Darksiders rides in and gets a Busy Gamer 3

First Glance:
It’s a game where the first horseman of the Apocalypse extracts his revenge against those who wronged him.

Short Story:
You are War, the first horseman of the Apocalypse. During a battle between Angels and Demons in the middle of an Earth city, only War himself and not the other three horsemen are summoned to bring in the Apocalypse. While War is doing what he does best, he starts to lose his powers. Not knowing why, he then finds himself powerless battling a giant demon. He is defeated, and finds himself in front of the Charred Council, the ones responsible for creating the seven seals that prevents neither heaven or hell from causing problems for Earth. If all seven seals are broken, then the Four Horsemen will be summoned to destroy everything. Since War was the only horsemen summoned, the Charred Council believe the one known as the Destroyer is the reason for War’s summoning. Now, the Council has given War the opportunity to gain some revenge against the ones who wronged him. You now go on to clear your name and kill countless demons and even some angels on the way.

The Score:
This was a good game. Great graphics and a good story line go along with it. My only problem with this game is the length of it. Because of that, I give this game a solid 3.

Body of the Review:
Good:
I did enjoy playing this game. This game has aspects of at least three different games in it. The game play feels like Devil May Cry, the look is that of God of War, and the items and dungeons remind me of Legend of Zelda. I was really impressed with the music of the game. At a first glance, I half expected to start hearing some death metal, but to my surprise, the game was scored with some very nice orchestral music. Now, the dungeons you go through to take your revenge on a variety of demons remind me of The Legend of Zelda series. There are about 5 or 6 dungeons to go through in this game. One in particular is a water temple which is pretty difficult. Remind you of anything?  Another thing is the variety of weapons you find in the dungeons. One of my favorites is the Abyssal Chain. This weapon is basically the hook shot from the Zelda series, it can be used to reach far off places that you can’t jump to or to defeat certain enemies. Another Zelda aspect is a demon known as The Watcher(voiced by Mark Hamill). He is assigned to you by the Charred Council in order to “keep an eye on you.”  He acts as your “fairy,” and tells you certain things about the area. Probably what I liked the most about this game is the fact that the treasures and weapons you find in these dungeons are necessary to defeating that dungeon’s boss. But that’s just me because I’m a huge Legend of Zelda fan.

We're pretty sure he's not here for a cup of sugar...

Speaking of weapons, your primary weapon is the Chaos Eater, which is basically a pretty big sword. You use this to unleash massive combos and cut in half any demon or angel that stands in your way. The next big weapon you find, the Scythe. You can use this as well, but when an action icon comes up when you wear an enemy down, the death strike will always be given with the Chaos Eater, which is kind of a bummer because I think it would’ve been nice to see some finishing hits with the Scythe, but nobodies perfect. Among those two, you will also obtain a power glove which will allow some ground pounds, a bracelet that you can use to create portals(which is pretty cool), and also, like I said, the hook shot like Abyssal Chain. You also get a horse and a gun in this game. When on your Hell-Steed, your sword strikes give double damage so it has it’s perks. Your gun doesn’t do much damage and when you get it, most of the enemies you shoot at will be able to block the gunfire anyway so I wouldn’t use it much. The more kills you get these weapons, that weapon will level up. You can also buy upgrades, moves and combos for the Chaos Eater and Scythe.

One of the best aspects of this game, is perhaps the voice acting. I felt the voice acting in this game was done well, but when you put someone like Mark Hamill in the mix, you know it’s going to be good.

Who knew War could catch air?

Bad:
My main problem with this game has got to be the length of it. It took about two weeks for me to get this game done. I usually like to complete a game in at least a week, mainly because I rent games when they first come out. Although the story was good, and the end left it open for a possible sequel, I felt it could have been shorter. I felt there was a certain point between the last smaller dungeon, and you going into the final dungeon to take on the Destroyer could have been left out, but that’s just me.

Final Thoughts:
All in all I think it’s a good game. The cut scenes were well done as well as the writing, voice acting and, musical scoring. The game play is great and the story is pretty compelling but long. I would like to play this game again in the future. I think THQ and Vigil Games did a great job putting together a game like this.

Happy gaming everybody!

M-Dawg

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 5:24 am and is filed under Busy Gamer 3, Game Reviews, MDawg. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.