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Vigil’s third-person action game Darksiders, due out on January 8 next year, has a lot going for it: it’s relentless, bloody and comic book crazy. But it also has a lot going against it. Well, two things, really. You may have heard of them: Bayonetta and … what was it? Oh yeah, God of War III.
Bayonetta, already 2010’s game of the year for some, is due out on… January 8. While Darksiders offers more than just hack and slash action, you will spend most of your time in the game hacking and slashing, which means, come January 8, it’s a clear choice: Bayonetta or Darksiders?
Even then, some will dig their heels in and wait for the sure to be all-conquering God of War III, due out only two months later in March. What chance does Darksiders have in the face of such adversity?
Perhaps it’s all WAR’s fault. WAR, one of the famed Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Darksiders’ star, is a tad too generic for his own good. He wears a hoodie (with the hood up), wields a huge sword called Chaoseater, and speaks with a gravely voice. Compared with Platinum Games’ sultry, torture-obsessed witch Bayonetta, and Sony Santa Monica’s bald-headed mentalist Kratos, poor old WAR struggles to stand out.
He’s no less badass – WAR takes on huge, skyscraper-sized demons without batting a burning eyelid – but he doesn’t do so with quite as much flair or sophistication as “the competition”. Bayonetta shoots bullets from her stilettos and squishes beasties in iron maidens. Kratos rips the flesh from his foes with the Blades of Athena and pummels them into submission with a pair of fist gauntlets shaped like lion heads. WAR’s got a massive sword, but will he be remembered in years to come?
It may be inevitable, then, that Darksiders will lose the combat battle against its rivals. But could it win the war? Certainly it offers more varied gameplay, incorporating exploration, platforming, puzzle solving and staggered weapon and ability gain inspired by The Legend of Zelda series. Clearly, there’s more to Darksiders than the slicing and dicing of demons and angels.
Take, for example, The Crossroads, the game’s first hub. At this point in the game WAR isn’t riding Ruin, his fiery steed, so the post-apocalyptic, newspaper strewn area doesn’t rekindle memories of Hyrule Field with quite as much clarity as later hubs, but it serves to highlight one of Darksiders’ key hooks: freedom of exploration. You arrive in search of the demonic merchant Vulgrim, the only being who knows the secret to big bad beastie The Destroyer’s power. Vulgrim’s hovering about the centre of The Crossroads, but even at this early stage you can see blocked off and unreachable areas in the distance, some too high, some hidden behind magic gates. Barely half an hour into the game, Darksiders reveals its Zelda-influenced spots.
As fans of the classic Nintendo series know, areas of Hyrule would only become accessible once certain items were obtained. Darksiders is the same. Vulgrim tells you of the demon Samael, the only being that knows the secret to reaching The Tower. But the way to Samael’s Prison is blocked by a gate that will only open with a blow of the magical horn, Earthcaller. Conveniently enough, Vulgrim owns Earthcaller, but wants 500 souls before parting with it. So off you trot, slicing and dicing zombies and fiery demons loitering about The Crossroads until you fulfil the order. You return, make the exchange, blow the horn, and open sesame.
Earthcaller is not a one-off item, but part of WAR’s ever-growing arsenal. A blow of the horn not only opens magical gates, but stuns and knocks back enemies, making it useful in the heat of battle. Later, Samael, who can only be summoned after solving a rudimentary puzzle, gives WAR wings and the power to glide after a double jump. This, again, opens up new areas.
The first main dungeon-type area, a ruined church, has clearly been designed by a Zelda fan. It’s packed with puzzles, platforming and locked doors. It’s also home to Tiamat, a huge demon and one of The Destroyer’s “Chosen”. I’m guessing you know what’s coming next: work through the dungeon, gain shiny new item, defeat the boss, and, finally, use shiny new item to reach new area. Darksiders is Armageddon meets Ocarina of Time.
I’m not saying Darksiders is a proper open world epic like Fallout 3, but it’s certainly less linear than your average third-person action game. It falls somewhere in the middle, a place where freedom of exploration is cleverly controlled by developers who are skilled in the art of the cinematic moment.
I’m certainly enjoying Darksiders. The combat may not trouble Bayonetta or God of War III, but the over-the-top teenage comic book fantasy tone (Joe Madureira is creative director) and relentless pace has me hooked. It’s one of those games that takes inspiration from so many sources (Devil May Cry, The Legend of Zelda to name but a few) that it may prove a mishmash too mishmashy to excel in any one area – the classic jack of all trades but master of none. But, conversely, Darksiders’ diversity could prove its strength, and, despite what the action-packed trailers suggest, it’s a very different game compared with others in the third-person action genre.
Will it prove to be “the defining game in the genre”, as Vigil’s general manager David Adams has claimed? Perhaps not. But in many ways claiming such a thing is missing Darksiders’ point. It may not even be in a genre.
Darksiders will be released on January 8 for the Xbox 360 and PS3.
