I played through this for the 2010 Retro TR theme this month, as it's a game I tried but just never got back to a few years ago. Going back to it now, I remember all the ways I felt about it back then, and I still feel them now and can articulate them better. Let's just say it's probably something I would've put down and let stay down once more had it not been the TR encouraging me XD. It took me around 13 hours, according to my in-game clock, to beat the game on normal mode and getting very nearly all the collectibles. I also played the whole game with a Steam Controller, and it worked surprisingly well (although there was one puzzle where it seemed my lack of a right analog stick might make it impossible, but it was only quite difficult instead XD).
Darksiders is a series about the four horsemen of the apocalypse doing individual quests (usually) during/leading up to the apocalypse. This first game stars War, who is confused as only he is summoned to intervene in an unexpected final war between Heaven and Hell. He is defeated by the forces of Hell and the Council (who control balance between the worlds and have the horsemen as their law enforcers, basically) task him with bringing whoever is responsible for destroying the world to justice in order to clear his name. The game itself is often described as a Zelda-clone, in style, but I would say it takes just as much, if not more, from God of War as it does from Zelda. The story is pretty pants. It's paced really terribly, with an okay setup but barely anything through most of the game until the last hour or so when you get a TON. Given the premise, it seemed like it was going to be something like "dark and light are two self-serving sides of the same corrupt coin", but it's far less interesting than that. Other than some unintentionally entertaining really badly directed cinematics every once in a while, the story takes itself too seriously to be campy fun, and it's far too shallow to get much value from on the more serious side of things. It's got some nice character designs, but everything about the game's presentation is fairly lackluster on the whole. It really could've done with being a bit more silly or a bit more daring in trying to frame its serious aspects, but it lands squarely in the middle and ends up being forgettable more than anything else. The gameplay is at times Zelda-y and at times God of War-y. For combat you have a standard weapon and two subweapons, a range of utility/ranged combat weapons (like a grappling hook), as well as consumables, passives you can equip, and money you can earn to buy more moves with. It's ultimately pretty shallow though. The moves you can buy aren't actually valuable because the enemy variety is pretty low and the strategy needed to defeat any of them never really gets beyond "mash X and dodge sometimes". Your combos also don't go together between your main weapon and your subweapons, so there's really never much reason to use anything but your main sword and sometimes your ranged stuff for far away things. Only one of the ranged weapons is actually worth using anyhow. The game has a TON of combat arenas and lots of spongey enemies, considering how bland the combat is, and it drags the whole pace of the game down that much further. The game isn't terribly hard, but enemies do hit quite hard, so you do need to keep dodging if you wanna live. Overall, the combat felt a bit half-baked, and I would've preferred if there was less of it or if it had been more engaging to actually play. On the more Zelda-y side of things, there are dungeons to explore, chests to find full of health, mana, and keys, as well as hidden collectibles to hunt down as well. Heck, the game even has heart containers and an end-game Triforce hunt (in all but name), just in case you didn't think it was Zelda-y enough. The dungeons range from mid-tier Zelda to mid-tier God of War, and are often okay but occasionally outstay their welcomes or have really arduous parts in them. There's a portal gun you get at one point and that dungeon goes on for AGES. Someone REALLY thought they had the inspiration for Portal 2 on their hands at the time, because that puzzle mechanic gets used way more than any other. The boss battles also range from "confusingly short" to "oh my god can this just be over already". Those two states of mind sum up a lot of the different aspects of the game, to be totally honest XP Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. I didn't exactly love my time with Darksiders, but I didn't really hate it either. It's just so video games that the only strong feelings i really have about it are "I probably could've played something better" XP. It's not a bad game, and if you're a really big fan of Ocarina of Time-style Zelda games, you'll probably enjoy it more than I did, but the whole thing is a bit half-baked, and your time is probably better served playing the games it's doing an only okay job of copying.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
AuthorI'm an avid gamer who likes to detail their thoughts about what they play in the hopes it might aid someone else's search for a game to play. Archives
April 2024
|