Introduction.

Well I imported my copy of The Darkness and it arrived about the time i got Gaiden i was torn between the two as to which to play, so i thought hell will go with the darkness, a day later i was sat there with the Credits rolling infront of me thinking bah was that it. So i started Gaiden. Now i knew this game was hard but....

Impressions.

....Damn. I mean i found myself at my wits end on so many occasions i found myself killing things over and over to get potions for the next boss, using everything at my disposal just to keep normal trash at bay, its no holds barred hair tearing from start to finish.

Ok so i got the demo off the US store a few months back played it through got stuck on Very Hard difficulty thought hmm normal on the full game would be a cake walk, so i boot the game up and the first level loads up, first things first item menu go to put the lunar on to woop some ass, to find i have 1 sword 1 SWORD. Its the underpowered version of the worst sword in the demo i have little to no life no ninpo and the realisation of the games legendry difficulty hits me.

A few hours down the line im getting the hang of it, fairly straight forward im no where near pro constantly getting my ass handed to me when i run into a few guys. As with most games you suddenly go SNAP and you get into the flow and from then i was having fun.

Well that was until i hit the ice/fire dungeon where you have 3 consecutive bosses to fight barely any potions and once the enemies are gone they are gone no farming for more essense, i ended up putting the game down for 3 days after attempting to clear this place for about 6 hours. Didnt play it for about 4 days came back and aced it.

The Boring bit.

Ok so the graphics. i would say an easy 8.5 mabye more out of 10, they are stunning the lighting is top notch and the animations are immense, so why only 8.5? The water, i tried to look past it i really did but its just awful you look at it and you can see texture squares loading up as you move along and what looks like a chess board of water pieces when you look at a river, i know im being a bit harsh but this started to eat away at my eyes especially since theres a bit of emphasis on it in the game (ability to water run) fair enough if it was in the background.

Sound - Its ok nice music gets on your nerves a bit tends to repeat alot. so i guess 7/10

Gameplay - Easy 9 read above.

So if your looking for a PS3 game to tide your over till Lair or November then get this worth the money and will last you along time just make sure you take breaks and buy a wig for when you tear your hair out