Game #14 – Darksiders

Publisher: THQ

Developer: Vigil Studios

Platform: PS3/360/PC

Darksiders is quite the interesting beast. It was one of the first new IP's of the year to gain some signficant attention, and deservedly so too. But at the same time, it became slightly infamous for being a game compiled of other games, having little to no original thought in terms of its mechanics. But yet at the same time...it was one of the more oddly compelling games regardless.

The game pits you as War, one of the four Horseman of the Apocolypse. He gets setup for causing the Apocolypse much earlier than anticipated, and is then tasked to find the one responsible. He's also teamed up with a Navi-esque character known as the Watcher, whom is very easy to mistake as the Joker (being played by Mark Hamill, natch).

Darksiders plays mostly like a Zelda type title, in that you're exploring these giagantic worlds with dungeons not too disimilar to the kind Link would explore. When you get to the combat, it's very much a slower paced and more simplified God of War. Some of the puzzle elements seem reminiscent of Portal, and there's even a few on rails sections lifted from Panzer Dragoon. And yet it all comes together quite naturally and plays quite well.

Add in quite the cool visual style, and you have one of the most interesting games of the year. Sure, it might not be the over the top frenzy that Bayonetta (released around the same time) is, but for what it is, it's certainly worth checking out.

I got this under my tree! If I ever finish this one, I'll have run out of excuses to play Zelda. Dang.