Early murmurs about Darksiders began gathering momentum towards the middle of last year. Initial descriptions of the game painted it as a hack and slash action title in the vein of the God of War series, despite creative lead designer Joe Madureira emphatically stating that it shares more in common with The Legend of Zelda games.
The basic premise is about as epic as they come. Players take on the role of one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse; War. An unknown event has caused the other three horsemen to begin the apocalypse early and War is held accountable. The Charred Council sentence War to death, however, he pleads with them to let him travel to earth to discover the source of the destruction.
The basic gameplay premise involves action heavy button mashing combat sequences which enable War to harvest souls. Souls are used to purchase new moves and weapons, however it remains to be seen just how dynamic the actual combat is. Later on War unlocks his Chaos form which players can tap into by maxing out his Chaos Gauge.
One of the most exciting aspects of Darksiders is the art direction. Madureira is well known for his work on Marvel Comics’ Uncanny X-Men as well as his own comic book Battle Chassers. Fans of Maduereira’s signature style are in for a treat as Darksiders appears to ooze with the creative blend of monstrosity and beauty that he is known for. Set against a post apocalyptic waste land, players can expect crumbling towers and streets littered with decimated cars and rubble.
The game kicks off in a linear fashion but then transforms into an open world style exploration-adventure. This is where players are likely to draw parallels with the Zelda games, as Darksiders employs a similar exploration mixed with boss-fight and loot gathering mechanic as the Nintendo classic.
The game seems to exhibit a high degree of polish as well as a promising collection of fresh ideas in combination with tried and tested genre conventions.
Early internationally published reviews indicate that Darksiders is a success and it currently enjoys a Metacritic rating of 88/100.
Darksiders is due out later this week and will be available on Xbox 360 and PS3.
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