Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 06 January 2010 11:41
Entertainment
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It is inevitable that comparisons will be made. Playing as War, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, there is plenty of Kratos style fun to be had. Darksiders, takes a more biblical approach to the popular post-apocalyptic playfields of modern video-game fare.
It is not until three quarters of your journey through the crumbling wasteland of man that War gets back his horse. Stripped of his powers as one of the neutral police force to the war between Heaven and Hell, War finds himself as the centre of blame for an unexplained biblical apocalypse to the kingdom of Man.
Darksiders
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Developer
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Vigil Games
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Publisher
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THQ
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Rating
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MA 15+
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PS3, Reviewed on Xbox 360
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The seven seals remain intact, yet the civilisation of human beings has been destroyed, leaving only demons and angels to battle over the broken landscape of burnt out cars and the carcases of skyscrapers.
This is the fiction that surrounds the debut title from Vigil Games Darksiders. Founded by comics veteran Joe Madureira there are some obvious influences in the games design. Madureira however is quick to try and distinguish the structure “Darksiders is an adventure game, first and foremost,” he said. “It has a very classic adventure game structure I can honestly say I have never played a game like Darksiders and I have played quite a lot of games over the last 25 years. The experience is unique.”
Well, you can understand Madureira attempting to set Darksiders apart from the crowd, but this game is a third person action adventure with influences from God of War, Devil May Cry and even imagery from sources such as Games Workshop’s Warhammer universe. It is however, a fantastic example of the genre, and throws in some twists of its own that give some truth to Madureira’s spruiking.
Visually, Darksiders uses a colourful palette to present the shattered environments of manmade structure fused with organic structures of demonic origin, between the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, the nod goes slightly to the Xbox presentation with less aliasing issues to my eye. Having said that, I played through the Xbox 360 version and experienced noticeable screen tearing and frame rate issues from time to time.
Darksiders gives a chance to wield the Chaoseater sword against many a demonic or angelic foe as War strives to uncover the cause of the unscheduled apocalypse. Just as in games such as Devil May cry or last year’s Ninja Blade, the minor enemies that War faces, things such as shambling zombie creatures and lesser demons, are mostly there to provide a supply of health and souls – the currency in Darksiders.
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