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Genre: Third-Person Action Publisher: THQ Developer: Vigil Players: 1

By Keith B (18th Jan 2010)

It sounds like such fun – play as War, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, as he hunts down a range of demons that 100 years ago tricked him into causing a battle between Heaven and Hell, resulting in the destruction of all humanity. The world lies in ruin; the Charred Council - who control the balance between light and dark - are pissed, and the resulting vacuum of life on the planet has invited all the demons out to play. Not to mention the angels, a group that War has no problem about cleaving in two with his mammoth sword.

Although stripped of his powers, which he will regain one at a time, he can still crack heads and does relentlessly as he searches out the truth as to who summoned the four horsemen in the first place. He has company on his bloodletting mission, in the form of The Watcher, and entity bound to War by the Charred Council to ensure he doesn’t deviate from his quest.

It’s a back story with much potential, and if you include the artistic and creative force, comic book legend Joe Madureira into the mix then the tale should be one of magnitude, and often it is. Having magnitude though doesn’t mean that the simplest of things can be overlooked in the hope that disappointing big boss battles and incessant swinging of a sword will cloud over the occasional technical or detail issue.

For the better part of the experience, War will be smashing wave after wave of enemies apart with one of a handful of weapons, all of which can level up and provide additional damage, or whack one of the collectable runes onto one and other effects are released. In addition to the weapon attacks, War can unleash special attacks which burn Wrath, represented by a sort of magic bar. Wrath can be accumulated from smashing enemies to pieces, or from some of the many chests littered around the game world, which often meanders from a ruined earth to many otherworld locations and while impressive in approach if you look hard there’s actually little substance.



String together enough combos and another meter fills, and once it’s complete, War can temporarily turn himself into a massive demon, becoming practically invulnerable for a period and allowing massive damage to be unleashed. It lasts for less than half a minute, but provides such ultimate power that its long recharge time seems justified.

Critiquing Darksiders is more about trying not to list the many games from which it draws influence, and that list is extensive. From the general combat to the smashing of chests with a fist to release bonus cash, wrath or health there is a big nod to God of War, with the button prompted death sequences also ringing that bell. Zelda fans will tell you that the core gameplay falls squarely in that territory. If that means having barely-hidden secret areas and plenty of plodding around the same rooms looking for a key, then so be it.

The lack of creative approach in terms of elements within the game seems to have not only been generally forgiven by the mainstream press, but applauded. I don’t see what there is to clap about, because there aren’t many points within Darksiders that haven’t been seen before, and in many cases, done better. Certainly, pooling creative ideas with a smattering of different mechanics is an art in itself, but for something which boasts a thoroughly new storyline, is it too much to ask that we see something innovative in the execution?



In fact, I could probably overlook the lack of innovation if what has been done had been done well throughout. The combat is simple but effective, but getting around the game world? Not so much. Whether it is the refusal of the camera to raise when War jumps (a small issue but one that becomes important when you’re trying to find a Lara Croft-like path up the face of a cliff) or the failure of it to pan more than 180 degrees while on a wall when you must jump backwards and grasp a handy wire across a chasm, there are plenty of times said camera will prompt a series of expletives. The jumping mechanic is also shaky, with War often falling to his doom because his massive boots are apparently dodgy on ledges, and while I appreciate it could have something to do with my inability to do it right, it’s far too frequent to let me believe it’s entirely my ineptitude.

How about changing into that massive demon form? That has to be right, right? Wrong. Getting into demon form isn’t the problem, but perhaps the most infuriating thing is that should another small cutscene kick in while playing as the demon, maybe showing three new enemies scurrying down a wall, then upon return to play War is back to himself with the demon bar empty.



Even The Watcher, the creature bound to War and voiced by Mark Hamill, had plenty of potential but ultimately fails. You can summon him at any time but are invited to do so when a blue icon appears on screen. Often his speech doesn’t help further the current mission, and considering the blue icon appears every time you enter any given room, you tend to stop calling him forth as most of the time he’s repeating the same thing over and over. If you’ve played Batman: Arkham Asylum then he sounds almost exactly the same.

The puzzles are frequent but frequently easy. As the game progresses and new features come forth, like the ability to slow down time, new approaches are demanded but rarely are they in any way challenging. Often, more time is spent negotiating the jumps than actually working out what to do. Using War’s massive shurikenesque weapon can be used to light explosives and string attacks together but it’s a mechanic that’s never pushed to the limit.

My biggest gripe though is the technical execution. Never before, and I mean absolutely never, have I seen a game with such spirit-crushing screen tearing as I found in Darksiders. For a game that requires almost continual panning of the camera it is something I just couldn’t ignore and it sent shockwaves through my ability to enjoy what I was doing. There are soundings out there that a patch is imminent for the 360 version but it hasn’t arrived yet.



Looking at it analytically, the only conclusion I can draw is that the game was broken throughout the final six months of development, but a decision was made to release it before the developers go back into the engine to fix the screen tearing. The conclusion is reached because 1) The issue is on the 360 version and not the PS3 2) it can be fixed with a patch, and 3) a developer explained that this is the most likely case. Excuse me if I baulk at the suggestion a broken game was released and consumers are supposed to accept that. What if you can’t get it patched because you’re not online?

As with many games like this, despite all the complaining I seem to have done, I can still see this enjoying plenty of success. This is either from a simplistic approach appealing to a greater audience, or the legions of Madureira fans being able to ignore the tearing and movement issues. If you allow yourself to become immersed in the story then perhaps you will find more here than I did, but I can’t however, and that’s why Darksiders is more Too Human for me than God of War.

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