Darksiders – Before Death, there was War – Part II

By: Jason McCarthy

  |   July 6th, 2012   |  

News, Uncategorized

Darksiders – Before Death, there was War – Part II

The combat system in Darksiders was explicitly compared with that of God of War. The player could string together attacks and unlock new moves while progressing through the game. The combat input had been kept slow and simple, thus making it easy for players, casual or hardcore, to pull off combos with much ease. The combat was not even close to being as demanding as the system in Devil May Cry, where the timing of each button mash was crucial and thus allowed only the advanced players to pull off a wide range of devastating combos.

The comparatively easy combat system hardly caused any damage to the Darksiders experience and kept the battles entertaining.

Keeping the animations smooth does wonder for any game. Vigil Games seemed to have been aware of this fact while creating the action hack and slash game. Therefore, they ensured that the animations were as fluid as well so that it covered the small shortcomings in the combat system. The developer had also stayed away from quick-time events, something that had picked up a lot since the release of first title in the God of War series.

Darksiders offered heaps of challenges that had a strong resemblance to that of Zelda. It was not uncommon for War to come across dungeons that featured a series of challenges and items before leading him into a boss fight.  Chests, keys, dungeon maps, bombs that blew up walls, everything that one could possibly find in Zelda dungeons was present in Darksiders’ dungeons.

While it was clear where the game was borrowing ideas from, it was apparent that it had failed to match the level of design of puzzles and bosses. While interesting, they were not as good or distinctive as the challenges and eventual bosses that Zelda threw at the players.

Sometimes it felt as if Darksiders was putting so much effort in borrowing from other popular video games that it ended up losing its own identity.

While it was obvious that Darksiders took ideas from other games, it did so from some of the best, thus there was little to complain about. The game was so beautifully put together that it managed to come off as an entertaining package. The visual style was quite impressive while the gameplay was pretty fun despite lacking originality.

Vigil Games had picked up two of video game history’s best games and borrowed their elements to make a new game that resembled both. Much to their delight, the resultant product had both entertainment value and fun gameplay, thus helping it to win over fans.

The success of the first part had encouraged the studio to go for a sequel. While a number of enhancements such as faster combat system and additional content such as more puzzles, more items and more battles seem to be the focus of Vigil Games in Darksiders II, the game continues to show an even stronger resemblance to God of war and Zelda. This is not necessarily a bad thing and may end up offering an experience that might be appreciated even more than its predecessor.