mix everything I want in a game except a run button.

[Talanvor]

I think I'll be picking this up. Thanks for the review, and I was going to see if there were differences between the 360 and PS3 versions so I really appreciate seeing those types of things mentioned.

[Kelegacy]

This is a gamer's game, just as Play says. It really is a great title from what I've played. I haven't even beaten Tiamat yet. I fucking hate having to work for a living. I need to win a lotto or something.

[Commissar Rob]

Oi, like I don't have enough sitting on my shelf to play right now...but this looks fun. I may have to pick this up after I finish up Assassin's Creed Part Duex...

[EternalGamer]

I'm almost at the end now and I've spent more than 20 hours with the game. It's probably my favorite game in several years. Drew's right in that it is no small feat to combine all these gameplay elements into such a polished experience and this game does it well. It borrows a lot of ideas, but it also implements many of them with cool new twists. Like the way the various tools (including the portal gun) are used in combat scenarios.

I became kind of disenfranchised with the Zelda series over the last few years even though adventure games (like Zelda and Landstalkers) are my favorite type of game. But for me, this is the game I always wished Zelda was and I enjoyed it far more than the recent few entries in that series.

[Primus]

I am really enjoying this game, a sequel will be a day one purchase for me. It is Zelda (among other things) but it also acknowledges that I am no longer 10 years old.

[Psykoboy2]

While I have played bits and pieces of this game (out of context) at various conventions and expos (I played the thing back at E3 08!), I was worried as I first sat down and played it fully - something did not feel right. There's the obvious issue of playing on the 360 with it's well known (and hopefully soon to be fixed) problems, but something else didn't feel right.

Maybe it was playing it right after a session of Bayonetta, I don't know. But I felt out of place. Then I came to the Twilight Cathedral and it all fell into place for me. Everything clicked and a wave of Soul Reaver passed over me and suddenly, I was comfortable again. And the rest was perfection (at least so far as finishing the first 2 big bosses).

[Draconis]

Great Review, I completely agree with it.


Its clear the further I get into this game, that in a way its distinctly its own beast. What with its storyline, Far above Top Notch voice acting, and animation all being distinctly its own, its also clear that the game takes formulas from many classics in the history of Video Games, and blends them together Lovingly.

Comparisons can easily be made to the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver series, Gears of War, Panzer Dragoon, Legend of Zelda, as well as Devil May Cry and God of War as well as Portal.

What the game does is take the things we love about all of these games, and somehow, astonishingly, blends them all together in a melting pot that just WORKS. How it does it, when it does it, is phenomenal. As I've said repeatedly, one can clearly tell that this game feels like and Is an Homage to all that we as gamers love, but is also at the same time a very very deep labor of love from Vigil Games.


Thus far I've finally beaten the Black Throne, and oddly enough, I found Its puzzles the easiest. There was one combat section that took me several tries just before the last set of puzzles, but I finally got past it and then destroyed the level utterly.


Oddly enough, I find myself feeling like I did with the old days from the Original Legend of Zelda, where I refuse to look up hints and I want to discover and beat everything myself. I also see myself playing this game far more then once, as my enjoyment of the game and the differing difficulty options give me plenty of replay value for my viewpoint. Its a shame that the game cannot mix things up and rearrange stuff like a "Master Quest" from the original LoZ after a first playthrough, but thats more of an "I want" then they should pay heed to.


Now, to be fair on something. I know I've been gushing about Darksiders in the Console forums, but theres actually a very good reason as to why.


I came into Darksiders blind. I didn't really know what to expect, save that I was interested in the game, and I had some disposable income. I also picked up Bayonetta the same day. They both were pre-ordered.

After I got home from work, I installed Darksiders first to my 360s Hard Drive, expecting to play it a few minutes and then quickly go to Bayonetta.


However, that never happened. Darksiders grabbed me so much, so unexpectedly, and it has NOT let me go.

My enjoyment of this game has been thorough, and I find myself having a love for this game akin to when I first played a Link to the Past back when I was a kid.


Put simply, this game, will by and far, forever go in my eternal Top Ten favorite games of all time. I know it may or may not mean much to the team or Joe himself, but to Backseat Killer I give both my eternal thanks to you and all on the team for such a fantastic and overwhelmingly surprising title that will forever remain in my memories as one of my favorite games, and also a question.

