Darksiders does many things that other hack-n-slash games don't; providing great story and gameplay all in one package.
Button mashers and/or hack-n-slash games can sometimes be misleading to many action fans out there. Games that feature excellent ideas, gory graphics, and interesting combat may look nice, but ultimately become stale early on. Darksiders thankfully remains entertaining throughout thanks to its pacing as well as its surprisingly entertaining story. You play as one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, named War, and you are set on an adventure in which you must fight to regain your lost ability and put an end to evil. It may sound cliche', but thankfully it isn't too much most of the time.
Gameplay:
This game is classic action, and never strays away from it. Anyone who has played games such as God of War, Dante's Inferno, or Devil May Cry will feel right at home. War has many cool and gory moves at your disposal, and with a nice variety of enemies, you will never have a shortage of ways to annihilate your foes. Sometimes the various different weapons you can purchase don't feel anymore powerful. You have a demon, named Vulgrim, whom you sell souls to, so that you may purchase new abilities and upgrades. It is a cool idea, though you always feel it is a little short on ideas. If you had maybe a wide variety of different weapon effects, this could really be an interesting feature.
Boss battles range in scale, as you could have a smaller foe one minute, and then the next boss see a colossal being just about ready to squash you like a bug. This isn't God of War, though it is still very nice to see a little bit of everything with the key and crucial fights.
Sound:
Darksiders is your typical sounding game. It doesn't achieve "Hollywood" status, though that doesn't mean that it isn't great. Each sound never falters one bit. It always sounds amazing, and the voice acting is top notch. I also love how the writers included a few comedy sketches so-to-speak with certain cutscenes, which gives the whole adventure a nice, balanced pace. Now at certain points of extreme action, the sound does on occasion cut off for a split second, though this is a rare occurrence.
Story:
I don't want to spoil too much of the plot other than what was mentioned at the beginning of this review. The game is a very dark tale that starts at the beginning of the apocalypse on Earth. Meteors fall, titans arise, and you are summoned to figure out what is going on. When falsely accused of something, it is up to you to investigate, and return to Earth to put an end to whomever is responsible. Though for us humans, it is a little late, as over 100 earth years have passed since the opening event. The plot remains consistent, which is always nice to see from a genre that sometimes feels a little familiar, and Darksiders has its way of remaining original.
Graphics:
This isn't the best looking game though that is not to say it is ugly either. I like the unique art direction in this game, and if improved upon, then Darksiders 2 (announced for a 2013 release), should look nothing short of spectacular. There aren't too many details present, but the ones that you would expect to be necessary in every game are present here. Once again, consistency is present. Environments also stay true throughout, as very rarely will you see an area that looks familiar.
Shortcomings and Glitches/Bugs:
There aren't too many things that appear to be wrong with Darksiders. Sometimes the framerate does dip slightly, though as one would expect, only during high action sequences when there are tons of things going on on-screen. I sometimes encountered a couple of enemies that would somehow get morphed into a wall or floor/ground, but this only happened a couple of times. The game doesn't really do a good job sometimes at the beginning of boss battles of showing you a way of being able to defeat them, which can leave a player wondering what they need to do, and then possibly spiking there controller on the ground in anger. We don't want that to happen. With that said, the game's difficulty can be misleading, as it is not an overly difficult game, nor a long one either. For more experienced action fans, playing on the game's hardest difficulty (Apocalyptic), almost feels like a requirement to get a challenge out of this game, while inexperience action players should stick to normal.
Conclusion:
There aren't too many terrific action games out there, much less great ones. Those that are great are clearly golden, and should be experienced by many of us gamers. I myself can admit that I was always skeptical before trying this out, thinking that the game would feel familiar. Thankfully I was surprised at the amount of originality the game holds. You will love bashing in the heads of many of your foes, slashing their limbs apart, and diving deep into this tale of epic proportions. Darksiders may not reinvent the genre, but the most important thing is that it stays true to the things that make action games so great.
High/Low Points:
+ Great Original Story
+ Remains Consistent On All Key Areas Of Play
- Not A Difficult Game
- Needs A Larger Variety of Weapons
Gameplay Score: 8.0/10
Sound Score: 7.5/10
Story Score: 8.5/10
Graphics Score: 8.0/10
Presentation Score: 8.0/10
Overall Score: 8.0/10
Replay Value: Moderate