Format: PlayStation 3/Xbox 360
Year: 2010
Developer: Vigil games
Vigil games. Wow. I salute you, for your first attempt at the games industry being Darksiders.
I brought Darksiders on friday when it was released here in the UK along with Bayonetta. I only had chance to play it briefly yesterday and today. As of now i am nearly 2 hours into the game. I brought Darksiders as well as Bayonetta and thought that i would only be playing Bayonetta as of all the hype. But as it is now i have only played 10 minutes of Bayonetta.
Darksiders starts with meteorites hitting the earth and demons sprouting up all over the place fighting angels. You play as War, one of the four horseman of the apocalypse, as you find out as the first level continues is that mankind was not meant to be destroyed and War was tricked into bringing about the destruction of humanity. He is summoned by the council. They are like the guardians of the universe is some way. War has been away since the incident for about a 100 years, he is then punished by the council by being stripped of all his powers. He convinces the council to let him return to earth and find out who tricked him and brought about the apocalypse.
He is returned to earth along with the Watcher a guardian who watches over War and makes sure he doesn't do anything he shouldn't. The Watcher is voiced by none other than Mark Hamill. When i was playing Batman: Arkham Asylum earlier in 09 i was so surprised at how well he voiced the Joker it made Arkham Asylum a lot better. I was looking forward to listening to him talk through out the game, but i came to realise i was just basically listening to the Joker again, but he wasn't the Joker. I felt sort of let down in away.
The first couple of levels in Darksiders are very much tutorial levels, but they throw you straight into the story and game with War being pitted against some rather worthy foes. Basic foes are zombie type humans that inhabit the earth now. The other foes i faced ranged from quite large enemies, there were 3 different types and they all took quite a few hits before beating and usually needed finishing with an instant quicktime kill that does get rather repetitive.
Then on quite a few occasions there was sort of semi-bosses which were large demon type monsters, one type that would combo punch war and blow fire towards him, these attacks are quite tough to dodgy and do take on the sort of formula of block, strafe and attack from behind. Another type was very similar but did not shoot fire but a rock type attack which was harder to dodge.
You can tell that the people at Vigil games are great fans of The Legend of Zelda series. They take a lot from the series things like, climbing walls by climbing a vine looking object, the combat is very similar by locking and attacking and strafing to dodge. There are a hell of a lot of nostalgia within Darksiders, i don't believe there is anything wrong with this. I mean Ocarina of time was a fantastic game and anything that follows its lead but does not completely copy it can't be bad.
Darksiders gameplay is fantastic i love it. I really enjoy games like Darksiders, games that just have good old fashioned meaty hack and slash combat as well as questing and getting to the goal. The presentation for Darksiders is good, nothing compared to other games on the market such as Uncharted 2 (see my review) and Assassins creed II. The co-founder of Vigil games is comic book artist Joe Madureira who has a distinctive style, gamers who have read the old x-men comics of his own comics Battle chasers will know what to expect. Darksiders takes on this very distinctive style which looks really good, not graphically amazing and with environments that don't look spectacular but the characters are all very distinctive especially War himself who i really think is a very creative portrait of the horseman.
At the moment i would recommend anybody who is not playing Bayonetta or has finished to buy Darksiders. It is a really enjoyable game with lots of nostalgia, it takes the best elements from lots of a games in the past and combines them into a game that does nothing different but still everything right. If you like Ocarina of time you are certain to like this game and also laugh at the similarities.
Anyway I am off now to continue playing!
Year: 2010
Developer: Vigil games
Vigil games. Wow. I salute you, for your first attempt at the games industry being Darksiders.
I brought Darksiders on friday when it was released here in the UK along with Bayonetta. I only had chance to play it briefly yesterday and today. As of now i am nearly 2 hours into the game. I brought Darksiders as well as Bayonetta and thought that i would only be playing Bayonetta as of all the hype. But as it is now i have only played 10 minutes of Bayonetta.
Darksiders starts with meteorites hitting the earth and demons sprouting up all over the place fighting angels. You play as War, one of the four horseman of the apocalypse, as you find out as the first level continues is that mankind was not meant to be destroyed and War was tricked into bringing about the destruction of humanity. He is summoned by the council. They are like the guardians of the universe is some way. War has been away since the incident for about a 100 years, he is then punished by the council by being stripped of all his powers. He convinces the council to let him return to earth and find out who tricked him and brought about the apocalypse.
He is returned to earth along with the Watcher a guardian who watches over War and makes sure he doesn't do anything he shouldn't. The Watcher is voiced by none other than Mark Hamill. When i was playing Batman: Arkham Asylum earlier in 09 i was so surprised at how well he voiced the Joker it made Arkham Asylum a lot better. I was looking forward to listening to him talk through out the game, but i came to realise i was just basically listening to the Joker again, but he wasn't the Joker. I felt sort of let down in away.
The first couple of levels in Darksiders are very much tutorial levels, but they throw you straight into the story and game with War being pitted against some rather worthy foes. Basic foes are zombie type humans that inhabit the earth now. The other foes i faced ranged from quite large enemies, there were 3 different types and they all took quite a few hits before beating and usually needed finishing with an instant quicktime kill that does get rather repetitive.
Then on quite a few occasions there was sort of semi-bosses which were large demon type monsters, one type that would combo punch war and blow fire towards him, these attacks are quite tough to dodgy and do take on the sort of formula of block, strafe and attack from behind. Another type was very similar but did not shoot fire but a rock type attack which was harder to dodge.
You can tell that the people at Vigil games are great fans of The Legend of Zelda series. They take a lot from the series things like, climbing walls by climbing a vine looking object, the combat is very similar by locking and attacking and strafing to dodge. There are a hell of a lot of nostalgia within Darksiders, i don't believe there is anything wrong with this. I mean Ocarina of time was a fantastic game and anything that follows its lead but does not completely copy it can't be bad.
Darksiders gameplay is fantastic i love it. I really enjoy games like Darksiders, games that just have good old fashioned meaty hack and slash combat as well as questing and getting to the goal. The presentation for Darksiders is good, nothing compared to other games on the market such as Uncharted 2 (see my review) and Assassins creed II. The co-founder of Vigil games is comic book artist Joe Madureira who has a distinctive style, gamers who have read the old x-men comics of his own comics Battle chasers will know what to expect. Darksiders takes on this very distinctive style which looks really good, not graphically amazing and with environments that don't look spectacular but the characters are all very distinctive especially War himself who i really think is a very creative portrait of the horseman.
At the moment i would recommend anybody who is not playing Bayonetta or has finished to buy Darksiders. It is a really enjoyable game with lots of nostalgia, it takes the best elements from lots of a games in the past and combines them into a game that does nothing different but still everything right. If you like Ocarina of time you are certain to like this game and also laugh at the similarities.
Anyway I am off now to continue playing!