It’s an exceptional game that copies elements of another series and come out the other side just as good: Darksiders is one of those games. The design team behind the game, including creative director Joe Madureira (better known as a comic-book artist who has worked on everyone’s favourite X-Men) has made no secret of the fact that the game owes a lot to The Legend of Zelda, but God Of War and Ninja Gaiden are just as much of an influence. With all of that combined together, Darksiders may even be a game that is greater than the sum of its parts (but we’re not saying it is, just because Zelda is really that good.
Set in a twisted version of our world, Darksiders puts players in control of War, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, whose purpose is to judge (ie. kill) humans, demons and angels alike when the seven seals are broken and the Apocalypse happens. When War rides into action prematurely, with demons and angels fighting on Earth even though the last seal remains intact, he is held accountable for bringing about the fall of humanity. With a hundred years having passed, War is granted permission to return to an Earth overrun with demons in order to find out who triggered the fake Apocalypse and is responsible for his own downfall.
War is accompanied on his quest by the Watcher (voiced by Mark Hamill, recycling the voice used for the Joker in various Batman franchises), who provides hints and tips on certain areas and, at the beginning of the game, suggests that War enlist the services of the demon Vulgrim (a character who doubles as a merchant and also allows for quick transport around the game-world.) Vulgrim makes introductions to the arch-demon Samael who promises War direct passage to the demon he seeks, for a price. Thus begins War’s journey around the world, visiting several areas (equivalent to dungeons or temples in other games) to fight the demonic inhabitants and obtain treasures and the new powers that they grant.
Much of the game takes place in an unnamed Destroyed City, and like bigger Zelda games (like those post-Ocarina) or even Nintendo’s other franchise, Metroid Prime, gameplay is an unusual mix of open-world with linear progression: the game leads War from one area to the next, but these areas mostly overlap, and double-backing abounds as each area has paths that can only be accessed once War unlocks a certain power. The ruined city gives the game a more modern and urban feel than most of its contemporaries, while retaining some of the fantastical elements from the aforementioned games: a water “dungeon” is located in the fractured sewers and subway tunnels, while the abandoned area outside of the city’s gates is a desert of ash, dust and bodies.
War’s appearance and powers are an equally anachronistic mix: beginning his quest with a sword, he later gains access to several guns and even has the opportunity to pick up single-use weapons along the way (including the awesome fracture cannon, owing a tiny bit of inspiration to the needle guns from the Halo franchise.)
The unusual thing with Darksiders is that the game doesn’t act like it isn’t referencing other games or movies, whether it’s the jingle that plays as a door unlocks (Zelda), the red-and-blue portals created by the portal gun Voidwalker (Portal) or even the fact that, during a desert battle, the Watcher turns to the assembled watching demons to ask “Are you not entertained?” (Gladiator.) While it’s a game that doesn’t play the laughs too often, it’s not so pompous that there isn’t a wicked sense of humour behind War and his world, subtle enough that regular gamers will get the references while others will just consider it a deeper level to the game.
However, chances are that anyone playing this game shouldn’t be a newcomer to the world of gaming, if just because Darksiders takes those games it references and then makes things that little bit more extreme. Playing as War, it’s to be expected that the game is bloody and violent, most of which is firmly based in fantasy, with War more than happy to punch enemies so hard that they explode, or with a gush of blood as he opens magically sealed gates. There are even achievements to be gained from the amount of blood spilled during the game. Yet there’s never enough gore that it distracts from play, with significantly less in this game than has featured in other bloody games of recent years.
With its basis in the world of action gaming, Darksiders plays exactly as expected: there’s a certain element of button mashing on the face buttons to string together War’s melee attacks into a combo(using both the Chaoseater sword, a scythe and a super-powered gauntlet) while ranged attacks are unleashed using the right trigger. Combat is quite easy, the left trigger allowing War to lock on to enemies, and there’s an emphasis on large enemies with armour, lots of health or possessing bone-crushing combos of their own: it’s a good thing that block and evade functions are both mapped to the same button. Each item (or weapon) can be assigned to the D-pad for easy access, while the left bumper controls War’s special moves, depending on the amount of wrath he has collected. War feels bulky and powerful, moving with similar strength and speed to Batman in 2009’s Batman: Arkham Asylum game: it’s all the more believable for when he needs to take down demons several times his size.
Darksiders doesn’t make any claims to being as successful as those games it references, but with the game’s sensibilities, it sets out to be fun, and achieves its goals, maybe even surpassing them. There’s potential for a sequel, even a whole franchise where things can get a lot more original: we’ll look forward to the chance to check that out to see if the Darksiders series can make it on its own as well.
Zombie Rating: B+
Darksiders is available now for XBox 360 and Sony PlayStation3.
