Darksiders : Review : Playstation 3 : Web Wombat

Darksiders is set in a Post-Apocalyptic demon-ravaged world where evil forces have prematurely brought about the end of time. Originally sent to oversee the destruction of Earth, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have been betrayed by their master, stripped of their powers and sent down to Earth.

Players step into the shoes of War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the main character in this case. His sole duty is to be summoned to Earth, Kingdom of Man, once the final battle of Armageddon between Heaven and Hell begins on Earth. War is not aligned to either kingdom but instead serves to bring order by the rule of The Charred Council, whose purpose is to maintain the balance between the two forces.

Throughout the story, War is accompanied by The Watcher, a warden sent by the Charred Council to watch over and at times guide War on his journey. War later employs the guidance of Samael, once a mighty and feared demon, now imprisoned who himself seeks vengeance against the Destroyer, leader of the victorious hell forces on Earth.

So, now you have the general gist of what is going on, let's get down to the gameplay.

Darksiders has a very good learning curve, the controls start out very simple and gradually get more complex as you unlock new moves and weapons.

The control layout is pretty straight forward the square button is your attack, triangle is your secondary attack, X is jump and circle is your action button (used for opening doors, chests and quick kills).

The first level of the game fills you in about the story while taking you through an in-game tutorial, which is good way of killing two birds with one stone.

One cool aspect of Darksiders is after your foes have taken a bit of punishment a circle button appears above their head. By getting close enough to your victim and pressing the circle button, this activates the quick kill option.

This option works on pretty much every in-game foe, even bosses. Some of the kill animations are pretty sweet and kind of gory.

Throughout the game you receive souls for killing enemies, these souls are broken down into three groups: green, yellow and blue.

Blue - souls that are used to purchase weapons and new moves from Vulgrim an aged demon.

Yellow - souls that fill War's wrath meter allowing him to unleash powerful moves.

Green - souls that restore you health meter.

As you progress through the game you can use your blue souls to purchase weapons and combos that change the way you fight. You start out with a massive sword, but as you progress you unlock a variety of weapons such as a large scythe which is good when fighting large groups, a giant ninja star that has boomerang qualities and can target multiple enemies, plus a grappling hook that lets you swing to distant items and pull things towards you. In addition to these items, you can also unlock or purchase new combos which adds even more depth to the in-game combat.

One of the main things about the combat that I really enjoyed was the boss fights. While they aren't that challenging in terms of gameplay, visually they are pretty damn sweet. The sheer scale of the bosses give a sense of fear and urgency. Each boss fight requires you to make use of the item you've just gained within that level, which can make things rather tricky.

Overall, Darksiders combines solid game play, collectibles and power-ups offering gamers quite a few hours of gameplay. Engaging combat and a surprisingly complex puzzle solving elements give Darksiders an edge over previous titles of this genre. The involving story also make this title hard to overlook.

Game: Darksiders
System: Playstation 3
Players: 1
Online: No
Developer: Vigil Games
Publisher: THQ

Rating: 75%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

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