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Add a cup of God of War, a spoonful of The Legend of Zelda and pinches of Metroid, Portal, Star Fox and Shadow of the Colossus. Once you have it all, ask a man on steroids filled with hatred and violence to brutally stir it e voilà, you have Darksiders ready to serve.
Review
In Darksiders you take the role of War, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who are called whenever the balance in between the reigns of heaven, hell and men is broken. Regarding the depth of the story itself, it seems as if one of the writers had came up with an incredibly mature and deep story, only to face against the producers, who started mumbling how inappropriate it was for teenagers. While playing it there are times where you can take a glimpse upon the original story only to suddenly hear a voice in your head that resonates "Gears of War is popular, make it look like it!". Hence, instead of having an 18+ rating for mature themes it gets the rating for ridiculous amounts of blood and gore, which may or may not be more appropriate for teenagers, but are definitely far more popular and pump up the sales. As an example of how unnecessarily bloody it is, instead of using keys for locked doors you get some sort of ritual blade with which you must stab the door in the eye, moment in which it showers you with gallons of blood. The result of all this is a laughably ridiculous and immature story.
It should be clear by now that we aren't here for the story so lets proceed: gameplay. Darksiders features one of the worst beginnings I've ever played, with linear levels and a combat system which completely relies on button smashing. Thankfully this "only" lasts for an hour or so because, once you reach the first dungeon, you start exploring, solving puzzles and, in general, doing something else than move-slash-slash-slash-move. Once you finish that dungeon you'll gain access to the fast travel system (which also happens to be very cool and thematic) and start sort of exploring. And I include the "sort of" because the maps, both the main world and the dungeons, are still linear levels in disguise. It's quite usual to find a bit where you can't progress because you haven't done something but, instead of letting you explore, figure out what to do and return, the path twists in such a way that you miraculously return to the locked area shortly after you have whatever is needed to progress. In the very few occasions where the game doesn't do this it's either because it hides either an optional item, one meant to be acquired later or because you aren't that much far away from where you need to be in the fist place.
The realm of men in ruins
Combat itself is... Ridiculously easy. Remember I mentioned the intro sequence was just a matter of slashing and moving? Well, that scheme works throughout most of the game and, when it doesn't, it's simply a matter of adding a dash every now and then to avoid the enemies' attacks. Thankfully the system is fast paced and fluid, so it can be fun despite the lack of real challenge. Boss fights are another story, as they are thematic, challenging and fun. Each boss not only has it's unique attack patterns but requires a completely different approach from the previous ones. There are also mid-level bosses which aren't as unique and fun but still are challenging, so the whole boss department is good.
If this isn't the first time you read something about Darksiders chances are you have heard it's drinks a lot from Zelda. In theory I must agree as it has a lot of mechanisms in common: pieces of heart (which happen to be skulls but that's not the point), dungeons, items, bosses, puzzles, exploration... Everything is there, yet still in practice I must digress as the only aspect it truly nails are the boss fights: dungeons are linear, puzzles are too easy and combat, exploration and puzzles are usually completely separated instead of gracefully merged. Yet still all these elements give the game a differentiating touch and greatly help it keep its pace and variety. Regarding the other games I mentioned earlier, there is at the very least a stage for each of them where you can easily associate the elements in it the game in question. Sometimes they feel more like a homage, others like a rip off, but as a whole they work as they increase the variety the game provides.
Time for the technical side: graphics are good, engine is quite a mess. I played the PC version and, despite the apparent lack of severe bugs, I kept bumping with tons of small yet irritating glitches. The most common was camera going bananas, doing things like showing me an empty wall but there were still tons of bugs, like achievements not unlocking (I don't really care but I'm certain some of you do) and... Did you knew that if you are knocked off your horse you'll have to summon it again or you won't be able to attack? And that once you summon it it'll automatically disappear once you hop on it, so you have to summon it yet again to actually ride it? And that if you are knocked off again during the process you have to do the whole thing again? I don't think I need to mention how annoying it is. PC controls don't help either as they are a fast port of those for consoles, leading to awkward combinations which require of unnatural finger contortionism.
Meanwhile, everything regarding the game's aesthetics is tough and macho. Too tough and macho. As with the story, the looks of every single character are so hard pressed they end up being ridiculous. Environment on the other hand is thematic and fits the theme perfectly and so does the soundtrack. Voice acting is... Horrible in Spanish and simply bad in English, as in Spanish each and every character is mediocrely voiced while in English only War is the one below average. Thing is he happens to be the main character and single handedly manages to ruin almost every dialogue with his monotone voice.
Final words
As you can see, the game is filled with tons of imperfections but, despite the overall lack of polish, it's still fun and I did had my fair share of enjoyment with it. Had it been more polished I would have definitely held it higher in regard but, as is, can't do that. Most likely those looking for a hack & slash with a bit of variety will dig it, but those that want either real challenge or a true action-exploration game will be disappointed.
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Luke Stirling
Australia
Southbank
Victoria
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I'd add Samael as another badly voiced actor in the English version. As a linguist I have trouble listening to a badly done fake accent. Even one partly covered up by post-processing effects.
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Finishing move
The realm of men in ruins
War and his steed, Ruin
