by Boricualegend

Darksiders was released on the Xbox 360 and PS3 on January 5th, 2010 in North America. It is a Post Apocalyptic Action Adventure Game developed by Vigil Games. So far Darksiders is a standalone title that does not have any Prequels or Sequels.

The story takes place on Earth where the Apocalypse has just be set into motion prematurely and the world destroyed. Players assume the role of War, one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse.

War was summoned to Earth in response to the Final Battle between Heaven and Hell. After the epic battle had ended with War dying and Hell looking victorious, War was sent to and accused by The Charred Council of starting Armageddon early and as a result has been stripped of his powers. The Charred Council, a mediator group bent on preserving balance between Heaven and Hell Foresaw Man being a major factor in the battle of Heaven and Hell. A final war between Heaven, Hell and Man was decided during a specific time: once the Seven Sacred Seals were broken. The Council sentences him to death but War pleads to be sent back to Earth to clear his name and to punish those responsible. Upon returning to earth, War discovers that he has been gone about 100 years and that all of the humans have died or become zombies with Hell winning the final Battle and so our journey begins.

At the beginning of the game, you are restricted as to where you can explore. At first you can only explore up to two place that are known by The Crossroads and The Scalding Gallow. It is at these two places where you meet one, a Merchant that goes by the name of Vulgrim and two the demon known as Samael. During your trip along The Crossroads and Scalding Gallow you fight your way through numerous demons, some can be easy and others a hassle due to your stripped powers. During your brief talk with Samael you are given the task to retrieve Four Hearts from each of the Chosen Ones that are scattered throughout the world.

The game is set up with Four Castles or Dungeons with various puzzle elements that are unique to each dungeon area that you must accomplish in order to progress the story, and move on to different areas on the map. The dungeons are broken down almost similar to many Zelda games in which you must solve some puzzles, fight a mini boss, find the keys, solve more puzzles then fight the dungeon Boss. Within each dungeon you receive weapons called Gear Items that play a crucial role in the dungeon’s puzzle mechanics. Each gear Item can be accessed through the start menu where you can assign it to one of three directional buttons on the D-pad: left, up and right. As you progress through the game and obtain more Gear Items, you can travel to previously explored areas to reach higher and new areas that weren’t attainable at the time.

One Key element of the game is Souls. The souls are broken down to three different types: Green souls for filling your health, Blue souls that can be used to purchase various things in the shop and Yellow souls that fill your Wrath Cores.

Currency Souls or the blue souls are the most common form. Caskets yield hundreds at a time, nearly every object you smash yields a few more. Most enemies you defeat also relinquish several of these souls. Use these Souls as currency, trading them to Vulgrim in exchange for Items, Abilities, and Upgrades. Life Souls or the green souls instantly replenish lost heath when you find them. Depending on how many of these souls you come across, you might recover a small portion of health. Wrath Souls or the yellow souls can be absorbed through caskets and enemies to replenish your Wrath Core. The sure way to acquire Wrath Souls is to defeat an enemy with an instant kill attack. In most Zelda games when you collect Four Heart Pieces you gain a new heart, well the same can be said with this game. Collect four Lifestones and get a new Life meter and collect four Wrath Shards you receive a new Wrath Core.

Now the main element of this game is of course the combat and the controls. For the controls you have your four basic food groups: Swimming, Double Jump, Climbing and Dragging Objects. All of these are utilized well within the game and are core features throughout the dungeons. As for the combat, there are multiple things for you to do. For instance: Weapon Upgrades, Weapon Enhancements, Special Attacks, Blocking and Instant Kill Attacks. When you start of the game you only have one weapon of course, your Chaoseater and later receive more. Like War, your sword also was stripped of its former strength and powers. The more you use your Chaoseater/Future Weapons the more powerful they become. You can watch the progression of your weapon’s experience through the start menu. Attacking is mapped to one button and is easy to pull off a wide variation of attacks like a multipe-striking spin attack from the air to a powerful home-run swing. Weapon Enhancements are items that embed the weapon with special effects that increase their effectiveness in a range of capabilities. One for instance increases the rate of weapon experience you gain over time. Special Attacks for each weapon are more than anything abilities bought through the merchant and can be upgraded several times. The higher the upgrade the more Currency Souls needs. Blocking is all in one button and serves the purpose well, if timed right you can perform a Block Counter which inflicts damage on the enemy. Instant Kill Attacks is a one button special command. When enough damage is inflicted on your enemy, the IKA Icon appears over their head and War performs a devastating death blow which makes you invulnerable to attack whilst doing it.

Another awesome feature to the game is the Environment. You literally can use busted old cars lying around or even lamp poles to beat your enemy to a pulp. Although your weapons in the long run will do more damage, its nice to know that I can switch it up every now and again.

One more amazing thing this game has to offer is the fact that this game has its fair share of collectibles that aren’t necessary to the game, but do add to the experience. The more Gear Items you obtain the more the world opens up to you. As you progress through the game the more you realize that you now can travel back and go exploring to find the hidden gems or Artifacts and Abyssal Armor Pieces of the game. If I remember right there are a total of 27 Artifacts and 10 Armor Pieces. The Artifacts are divided into three different types: 20 Soldier Artifacts, 6 Champion Artifacts and 1 Overloard Artifact. All the artifacts can be traded in the shop for Currency Souls, Soldier Artifacts worth 500 souls, Champion worth 1000 and Overlord worth 5000. As for the Armor Pieces, you cannot trade those in but once all have been collected you receive a cosmetic change I believe and damage done to you is not as harmful as before. Vulgrim the merchant also gives you access to what is called Serpent holes which make traversing the world easy and efficient. Instead of wasting 15 - 20 minutes on travel you can easily talk to Vulgrim and your travel time from one area to another is cut down to about 1 minute, if that.

After all is said and done, this game is a great game to add to anybody’s collection. I totally recommend renting if not buying this game. Completing this game will take a bit of patience and time and is worth a full play through. Whether its the story, the combat, the exploration, the puzzles or just kicking some Demonic or Angelic butt, this game has truly been a pleasure to have and I don’t regret buying it. This game can be very addicting just simply because its pure fun and will have you saying, “Whats gonna happen next?!” and next thing you know several hours flown by. My personal opinion on this game is a Thumbs Up all the way and its a fantastic game for any and every gamer to play.