Darksiders

[digg]

Darksiders is an action-packed game that likes to throw everything at you. From its well-conceived ideas to its gameplay mechanics, it's simply one that shouldn't be overlooked in the start of 2010. While the game does suffer from its spastic pace changes and weird quirks that seem to bring it down more than it should, it's a good game all around.

The game is about War--one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse--as he answers the call to bring order after the Seven Seals are broken and war is waged between Heaven, Hell, and Man. Just as he arrives, however, he discovers that the Seals are still intact and the fighting has accomplished nothing, because of behind-the-scenes betrayal of one of the demons from Hell, The Destroyer. Blamed for everything, War is imprisoned for 100 years and stripped of his strength. When the Charred Council decides to let him prove his innocence, he is sent to a ruined Earth to begin his quest for revenge.

The premise of this game really takes center stage in Darksiders. The enviornment throughout the game just screams "Apocolypse" but it never becomes overbearring. The art team went to great lengths to make sure that each character, building, and enemy type was truly unique, using a full spectrum or colors and lighting to set the mood at the right time. Every time you enter a new area, it's like entering a different world--natural, industrial, urban, supernatural, it's all covered here.

War as a character works out very well in this project, when played with a different mindset than most gaming protagonists. War is not a man; he is an entity, a supernatural force without the constraints of humanity holding him back. This becomes more and more apparent as the game progresses and he slowly gets his powers back, as he lives up to his name later on in the tale. The other characters, not so much. Each have their own quirky attitudes and come off as one-dimensional vessels, so likewise the dialogue does not please on a whole level like War did.

Combat-wise, well, War wouldn't live up to his name if he fought like a schoolkid, would he? There's a wide variety of weapons and moves to unlock and use as the game progresses. Sure, you could just plow your way with the sword, but you can also wipe out scores of enemies using the Scythe, or just shoot bad guys from a distance with a gun you unlock later on, or transform into a giant beast and just beat your enemies senseless.

When fighting, it's probably a good idea to vary your attacks and think accordingly, especially since as many as twenty enemies can swarm on you at one time. Thankfully, the game gives you the option to use killing moves once an enemy has low enough health, which not only gets rid of a threat, but could bump up your health or Wrath (mana in this game) and give you enough time to figure out what to do next. Darksiders does not disappoint when it comes to forcing a player to think fast, and it gives you simple controls to do exactly what it is you want to do without having to fumble around with inventory.

Boss fights are the cream of the crop, however. While each of them employ simplistic strategies, they're still tough to bring down as they don't hold back. Just when you thought that taking down two armored Demon generals was enough of a fight, the game throws a laser-firing dragon in the next level. Sticking to the game plan is about the only way out of these fights alive, as they're devastating when they catch you off guard.

There is some dungeon crawling and puzzle solving throughout the game, but unfortunately they don't seem to be as engaging as the combat is. Some of the puzzles involve pushing a few blocks or using a new weapon to hit a specific target that unlocks a door...but most of the rooms involve clearing them of enemies before being able to move on. There didn't seem to be a lot of imagination when it came to this, since there's a lot of fighting going on.

The fact that I mention that there's a lot of fighting in this game ironically brings me to the biggest complaint about it...there seems to be too much of it going on. While the combat is well played and is fun, it tends to get monotonous a few hours in, and there aren't enough curveballs to draw in a player to its world the way that most other games do. The fact that the "breaks" between the fighting consist of simple platforming and puzzles don't do this much justice either. It's simply too redundant to keep one's attention for too long when you're simply doing the same things over and over.

There also seem to be decisions that extend the gameplay artificially rather than add additional content. Before each dungeon, War has to break a curse by entering four arenas, each with their own specific rules. But it almost always boils down to is fighting for five minutes straight, which gets stale after fighting a horde to get to the area in the first place. There are also special traverses that War can travel through to get from one part of the world to another, but these consist of simple platforming instead of just, y'know, getting War to where he wants to go without annoyance. Add to the fact that there are plot coupons ("Collect X Doohickeys," "Woops You're Sidetracked For No Reason", etc.) and "vehicle" sections involving dragons and horses fail to add a good amount of variety as well. The game is already a few dozen hours long as it is, but it honestly feels that you're accomplishing much less in-game than what you should be.

So while Darksiders may disappoint some after we went head-over-heels for it recently, it's still a fun title that gets the year off on the right foot. With its fun combat and beautiful style, it's pretty tough to go wrong with making a purchase or a rental for this game.