Darksiders (2010)

The first Darksiders entry is a bold, action-adventure game that combines fast-paced hack-and-slash combat with exploration and puzzle-solving. The MC is called War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who is wrongly blamed for bringing about the end of the world prematurely. The narrative is dark and mythic, filled with twists and an overarching sense of epic scale, giving the player a strong sense of purpose as they traverse a post-apocalyptic Earth. Combat is one of the game’s strongest points, offering satisfying melee combos, ranged attacks, and supernatural powers that feel weighty and impactful.

It keeps itself close to the level of quality and complexity of games such as Devil May Cry. The game also features platforming elements and environmental puzzles reminiscent of classic adventure games, adding variety to the core combat loops. Some say it even reaches the same levels of quality of games such as The Legend of Zelda when it comes to the puzzles, exploration and dungeons. Exploration is rewarding, with hidden upgrades, collectibles, and lore scattered throughout the world, encouraging you to fully engage with its environments.

While some textures, animations, and camera angles show their age, Darksiders’ distinctive comic-inspired art style remains striking and gives the game a unique visual identity. One of it's standouts to me are the cutscenes, which has the artstyle of comic books, quite a unique story-telling trait. Overall, Darksiders is a memorable and ambitious debut that still holds up as a solid action-adventure game with plenty of personality, it is one of the best action-adventure games that I've ever played, and this says a lot since this is one of the most saturated genres of all time.

A fun mixture of Legend of Zelda style puzzles and Hack and Slash gameplay with a very cool comic book esque art style makes this game age very well. Its built around a fun mystery and puts you in the shoes of a framed horsemen of the apocalypse who needs find out what happened and clear their name while dealing with angels and demons.

3.5 / 5 Stars

I fell in love with Joe Madureira's artwork the moment I bought Uncanny X-Men #346 off the rack at the local grocery store. But Darksiders arrived years later, at a time when my young career disrupted most of my video gaming. When I finally checked it out, I was disappointed. The early sections suffer from a gray-brown blandness that plagues so many games of this generation, and the ratio of combat to exploration was not to my tastes. I fell off after an hour or so.

But recently I revisited (and really loved) the remake of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, a game I’d similarly abandoned early on. Then I managed to wring some enjoyment out of Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I and its sequel. For whatever reason, I seem to be in the right mindset to reevaluate games I dismissed years prior.

And that pattern continues with Darksiders. This time around, I powered through those early sequences and discovered...

Darksiders is full of puzzles!

Darksiders has plenty to explore and collect!

Darksiders is surprisingly colorful!

And there's something really refreshing about playing a Zelda-like this absolutely metal (🤘), in a setting that isn't typical Tolkien-adjacent medieval fantasy, with supernatural forces this petty and vengeful. Soul Reaver scratched a similar itch (with similarly great music and voice acting), but Darksiders wins out for not being about vampires. 😅

I would still prefer a lot less combat. I appreciated having an array of versatile attack and defense options for dealing with different enemies and groupings. I also liked that the upgrades feel really consequential… it’s very rewarding to go from relying on a lot of ranged tactics early on to feeling completely capable charging into battle by the end. But the quality doesn't justify the quantity of repetitive enemy waves you endure room to room.

But I'm so glad I didn't let that discourage me this time. The remastered sequel's been bumped to the top of my wishlist. And now I can stop feeling like a fake Joe Mad fan. 🤓

No te vuelve loco pero es divertido, el tiempo se me pasaba rapido jugandolo ya que el combate entretiene, la historia se sigue con interes y el apartado artístico tiene personalidad. Ademas constantemente se introducen nuevas mecanicas para no ser monotono.

El problema comienza en la torre oscura, donde los puzzles se vuelven mas complejos y abundantes, interrumpiendo el curso de la accion y bajando el ritmo del juego. Peor todavia es la seccion de buscar las 7 piezas de la espada, donde te obligan a recorrer el mapa nuevamente. A esta altura ya se siente repetitivo el juego y pierde interes. Por suerte el combate final esta a la altura.

En definitiva, el tramo final esta de mas, en lugar de las 17 horas que me duro hubiera preferido 13. De todas formas de haber sido mas corto no hubiera subido la nota ya que el juego es regular en algunos aspectos: el combate esta bien pero tampoco tanto, la variedad de enemigos no es mucha y lo mas decepcionante del juego son los jefes, que podrian haber sido mejor.

De todos modos el juego es bueno y muy divertido, sobre todo hasta antes de la torre oscura. Recomendado sobre todo para fans de juegos similares como los god of war clásicos.

There seems to be a problem with the cutscenes of the PC warmastered version. The music and sfx are way too quiet in comparison with the voices. It's not game breaking, but it is annoying

Here's the guide to fix it. Basically you need to swap the videos for their re-coded versions (10GB file provided in the article). It might take a while, but I think it's worth it.

