The apocalypse is fun. If there’s one thing I like about the explosion of souls-like games, is the preponderance of apocalypses and the sheer variety in mass destructions we as players are presented with. Darksiders itself precedes Dark Souls and isn’t a souls-like game, but it does still evoke the same idea that the apocalypse is fun.

I will be first in the queue to see Eaten 2.

Darksiders is a hack-and-slash action game set during a Biblical apocalypse. You play as War, one of the four horseman of the Apocalypse, awakened from his slumber and sent to Earth to reap the wicked. However, War’s timing is a bit unfortunate, as this is not, in fact, the apocalypse. Instead, War is threatened with execution for accidentally triggering the apocalypse, leading him to try and uncover what happened and put things right.

At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what the plot is. The game’s backstory is convoluted and hastily explained in the introductory prologue, with several characters being tossed at the player all at once. It’s entirely likely I missed something about what the story is and what matters within it. The story that matters for our purposes, though, is that you play as War, hacking and slashing your way through a variety of enemies, both divine and demonic, and having a grand old time collecting souls.

This ability got me out of having to platform, and I’m eternally grateful.

As a hack-and-slash, combat and its surrounding mechanics lay at the heart of Darksiders. War has a variety of weapons and abilities at his disposal, including the always-popular massive sword, and a scythe. These are used to hit enemies while dodging their attacks. The enemies are also used to power up special abilities and level up weapons.

I fully admit that hack-and-slashes are not my preferred genre more generally, and so I am not necessarily the best judge of what does and does not make for compelling combat. However, with that in mind, the combat in Darksiders still seems generic and becomes tedious. Combats become a game of frantically clicking, pressing the dodge button, and, if I remember, occasionally using a special power. Boss battles, too, are easy to learn, and become a game that is less of a challenge and more of remembering when to trigger a particular ability. The game never feels particularly challenging, but is instead just a repetitive dance of clicking and dodging until enemies disappear from the screen.

The names are very creative.

While this repetitiveness does move from locale to locale, with War being given new weapons and items to deal with a wider array of enemies and situations, that fundamental tedium never really leaves the game. Battles look fairly similar to one another, and solving the mechanics of one means there’s nothing new to solve in the next. A new enemy provides a temporary thrill of solving a puzzle, but once solved, there’s no real excitement, as the only thing to look forward to is more of the same.

I recognise, however, that this is likely the genre as a whole, and as such, it wouldn’t be fair for me to judge Darksiders by how it does with its particular genre. Instead, I’ll simply say that this is not a game I enjoyed playing, but that I suspect that’s because of its genre as a whole, not because of any fault of this particular game.

Ah yes, the uvula of doom.

What, then, works about Darksiders? As a whole, the game has a fun look and feel. While the plot sometimes felt both convoluted and half-baked, the idea of traipsing around the world, killing divine and demonic entities was still fun. The animation style and music are World of Warcraft-esque, and as a fan of WoW, I enjoyed being able to wander through that aesthetic for a few hours. It’s a game that is unlikely to bring anything new for fans of hack-and-slashes, but still provides a happy, fun little time.

Developer: Vigil Games

Genre: Action, Adventure, Hack-And-Slash

Year: 2010

Country: United States

Language: English

Play Time: 20 Hours

Youtube: https://youtu.be/lc_NWIS9XEw