User Submitted Content: Darksiders Review
Written by The Easy Mode Staff   
Tuesday, 02 March 2010 11:42


Now this is what we're talking about. Reader Moray_G had a chance to play a game we haven't yet, Darksiders, and humbly submitted a review for us to feast on with our eager eyes. Thanks Moray_G, for doing our work for us!

Click here to submit your own post.

So I was taking a quick look around my local game store, looking at the PS3 games and trying to see if any of them were worth dropping some cash on. Then an overeager young sales assistant came bounding up to me and proceeded to interrogate me about what games I like to play, what the last game I bought was, and what game I was looking at. Now I’ve been in this situation many times before and a quick reply of “I’m just browsing, thanks” is normally enough to end the conversation and give myself enough time to decide to buy or not; however, this guy was not at all discouraged and continued to ask questions and managed to extract the fact that Dragon Age: Origins was the last game I bought. This then led to a series of question about whether or not I like swords and magic, which I really don’t know how to answer. How does one really answer that question?! I then got to the point that I was uncomfortable enough to grab the first game which I recognised by title, which happened to be Darksiders. With a quick shout of, “I think I’ll take this one!” and a sprint to the cash desk, then out the door I was free.



I got home and whilst wondering why I bought this game I popped it in and started to play the game and was pleasantly surprised. The game opens during an apocalyptic battle between Heaven, Hell, and Earth, and after a couple of hints and tips you are straight into the game hacking and slashing your way through angels and demons alike. I was really impressed at how quickly you were into the game - no messing around with tutorials and training missions.

Now for a bit of background. I love a good bit of hack and slash in a game, I was probably one of the only people who liked the Conan game on PS3, so I was having a ball dealing death with sword-swinging combos and getting new weapons. Once I had collected all the weapons and started to purchase upgraded moves for each of these I started to notice that all the upgrades where pretty much the same moves for each weapon; and levelled up moves were pretty much the same as the level below. As the game progressed this theme of things looking the same but doing more damage continued with the game's designers employing the old-school tactic of having the bad guys look the same but just be a different colour to let you know that they are somewhat tougher. This happened with most of the monsters and demons you encounter during the game.



For all the repetitive combos and monsters, Darksiders does do a few things well during the game: you pick up various pieces of equipment which allow you to cross different obstacles or take advantage of your surroundings in some way, and game makes you use these in a variety of combinations in order to pass some of the puzzles it puts in your path. I also really like the way the game handled boss battles, in which the norm has now become heavy use of quicktime events. Rather than forcing the player to stare franticly at the screen just in case they missed a vital button press/mash, the whole thing is handled with a single button press at the right moment, and then you get to sit back and watch the cinematic carnage unfold in glorious HD without manically mashing your controller in fear of messing up and have to start the battle again

In short, Darksiders is a game which over-delivered on the puzzles and platforming, but under-delivered on the hack and slash element.
Comments (4)
markhill66
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written by markhill66, March 01, 2010
I hate when the Gamestop employees try and suggest things to you based off of what you bought before. It feels like I'm in a porn shop and the guy is like, "So, uh, what are you into? Hardcore? Facials? Pissing? Gay? Is it gay? It's gay, isn't it. Right this way."

I'm so sick of that.
0
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written by Tyler Miller - Editor, March 02, 2010
And now I will rent this.
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written by Moray G, March 02, 2010
Let me know what you think of it tyler
Steve McKay
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written by Steve McKay, March 02, 2010
Nice work, Moray. I've been thinking about checking this game out for a while, as it keeps being compared to Zelda. It has now been added to my rentsal queue.

Also, for anyone interested in trying it out, there's a 90 minute(!) demo for this game on XBL and PSN which went up last week.

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