So, here's the second part of my personal look back at my weekend in gaming (part one was about the masterpiece Assassin's Creed II), this time making a spotlight for a game that definitely enriched this generation of videogames - Darksiders.
How to best describe Darksiders? Well, take the art style of Marvel comics, The Legend of Zeldas ground structure of adventuring and exploring dungeons combined the mighty hack'n'slay combat of the God of War series and put them in a mixer. What comes out is Darksiders. But I don't want to define Darksiders via it's influences, the game definitely deserves a place of it's own.
First, there's an epic story of our modern world beeing bombed back in stone age by the Apocalypse, by the armies of heaven battling the hordes of hell in a place that reminds you of New York City. You take the role of War, one of The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse. War is sent down to earth only to witness the slaying of humanity. It soon turns out that he is only a puppet in a greater game and is used as scapegoat to blame the apocalypse on. As the kingdom of mankind fell, War is enslaved by the council, a mysterious instance that keeps the balance between heaven and hell. After a hundred years the council gives War one last chance: To find out who break the seals and triggered the world destruction. But like a dog on a leash they implement The Watcher in his body, a sadistic instructor who at the same time gives War hints and keeps him under control. On a sidenote: The Watcher is voiced by the outstanding Mark Hamill (you might know him as The Joker from Batman: Arkham Asylum or as Luke Skywalker from Star Wars... Yep, that is correct.).
War arrives on earth only to see that all what's left of the kingdom of mankind is ruins filled with demons and zombies. Patrols of angels are roaming the skies - the war between heaven and hell is still on.
I don't want to spoil too much, but in the course of the game you'll meet a handful of friendly characters like Vulgrim the soul trader or Ulthane the black smith and lots of evil ones to kill. Darksiders definitely has an interesting story line, if you like comic books (producer Joe Madueira worked for Marvel before, drawing series like Battle Chasers), you'll be able get into it. To all the people whining about the game's so called lack of originality: Change your action frame of reference or go fuck yourself.
The gameplay itself is about roaming the post apocalyptic world and finding new strongholds of evil to finally putting all pieces together to solve the conspiracy. The landscape itself differs much: Starting in the ruins of NY, War travels through metro tubes to reach green oases, riding vast deserts on the back of his flaming horse Ruin or rainy fortresses complety with lava streams. You'll even pay a visit to heaven. The world definitely screams comic fantasy everywhere, but that is a good thing. And you really can say that the game never gets boring. War is constantly equipped with new toys that enable him to travel further and slay his enemies in different ways. Any item that is needed to solve the many riddles that Darksiders has to offer, can be used for combat as well. Combat can be hectic sometimes, but War is a bad ass and hard to take down. He not only has his Cloud Strife sized sword Chaos Eater, he is also able to throw a giant scythe and a powerful gauntlet. All weapons can be upgraded with new moves, modded with certain emblems you'll find on your way to salvation and gain experience while used. So, yes, the game definitely stays fresh until the last second.
To sum it up, I can say that Darksiders is a must have for anyone who loves fantastic single player action adventure games. It's Zelda for matures and definitely the first must have of 2010. If you like a hero that throws some of the coolest one liners in gaming ("Can you restore the balance?" Epic.) and is a mean killing machine with a vengeance, you can't do anything with this game. I am so waiting for Darksiders 2 to see the other horsemen. Until then I'll keep this game in good memory.
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