In Vigil Games' game, the player assumes the role of "War", one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as he witnesses the destruction of the Earth during the biblical end of the world. As he arrives in the midst of falling asteroids, demons and angels swarm the world and War notices that the other Horsemen have not been summoned. Confused, he sets out to save the Third Kingdom - which is humanity. Sadly, he is held responsible for the premature Apocalypse and thus stripped from all his powers by the highest power, the "Charred Council". In a quest for justice and vengeance, War is sent back to Earth a century later to fix things up. Not for humanity, tho' - because we've been completely exterminated.
Let's introduce your political standing in the game: Heaven hunts you. Hell hates you. A single soul or some among the angels and demons have their own reasons for helping you. Most just want you dead. Which is fortunate, as War has a wide amount of extremely kick-ass moves, dodges and weapons to try on those unfortunate enough to cross his path.
Darksiders is a game that takes the best elements from the best titles that have any relevancy to it, and even from some that don't. In the game, you'll feel like Kratos (God of War) ripping wings from demons; you'll feel like Link (Zelda) while solving cleverly designed puzzles involving torches, boomera- I mean crossblades and time-slowing mechanisms; you'll feel like Marcus Fenix (Gears of War) as you blast your way through giant armies with a giant turret; you'll even feel like Chell, the protagonist of a certain game, at one point. Fans of that specific game will know, so I won't spoil that one. Mostly, however, you'll feel like an overpowered Link.
The problem with Darksiders is that in none of these elements, it beats the games it is inspired by. The good thing about Darksiders is that it implements all of those elements in a convincing way and even manages to make the whole thing feel fresh. However, there are a few things that might dampen the freshness of the game.
The biggest gripe about the game is how it was promoted as having a 15-hour playtime for a normal playthrough. I can assure you that this is a great estimate, but during that playthrough, I suffered from a familiar feeling. This game is one of those 'collect 4 artifacts, to unlock a door to a puzzle where you need to find the Blue ornate key that unlocks the door to a intricate 3-part puzzle that allows you to confront the boss, but not before finding 7 pieces of a powerful weapon'. While the length of the game feels awesome in hindsight, during the game you might occasionally find yourself thinking 'dammit, keep those items together so I just need to smash in the head of one guy' or 'I really hope I don't need to do another puzzle and confront another identical boss before I can continue'.
During those 15 hours, the story that the game unfolds is pretty acceptable: it's filled with exceptionally easy to recognize plot-twists from the second it starts, but it's fun to side with the dark creatures for once and interact with beings you normally have to slay as final bosses in games. And how many games have the Apocalypse and the end of humanity as tutorial? Exactly.
Gameplay-wise, the game does exactly what one would expect. During combat, War is easily controlled to dash, hack and slash, shoot, blast and cast anything from Prototype-style swords from the ground and properly finish his enemies with the press of a button in one fluid extravaganza of stylish violence. During puzzles, you can look around to find solution involving fire, time, grappling hooks, breaking stuff, but usually just using your newly acquired equipment.
The game visually reminds of a somewhat grimmer World of Warcraft. The extremely varied environments and atmospheres are brought to life with a vivid array of colors and effects, and the stronger enemies are as impressive as they are giant. All the beauty is easy to navigate with a camera that is easy to control, although once in a few thousand kills, it will choose a poor angle during a finishing move. Normally, though, it shows the combat and environments exactly from the angle you need and want. As far as audio goes, besides the time-shifting sound, nothing really stuck me as being really good.
"Really good", that's pretty much the conclusion for the game. It freely borrows and mashes together the best elements from extraordinary games and creates something that is neither the sum of the games combined nor any less than each of those titles individually.
Darksiders is never brilliant, but it is good at everything it does and that is a feat we rarely see.
