There’s the catering and venue to organise, guest lists, goodie bags, that sort of thing. So just imagine what a total catastrophe it is when someone doesn’t get some all important interoffice memo, and not only is the seventh seal of the Armageddon not broken, but three of the Horsemen don’t show up. Then there’s a bit of a murder incident involving some monstrous demon and one of the archangels, War gets himself knocked out, and the apocalypse is officially declared a complete disaster in the next issue of People magazine. Well, it would have been if the world wasn’t over and everything.
A hundred years go by through the dust and ash, and War finally wakes up again. Promptly summoned to stand before the Charred Council, a sort of corporate mediator between heaven and hell, he’s charged with gross apocalypse mismanagement and sentenced to die. Of course, he’s all about revenge and finding the real guys responsible, so he persuades the Council to let him go off and do that instead. They reluctantly agree, and a grand adventure begins.
Darksiders takes a bunch of different games, and mashes them together into something that’s a bit like God of War, a bit like Zelda, and a bit like Metroid. So there’s a lot of rushing about and stabbing stuff, exploring stuff, and collecting new stuff to stab and explore new stuff with.
From a gameplay and plot perspective, it’s one of those “I’VE LOST ALL THE COOL STUFF I HAD IN THE PROLOGUE AND NOW I MUST FIND IT ALL AGAIN AND WIN. AND ANGELS AND DEMONS AND STUFF.” Setting out with just a sword and some sword basics, War slowly accumulates an arsenal of badass manoeuvres and pockets full of useful things like hookshots, a boomerang crossblade, and a glove that causes earthquakes. Set in a massive world spanning ten or so discrete areas, the game has War constantly going back and forth as recently acquired gear opens the way to previously unreachable places. In between all the cracking of skulls, there’s also a lot of environmental puzzling, some of it fiendishly clever.
Dispatching enemies accrues souls, a sort of grisly currency which War can then trade in for new combat moves, upgrades, and weapon enhancements over at the merchant Vulgrim’s little pedestal. War also has a four so-called Wrath abilities – more or less the equivalent of magic, but much more burly and butch and suited to an internationally accredited Horseman of the Apocalypse.
Combat is timing and combo-based, visceral, and loaded up with splashy gore. Working it all out demands precise timing and quick reflexes, particularly on the hardest difficulty setting. Each bit of the game culminates with a gargantuan boss picking a fight with War, while a number of sub-bosses turn up throughout. These are typically method-based brawls, and each encounter is uniquely challenging.
Where games that rob ideas from other games usually fail at making each part work properly together, Darksiders pushes this paradigm with reckless brutality. Technically derivative, the game manages to pull it all off with such elegance, ingenuity, and style that it doesn’t matter. It’s ultimately very much its own game. Aside from a somewhat tedious penultimate chapter and a couple of serious glitches (see below), Darksiders explodes fun all over the carpets from start to finish, and the inevitable sequel really can’t get here fast enough.
Technical note
Darksiders shipped with two potentially game-breaking glitches. These can both occur during the Black Throne section of the game. Without spoiling anything then, be sure to:
1. Maintain a regular manual save, and restore in the event of falling through an elevator.
2. Maintain a regular manual save, and restore in the event of a Beholder key not being removed from your inventory on unlocking a door.
3. Seriously, just maintain a regular manual save. Any sensible gamer does this anyway, right?
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