Also it works for every language, so there's that

A surprisingly good game with a good story, interesting universe, cheesy dialogs and varied level of voice acting that adds up to a generally good experience if only just a bit too long.

Getting into the game I had little idea what to expect. In the end I think the game is most similar to Legacy Of Kain Soul Reaver series.

There's quite a bit of fighting and some puzzle solving.

Graphically it looks pretty good in the warmaster edition. The visuals are not breathtaking but they're clean, interesting and high definition. Very consistent and adding to the overall experience.

The fighting is also well done, quite a few available moves which you can unlock, combos, dashes and blocks. All feel very good though sometimes the number of available options is too much for what's actually used - but at least there's a variation to choose from. The enemy design is really good as well, and quite varied. Different enemies require different approach and you run into things that you need to tackle differently.

The puzzles along the way are usually interesting and not too hard. They do make sense for the most part and are generally a good distraction between the fights.

The story as mentioned was pretty interesting. You play as war, one of the four horseman of apocalypse on a quest for revenge. The world is very interesting. Earth is destroyed after big war between angels and demons and you fight both to get your revenge. It's just a really well designed and consistent universe.

While the voice acting and some dialogs are not of best quality - I didn't mind that much and actually enjoyed every bit of a cheesy line they could serve.

However there are certain things I did not like about the game. For starters there's a bit too much of backtracking - especially near the end you need to backtrack a lot with not the best map and clumsy waypoint system. Heck - at some times waypoint pointed in the opposite direction to where you had to go. At some points you're just told where to go without actually showing it on the map.

Additionally some of the abilities you get along the way are used only once or twice and there are situations where you simply run in circles not knowing what to do - until I had to look it up - and in most cases I was like "you can do that with that?". Not the best game design.

But overall I did had fun with it. Would be better if they shaved around 5 hours of game play of it (steam tells me it took me 17 hours). And despite the few annoyances it is generally a good game worth playing.

Darksiders is a strange sounding name for what is a snowball of concepts and designs from long list of games. It has bits and pieces of Diablo 3 , Dark Souls, God of War, Games Workshop/Warhammer, Legend of Zelda, and more. It seems most of the people who talk about this game indeed will rattle of a list like this. (What's interesting about this game is that it predates a whole lot of the ones most often mentioned, I never would have thought this was release at start of 2010!)

To me, it feels like a more casual version of dark souls as you move through the overworld, it's a similar dark tone (yep just like the title) while at the same time it is stylized in a weird mix of diablo and Games workshop, a lot of the progression a bit like a zelda, (as well as the dungeoneering). yet combat is more like god of war (violent and brawly and borderline beat em up) I found myself liking this game really quick and warming up to it being someone that:

• Thought diablo looked cool and was interesting with backstory and those videos and naturally want a bit more substance. Darksiders kinda does that. (and kinda does it well)

• loved the way the original dark souls looked, and enjoyed wandering around in it, but found the combat VERY tedious and frustrating to actually make progress in and enjoy the game proper without cheating. Darksiders has got me covered. lots to look at as you wander from land to land.

• enjoyed warhammer space marine, one of the better games (not saying much) and would like more titles along those lines. I liked the feel of being a big bad mother with a huge gun. blasting away at different races of enemies at once, while seeing the effects of war and corruption of chaos as i purge the lands of heresy! For whatever reason...Darksiders actually pulls this off the space marine shpeel better than i feel GW ever will... By all accounts this is the warhammer game many have been waiting for! The space marines become nephilim, the angels become eldar and demons become chaos (more or less). And the player, feels very much feels like blizzard's version of a space marine determined to wipe out both sides. It's a fantastic combination and probably my favorite aesthetic and feel of all the concepts.

• has clever overworld style progression puzzles you can come back to for rewards or progress and a variety of dungeon style puzzles that are quite satisfying to complete.

this game hits all these points very well and Make no mistake, Darksiders is not a copy cat puree of other games, it draws inspiration and did it's own work. That's what's likable about it. It never feels like a rip off, but manages to shore up a likeness from enough sources to garner the interest of fans from different franchises. All the little components in it feel properly attended to resulting in an even feeling surface. It's unusually 'finished' for third person action adventure game.

darksiders has pretty simple combos and fighting mechanics but i found the controls to be a bit awkward and tricky. you can get a bit over-involved with it, in addition to reg attacks, combos and movement, there is also locking a target, dodging, blocking, picking up things to throw, throwing them, and aiming your throw (as well as moving/dodging) the special move combo is also a bit tricky (press caps then choose the ability) and reminded me of orcs and men/mars war log chronicles. there's also a beast mode you can enter, as well as ranged weapon attacks later in the game (pistols, bow and arrow, hookshot, etc) you can also upgrade all your main weapons as well as learn new combos and pick up new ways to kill things. you can also spam sword swings. :)

