It’s obvious that the developers at Vigil Games are big fans of the Legend of Zelda, God of War, and Castlevania games. With of course Zelda games being the biggest influence on Darksiders; beating dungeons, solving puzzles, riding a horse, and fighting bosses are some of the similarities you will be experiencing while playing Darksiders. More of the same isn’t a bad thing when you do it properly, but does Darksiders stand on its own?

The game starts like this: You take on the role of War, who is one of the four legendary Horsemen of the apocalypse; the apocalypse has just taken place prematurely, and the world destroyed, and War finds himself tasked to find out who was behind this; caught in the heat of battle between angels and demons. You guessed it. Something not good is going to happen and a lot of unanswered questions will rise. The game’s story introduces themes like betrayal, vengeance, justice and it also depends on revelations to keep things interesting.
 
 

As you get deeper in the game, you will meet with some interesting characters that are going to help you in your journey. The first of those characters is The Watcher, he acts like Midna or the fairy Navi from the Legend of Zelda games. He guides you so you can accomplish certain tasks that need to be achieved in order to progress through the game. Another important character is Vulgrim. Feed his hunger for souls and he will feed your curiosity. He’s a greedy demon who provides you with various upgrades, items, and weapon moves during the game, in return for souls you get from your battles.
 

War has lost much of his power. As you progress in the game, you will get his powers back, and you will gain new items that will come in handy. Every new gear item you get in the game will be your tool to success. One of the first important gear items you will get in the game is the cross blade. The Cross blade is Darksider’s version of the Boomerang we knew from Zelda games. It can be used to solve puzzles by hitting objects/switches, and it can also be used as a weapon to hit enemies. Each of the gear items you get in the game can be used to interact with the game’s environment or solve puzzles, and they can also be used in combat.
 
 

The puzzles in this game are fun to solve; they aren’t very challenging to pull off, but they are satisfying. The game tune up its puzzle solving difficulty in the final dungeon, in which you will get a gear item that will grant you the ability to travel between portals. I had a very good time beating the final dungeon, it was cleverly designed and a lot of fun to beat.
 

Fighting in Darksiders is fun and enjoyable, as you will get new weapons and attack moves during your play through. War has some cool moves and a lot of gruesome finishers. Though the combat in Darksiders isn’t perfect. The controls aren’t very intuitive. As you will find yourself pressing a lot of buttons just to execute an attack move. Also, the dash or the evade move wasn’t very responsive. Sometimes, fighting get repetitive even after you get all of the weapons and all the different moves in the game. You will be pulling the same moves again and again.
 
 

Graphically, the game looks great. What makes Darksiders a beautiful game is its amazing artistic design. The game’s environments are colorful, varied and amazingly done. Also, characters and enemies design are superb. The acting and characters animation looks amazing during the game’s cut scenes, but not as fluid as you would hope for during gameplay segments. The voice acting in Darksiders is great and really make the game’s story very enjoyable to follow. The game has good soundtrack, it’s atmospheric and sometimes epic.
 

the developers at Vigil Games have had tried their best in mixing the best parts of what we love from our favorite games while also trying to make the game feel fresh and remarkable. Have they succeeded? Despite some issues in the combat system and not so great final boss fight, Vigil Games has created a worthy action-adventure game. If you are a fan of action-adventure games, you owe it to yourself to play this game because Darksiders is the start of a great franchise.
 
 

Score: (9.0/10)