Darksiders Review (Xbox 360)

STAFF REVIEW of Darksiders

Monday, January 11, 2010.
by Stephen Cameron

I introduce you, the first game of 2010; Darksiders. Something interesting has happened this year though. Most of the publishers have all held off releasing their epic titles after the holidays. Why? Because of a little game called Call of Duty. These are dreadfully big shoes to fill, and a gutsy move to say the least. Also keep in mind that THQ wasnt the only one, others followed suit. So, you end up with a mad rush of games after Christmas, and the lineup is quite long. Its the first of its kind since Ive been running XboxAddict.com.

Much to my surprise, not a whole lot of knowledge existed out there for the game. Why? Is it bad marketing? No. I think I understand why though. The game is so many things, that you cant say its blank. Vigil Games and THQ are really treading new ground here.

In Darksiders, you play the excessively large body with a small head guy called War, he is essentially one of the four horsemen. The journey begins with the earth being ripped a new one, and as much as this is all coolits a little too early. Now, its your job to figure out what happened. You quickly discover that its one big fat conspiracy going on between heaven and hell, and youre somehow stuck in the mix.

Since it was mostly your fault that earth was blasted a little too soon, you are resent back down to earth stripped of your arsenal of divine powers. But, as you quickly discover theres absolutely nothing left on earth. Everyone is dead, the buildings are completely unlivable. Essentiallyits a massive wasteland. Your primary goal is to figure what the heck happened and prove your innocence by kicking some ass and taking names. As you adventure through the game, you witness these conflicts between the angels and the demons and most importantly, thats how the story is pushed along. You clearly see whats going on with this complex situation; oh and, they all want you dead.

Alright, Im not going to sit here and spoil the story for you here, but if youre thinking for one second you are going to finish Darksiders in a six to eight hour time frame, you're kidding yourself. Be prepared to be immersed into a movie quality storyline. There I said it. They should take this story and make a movie. There are so many sub-plots such as demons pissed at each other. People love to watch stuff like that.

The mechanics and gameplay of the game remind me of several different ones actually, the main being Maximo; originally released for the PS2 by Capcom. But my simpler description or mix rather, is comprised of these titles.theres s a little Tomb Raider for the adventure, environmental puzzle solving, a little World of Warcraft for the RPG and quest (without the yellow exclamation marks) elements, and finally a little of Lost Planet for the larger than life boss battles -- and if you bring your nose up to it youll smell a hint of God of War. This carefully mixed recipe of game ideas, and the icing of a good storyline make for a very unique and fun gaming experience, and I love unique.

As you progress through the game, you land weapon skill upgrades, hence kicking more butt. The control scheme is actually quite intuitive. Its fast and furious. Let me warn you that you are going to do a lot of monster killing.
Wars weapons are probably the most impressive Ive seen in more recent times. Mustering through on what seems to be an endless sea on combo moves, can prove to be quite the challenge. The game teeters on being a button masher, now I like button mashers, they make me look good! But, I have one pet peeve, why is the Right Button (RB) the dash and block move? Who knows.

Throughout the game, I came across quite a few WOW moments, but the one that stood out was the one scene that you end up in a subway area, and this huge worm-like monster grabs a complete subway car, and tries to pull it into this smaller hole on the side of the level, very cool animation sequence!

On the difficulty side of things, the game is tough. Not in a bad way. Hell, Ive been playing on the Apocalyptic (The hardest) setting, and let me tell you, its quite the challenge. Batman Arkham Asylums hardest setting wasnt near as hard; this is hard. I would strongly recommend playing on the easy or normal setting at first. As I was playing through the game, I couldnt shake this nagging notion in the back on my mind. I kept asking myself the same questionDid I choose the right moves (or combos) to purchase from Vulgrim ? After several hours, I discovered that it all worked out in the end. The more monsters you slay, the more soul credits you obtain. The only tip I can give is buy powers or power-ups that suit your playing style. Period.

Overall the gameplay of Darksiders shines of a very polished experience, not many complains here. Its like an itchyou gotta go back and scratch that itch!

Graphically, everything looks incredible beside the fact of a bit of tearing while looking around (Im assuming its an engine thing); mind you its not a game killer, but it does get increasingly annoying. Environments, textures, and character models all look top notch!

In the sound department, the in game musical score totally suited every moment of the game. Im not an audiophile or anythingthe sound did its job, it immersed you into the story depending of which scene was on screen, accenting all the mood and encounters. Very well done.