I've seen the Other designs of the Horseman, Wars brothers, and Sister as it were. With the reception the game has had, (and hopefully awesome sales numbers), can we expect to see, and hopefully play one of these characters in the sequel?

Here's looking forward to playing as Death in the Sequel or perhaps even Fury.

Again, thanks to all involved for such an awesome game and an EXCELLENT start to 2010.

[torrefaction]

I'm with Draconis, this game brought the gamer out in me. I haven't loved a game this much in a very long time, in terms of pure enjoyment. It's got depth, it doesn't beat you over the head with the trivialities of the world, rather it implies them and lets you build some of the background and ideas yourself (I always hate when games go on long diatribes about shit the character in question should already know.), but leaves a constant mystery about the plottings of the demons, angels, and the Council (Not to mention "Old Ones"). The comparisons to Legacy of Kain are pretty apt, although the Prince of Persia draw seem to get left out a lot.

The gameplay is gold, and I just find myself constantly loving it. If I had to niggle some complaints out, it'd probably be the speed of the character pre-Ruin (Would a haste wrath power have been so awful? ), and what feels like a discouragement on using Wrath powers in general. Also, because of the open world...some of the areas I felt movement was arbitrarily restricted. I can't fly over that rock to get to that area I was just in, so I have to take the long way? I could NORMALLY fly over that rock, if it was any other rock. But I recognize that the need to ensure puzzles couldn't be easily "broken" occasionally take precedence over freedom of movement, however frustrating that may be during backtracking because I wanna find all the goodies.

The graphic and art design are just stellar overall. There's nothing quite like it, they manage to take a dark bleak world and still make it colorful and vibrant, all while maintaining a consistent feel, look, and design.

The PS3 still has some of those damn VSync issues, but not a single crash thus far.

I'm freeing Azrael ATM.

Here's my real hope for the sequel, and I thought about it right away, as soon as I started playing as war. I want 4-player coop with all the damn Horsemen. With what is apparently some impressive talent on a fresh team, and some original takes on old ideas as well as some new hooks here and there, I'd love to see what they could do with that.

I envision massive battle plains like we saw in the desert area on occasion, riding through battle with all the other Horsemen.

I haven't loved a game this much in a long, long time. Top ten for sure.

Backseat Killer and Vigil...welcome to my favorite developers list.

[Morratut]

Great game, i am really enjoying it. I would recommend this to fans of the genre.
Just facing ofF against the third boss. Good fun and a great start to 2010

[Ghostbear]

This game touches my g-spot.

Thats my Gamer Spot you pervs!

[torrefaction]

Originally Posted by Morratut

Great game, i am really enjoying it. I would recommend this to fans of the genre.
Just facing ofF against the third boss. Good fun and a great start to 2010

Which of the 3-6 genres are you referring to? :P

[Gerbs]

I'm playing on the hard difficulty, and I find there really isn't all that much in the way of health drops from enemies. Green orbs will come flying out of foes but it'll fill maybe 1/10th of a life bar if I'm lucky. Taking a hit causes anywhere from 1/2 a bar to over a full bars worth of life it seems. Also getting constantly hit from off screen sucks, besides that the game is pretty good! I better get the achievements for hard, normal, and easy when I beat it hah.

[ReaverX]

Originally Posted by Gerbs

I'm playing on the hard difficulty, and I find there really isn't all that much in the way of health drops from enemies. Green orbs will come flying out of foes but it'll fill maybe 1/10th of a life bar if I'm lucky. Taking a hit causes anywhere from 1/2 a bar to over a full bars worth of life it seems. Also getting constantly hit from off screen sucks, besides that the game is pretty good! I better get the achievements for hard, normal, and easy when I beat it hah.

Try using more grab moves. I'm playing on Hard as well, and you basically have to use grabs to take out enemies to get green orbs. The one hit kills on certain enemies (the green bats, and the "duskwing" flying creatures in particularly) net green orbs as well.

[Gerbs]

Originally Posted by ReaverX

Try using more grab moves. I'm playing on Hard as well, and you basically have to use grabs to take out enemies to get green orbs. The one hit kills on certain enemies (the green bats, and the "duskwing" flying creatures in particularly) net green orbs as well.

Yeah I'm doing this on almost every enemy I can. It's definitely doable it just amazes me how fast I can go from 3 full bars to red near death in 2 seconds.