Darksiders First Look Preview

Darksiders: Wrath of War is one of the most generically titled videogames we’ve ever seen. What could it be? A war game? A stealth game? A stealthy war game? Funnily enough, it’s neither of those things. But there is a clue hidden in the name. Right at the end. Any ideas?

No? Ah well. We struggled too. It’s War, see – one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. He’s got a giant big greatsword, a demon horse with flaming hoofs and, as we found out during our first look at the game at publisher THQ’s recent Gamers Day showcase in sunny San Francisco, one hell of a chip on his shoulder.

Seems as if War has been tricked into triggering the apocalypse before it was supposed to happen. Stripped of his abilities and banished to earth, War fights to restore his name and reveal who manipulated him in the first place. Oh yeah – and kill as many soul-hunting demons and angels along the way.

Developer Vigil Games tells us that the original inspiration for Darksiders came from the Legend of Zelda games, but they wanted a character that was “bad-ass”. Like Link, War has a mount, a demon called Ruin which has its own set of attacks. War can fight while on Ruin’s back, too, as well as perform spectacular leaping attacks on the larger enemies. There will be massive dungeons to explore with puzzles to wrap your head around and, in true Zelda fashion, defeating each dungeon and it’s boss unlocks a new weapon which ties into the gameplay, allowing the exploration of previously barred areas of the apocalyptic city. He, or it (War isn’t human and he isn’t a demon, but somewhere in between) ends up with several of these weapons by the end of the game and needs to combine all of his abilities to finish the job.

Yes, there’s lots of Zelda in there, but we can see elements Devil May Cry splashed in for good measure as well. Souls need to be collected from defeated foes and spent on upgrades. War has a some serious weaponry at his disposal too, including a one-handed mini-gun, allowing him to shoot enemies from a distance. It feels like the game Shigeru Miyamoto and Hideki Kamiya would make if they were locked in a hotel room and told to have something ready for the morning.

The Ashlands is an area of the city covered in, you guessed it, ash, by the Destroyer, Darksiders’ main bad guy. There’s plenty of ruined city landscapes and gothic, church-like buildings, and skulking demons and hyper-active angels of varying type which need to be dispatched with War’s massive sword and weapons fire. A giant demon appears with huge claws. “Is that an end of level boss?” we ask. It’s not. It’s merely a tougher demon you’ll have to fight on more than one occasion throughout the game. Nice. Eventually War and Ruin make their way to a large area where the levels main boss resides – a giant worm-like demon which pops in and out of the ground. After pumping bullets into it while circle-strafing, War moves in for more devastating close-range attacks, leaping off Ruin’s back to slice with the sword, then summoning it just in time for him to catch his fall. Finally, with the warm’s life bar almost completely depleted, War approaches, launching into a gruesome slice from belly to neck and a slow motion finishing throat cut. The worm crumples in a heap and War stands, back to his fallen enemy, victorious.

With the promise of plenty of cinematic moments and epic encounters, Darksiders should appeal to fans of action titles like Devil May Cry and God of War. But with a generous amount of puzzle solving and dungeon crawling Vigil’s title could have some cross over appeal too. Perhaps one day soon everyone will know what the name Darksiders: Wrath of War really means.

Darksiders: Wrath of War is scheduled for release on the Xbox 360 and PS3 in early 2009.