The Road to Ruin
Congrats, Darksiders, you're the first must-have PS3 game of 2010.
Published: January 2, 2010
Nowhere is this more important or obvious than in the game's dungeons. With an almost rote following of the beats in a Zelda game, you're introduced to the first bulk of the dungeons, teased with an area you may not be able to reach yet, gifted with an item, given a means to practice it (usually in a mini-boss fight) and then saddled with the puzzle of how to effectively use it to reach the boss, all of which make careful use of the new item (and some oldies) in a way that feels continually fresh. The fights themselves aren't terribly difficult and are usually pattern-based, but knowing what to do and actually being able to pull it off are two very different things.
The dungeon designs, in particular toward the end of the game where they get seriously massive and start to incorporate all of War's repertoire, are without a doubt the highlight of Darksiders. They rock -- incredibly so -- and at the risk of blasphemy, I think they may have out-Zeldaed Zelda in some places. Make no mistake, from the Hookshot- and Boomerang-like items to the introduction and use of new abilities, this is a loving, obvious tribute to the Zelda games. I just couldn't help but feel like Vigil may have done their inspiration one better at times.
Again, though, this isn't just a Zelda clone with blood and an ill-tempered lead. The combat owes plenty to the visceral and timing-based strikes of God of War, right down to the ability to launch enemies into the air (and yes, I know that's more of a Devil May Cry thing, shut up) to continue the attack before smashing them back down to good ol' terra firma and the ability to perform finishing moves on enemies after weakening them enough (though, thankfully for some, there aren't any QTE sequences as such, just an initial kick-off button prompt).
Button mashing will obviously yield solid results (and it's a great way to do crowd clearance as you need only point mid-combo and War will continue attacking in that direction seamlessly), but more patient players will find that perfectly timing the button presses with the end of an attack opens up new, more powerful (but less protected) strikes, and these can be mixed and matched, timing-wise at any time, with either War's normal blade or a handful of different alternate weapons (including a scythe, a massive gauntlet, a pistol with unlimited ammo... lots o' fun stuff), swapping between them mid-combo if need be.
By pulling and holding L2, War can also lock onto and strafe around enemies, and when combined with his R1 dash move, battles against bigger, nastier enemies suddenly become a whole hell of a lot more strategic. Because the dash can be used even in mid-combo (there's another example of that careful balancing), it's possible to jump in, unleash a couple of shots, then zip back out of range or behind an enemy as they charge to continue the attack. It's intuitive, it's incredibly simple and effective, and it makes combat more than just button mashing. Quite a bit more, actually.
Thumping on enemies and building up the combo meter without getting hit adds to War's little red spiral of death, Chaos powers his ability to transform in to a beast of pure flame that has a massive sword of its own, but actually offing them releases souls that come in three forms: green for health, yellow to feed the Wrath meter that's consumed a chunk at a time when using a special attack like an area-effect set of spikes that shoot out of the ground or lighting enemies on fire or generating extra armor by turning his skin to stone) or blue for "cash."
See, a demon by the name of Vulgrim sets outside the conflict between Heaven and Hell (more on them in a second) and will happily gobble up blue souls in exchange for new weapons, new moves, upgrades to those moves and even crystals that can be filled with health, Wrath or Chaos restoratives. He'll also let you duck into his little Serpent Holes to worm your way through semi-randomly-generated pocket dimensions to another of his shops if you need to get around quickly. In short, he's Resident Evil 4's shopkeeper, right down to commenting on what you're buying, selling and carrying.