The character concepts are goofy at times, the Watcher is pretty much useless. The story starts off a tad better than diablo 3 (which is next to nothing in other words) but i found it really picks up and has a nice ending. The story feels very lofty, i found it a bit confusing. The game is a bit long, despite there not being that many dungeons nor a very large game world. The first dungeon takes a while to get to and it's pretty lengthy. However the puzzles are easy and since most battles are once (enemies dont really respawn) you can clear dungeons quite nicely. Puzzles themselves are carefully constructed and seem to be designed to make the player feel good about themselves and smarter than they really are. (and by the time I got to the last dungeon I started to wonder if I had become a diabolical genius) a lot of effort is made to guide the player and provide hints (such as panoramic camera sweeps) some might not like the easy mode of this game, but i personally found it quite nice in how it was not too challenging, grindy or frustrating. There is backtracking but it's not overly annoying like it could be in a game of this nature. I could simply make progress and felt good about getting ahead in the game. There was only two or three area in the overworld i felt puzzled and stumped. Same with the dungeon puzzles. You can also glitch out some of these puzzles for better or worse. (i managed to stuck a crate i was pushing somehow, and thankfully reloaded a save.. another time i flipped a timed switch to complete sequence while jumping into a pit, you can do that.)

The game did not recognize my joypad out of the box. I found myself curious to try it but wasn't going to go out of my way to do so since i prefer keyboard and mouse anyway. clicking fast on a mouse can cause the screen to shake since mouse movement its also how you look around. (I started using the lock on view focus more and this became less issue) i also found the watcher very annoying and unnecessary. he is sort of a guide but is far less useful than a legend of zelda type guide (like navi) and every bit as annoying. collectibles feel a bit random and tossed in as well as some purchasable upgrades and i found myself wanting my soulrupees back to buy and try something else, fortunately shopping is a very minor aspect of the game (on easy) once you find a basic fighting style you like you can simply keep using it.

I enjoy the premise of something like this (classic mythologies put into alternate different contexts) It's a great setting and backstory and lore is decent enough. the aesthetic is enough to keep me going. We all hope for a full quadrilogy, as it would be a shame to stop this one short. I have mixed feelings on the story. While it's good enough, and plenty more interesting than most games, and really does have a nice ending, part of me feels it could be a lot better. Perhaps its just because i found it very hard to follow due to the direction the story goes in, it gets pretty heavy for a narrative for this kinda game (much appreciated) but there are a lot of abstract things going on too and even by the end which explains much it raises more questions, (guess i'll have to play the sequel) lol. I dont particularly like the characters or find them deep. I think the game's protagonist could have been better. He wields a big sword and is pretty strong, he has other attacks but more or less resembles a barbarian, warrior or generic space marine. While the Biggest Magnum Ever was a nice touch, Space Marine Warrior needs more Wow factor weapons being that he represents war itself to really distinguish himself from his horsemen bros. they also shouldn't have let him 'borrow' weapons that the other horseman would be associated with, and kept the armaments part of the char archetype. oh well.

ultimately not a bad mix of things, it's quite solid (redeeming of third person action adventure). it's a guilty pleasure in how it borders a 'casual' consoleish feeling game with low difficulty and marginal narrative but it became apparent why the game was recommended to me: it's fun, stylish with it's aesthetic and borrows enough from (insert a few game you like) to warrant one's time. both the dungeons and the story pick up a few gears too. The dungeons are quite satisfying to complete and few puzzles are that frustrating. There is also enough ways to kill things to keep the combat fresh with a new coat of red.

I played the warmastered ed. on PC

Almost 4 years after the original glitch, which made me prematurely stop playing the game, I risked it again and managed to go through till the very end in Apocalyptic difficulty mode. It finally became clear to me that Darksiders 2 is a worthy sequel to an epic game.

Darksiders manages to capture the scale of epicness that is expected of a story regarding one of the riders of the apocalypse. From the grand boss fights, to the fluid combat system, to the pitch-perfect voice acting (except for War's dreary tone), Darksiders manages to keep you engaged as you experience the pseudo post apocalyptic Earth as the youngest of the four horsemen.

Actual Score: 4/5

This is an awesome game. The gameplay has a God of War or Devil My Cry style and is very satisfying and addictive.

The post-apocalyptic scenarios and the extremely well-conceived characters denote an amazing art and character design by Joe Madureira.

The lore is also very interesting, and kind of reminds me of World of Warcraft.

It's not all hack n' slashing, as it features a good amount of clever and challenging puzzles that combine the different skills you acquire along the game.

To sum up:

God of War + Devil May Cry + Zelda + World of Warcraft + Portal = Darksiders!

Best. Game. Ever.