Overall, Darksiders has a crap ton of content, and it has quickly become a new and exciting intellectual property for THQ. Also, if youve got kids, make sure they are in bed when you pop this puppy in. If the rest of 2010s game lineup looks anything like Darksiders, its going to be a damn good year! Highly recommended, dont let this one slip under your radar. Cant wait to see Darksiders 2!

Overall: 8.6 / 10
Gameplay: 8.7 / 10
Visuals: 8.4 / 10
Sound: 8.8 / 10

Videos

Comments

Xbox Game Search

Latest News

Xbox One not backward-compatible with Xbox 360

As we all suspected, the new x86 architecture-powered Xbox One will not play Xbox 360 games -- in any fashion whatsoever. But once again, there’s a bright side, as the Xbox 360 will still have a future alongside the Xbox One...

Xbox One, bundled w/ Kinect 2.0 out late this year

Is it the all-in-one box that we’ve always wanted (and feared)? Yes. Does it come with and require Kinect 2.0 to function? Yes again. Is it a hulking mass of a machine? Bingo! But on the bright side, tech behind the console and Kinect look BADASS!

Durango is now officially "Xbox One"

Forget "Infinity", "Fusion" or all those silly names you heard before. The Next Xbox is simply Xbox One, and frankly, Microsoft couldn’t have picked a better name.

(RUMOR) Next Xbox will launch around Christmas

They say good things come to those who wait, so you’d better dig in, as there’s a good possibility that the Next Xbox will launch closer to Christmas that we thought.

Batman: AO Batman and Joker voice actors confirmed

Unfortunately, in contrast to an earlier report, Kevin Conroy will not be lending his signature, gravelly voice to Batman: Arkham Origins’ younger caped crusader, and Mark Hamill won’t be playing the Joker either. Read on to see who’s replacing them.

Deathstroke playable in Batman: Arkham Origins

Injustice: Gods Among Us whetted our appetite to play as Deathstroke (a.k.a. The Terminator), and now it looks like we’ll be getting a double-dose of Slade love as we’ll also be able to play him in the upcoming Batman game via pre- order DLC.

Next Xbox gets "wired in" with official website

It looks like once the cat is out of the bag on the Next Xbox, we’ll have a whole new way to get info about everything straight from the horse’s mouth, as "Xbox Wire" is now live.

See News Archives

Top Community Gamerscores

1. Symmetric-XBA - 129,293
2. hellonearth159 - 88,000
3. Variation-XBA - 81,605
4. Timmy Bauer - 58,335
5. Symmetrics Love-XBA - 47,993
6. Enamelized420-XBA - 41,520
7. Silent-XBA - 38,782
8. Ainokeatoo-XBA - 34,076
9. Roujin-XBA - 31,498
10. Yankeez - 30,859
11. Kamshaft-XBA - 29,839
12. Casper - 26,315
13. Soda Jones - 24,253
14. Tampad - 22,221
15. Highlite23 - 19,309
16. Whisper - 13,272
17. TAXCOLLECTER675 - 13,226
18. HaZarD SFD-XBA - 12,802
19. Kraft - 7,035
20. l Maximus l - 3,010
21. Shadow20002 - 2,880
22. LiLJoe608 - 2,485
23. Sam-XBA - 2,130
24. MixMasta - 175
25. Smill -

Community Forum Activity

clan members
Post by anthony705
0 Replies, 26 Views

What did you guys thing of the Reveal?
Post by Kamshaft-XBA
2 Replies, 49 Views

friends
Post by anthony705
0 Replies, 184 Views

[FCBX] FaceBox Clan
Post by FearfulInk
3 Replies, 375 Views

Double XP weekend Black Ops II on Xbox 360
Post by LiLJoe608
0 Replies, 747 Views

3 Days to Go !
Post by Kamshaft-XBA
11 Replies, 1867 Views

Halo 4 Avatar T-shirt (Ladies)
Post by Silent-XBA
0 Replies, 381 Views

#XboxReveal
Post by Rajio
9 Replies, 2486 Views

[RARE]Xbox 360 XDK XNA EXPO MODEL
Post by itchy
2 Replies, 2215 Views

Magic the Gathering
Post by d-dub363
1 Replies, 478 Views

Clan Member Wanted...
Post by FearfulInk
4 Replies, 966 Views

Community Playdate
Post by tote gunzz
7 Replies, 2417 Views

Dirty Laser Lens
Post by thAshAdyOne
0 Replies, 455 Views

Just looking for some more friends
Post by Grravy420
8 Replies, 1037 Views

Comunity Playdate! Come play with Xboxaddict.com!
Post by Kamshaft-XBA
13 Replies, 1494 Views

Xbox Addict