Darksiders review - the horseman is approaching
Richard Nieves, '13 | Staff Reporter
Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: Lifestyle
Darksiders brings the aspects of legendary video games such as The Legend of Zelda series' challenging puzzles and God of War's bloody, rampaging action and packs them together to create an adventure based on revenge, redemption and the end of man.
Darksiders takes place during the aftermath of the Apocolypse, which has come earlier than expected. You play War, one of the four biblical horsemen, who has been framed as the one responsible for it. As War cuts through the armies of Heaven and Hell, he uncovers the mystery behind who framed him and why he was framed. The plot is good, but you won't be thinking about it much as you're thinking more about how you're going to get past that next door.
The gameplay is frantic, bloody and fluid. You man your behemoth of a sword, Chaoseater, equipped with a number of augments and items to cut down angels and demons with a number of combos you buy from your personal demon-merchant. War can tie the combos together with the evade button to create a flow of slick strikes and cast the final blow, which will always be the B button. Being War made me feel like a total bad-ass, but the gameplay will get tedious after realizing that every enemy can be killed with a few strikes and the B button, even the bosses. Defeating enemies as War gives you the great feeling of empowerment, but does little to change up the way you handle enemies.
When you're not smashing a sword through a demon's skull after tearing its arms off, you're platforming. The addition of such items as wings made of dark matter and Crossblade, one of the many weapons War dons, add some ease to the jumping from platform to platform and then clinging on some demonic residue on walls to a higher level. These portions of the game can last for a while and take you out of the fight that has been advertised very heavily.
Darksiders takes place during the aftermath of the Apocolypse, which has come earlier than expected. You play War, one of the four biblical horsemen, who has been framed as the one responsible for it. As War cuts through the armies of Heaven and Hell, he uncovers the mystery behind who framed him and why he was framed. The plot is good, but you won't be thinking about it much as you're thinking more about how you're going to get past that next door.
 | Box art for the PS3 version of Darksiders. In the game, you play as War, one of the four horsemen of the apocolypse, in the middle of a bloody feud between Heaven and Hell. Photo courtesy of cache.gawker.com |
|---|
The gameplay is frantic, bloody and fluid. You man your behemoth of a sword, Chaoseater, equipped with a number of augments and items to cut down angels and demons with a number of combos you buy from your personal demon-merchant. War can tie the combos together with the evade button to create a flow of slick strikes and cast the final blow, which will always be the B button. Being War made me feel like a total bad-ass, but the gameplay will get tedious after realizing that every enemy can be killed with a few strikes and the B button, even the bosses. Defeating enemies as War gives you the great feeling of empowerment, but does little to change up the way you handle enemies.
When you're not smashing a sword through a demon's skull after tearing its arms off, you're platforming. The addition of such items as wings made of dark matter and Crossblade, one of the many weapons War dons, add some ease to the jumping from platform to platform and then clinging on some demonic residue on walls to a higher level. These portions of the game can last for a while and take you out of the fight that has been advertised very heavily.