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[Barrow Roll]

Every time I entered a Zelda thread in the past year on GAF there was always one game that inevitably came up: Darksiders.

No matter where I went, I couldn't escape it. "Best recent Zelda game" and things to that I effect I have read. I've had this game sitting int he backlog for a few months now and I felt compelled to finally give it a go.

I just recently finished it on the PS3 playing through Apocalyptic and did the whole Platinum trophy shebang.

I don't think it trumps Twilight Princess but Darksiders is a damn fine game, a great first game from Vigil Studios and definitely worthy of the average 8/10 it's been scoring (which I consider a really good score).

What can I say that hasn't already been said? It doesn't really bring any new ideas to the table and borrows heavily from other titles but it does so in a way that doesn't feel contrived or as if we've already tread this ground.

Here's what I loved:

-The length of the game. Good lord, a nearly 20 hour adventure in this day and age?! Fantastic!
-The dungeons and puzzles. As a 3D Zelda veteran, it felt right at home. Fairly decent brainteasers and few stumped me for a bit. I especially loved the Black Throne.

Spoiler

Portal mixed with Zelda? Could have been a disaster but they pulled it off!

A shame there were only 4.

The good:

-The combat. I've never played God of War so comparisons were lost on me. That said, it was pretty good all in all. I got by using 2 main moves (Whirlwind combo and Harpoon Tackle) but despite that, the fluidity of it kept me engaged. Seamlessly transitioning from combos to finishers and dashing between groups of demons was a lot of fun. Not being locked into combos and being able to dash out at almost any time is great. And the Wrath abilities were pretty wicked too. Affliction is pretty amazing and War looks crazy cool with a maxed out Stoneskin. My only real beef is that blocking feels really unresponsive so you're better offing dashing to avoid attacks.
-The art style. I know War gets a bit of flak around here, but fuck it, he looks cool. And so does the rest of the cast. I especially liked Samael's inverted wings. The character designs pull off the "comic book come to life" look very well and the cartoony hyper violence works with it all.
-The voice-acting. Everyone kinda has the gruff and gravely sort of voice but it was still pretty decently acted. And Mark Hammil is pretty great as The Watcher.

The bad:

-Pacing in the opening act. It takes far too long to get to the first dungeon.
-The entire upgrade and currency system. You simply do not obtain enough souls to upgrade everything you'd want throughout the course of the game. You pretty much have to choose 1 or 2 Wrath powers and stick with it if you plan on upgrading them all the way and by the time you do, you can't really even use them.
-The final boss. He stinks. Nuff said. If there was at least 1 more awesome dungeon before the face-off then I could live with it.

There's probably a lot more I could mention in all 3 categories but I don't want this OP to be too bloated. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun with this game and Darksiders 2 is definitely on my radar now.

 

[papersleeves]

Yes, this game came to me as a breath of fresh air. Took what I like from Zelda. Took what I like from an action game. Mixed the fuck out of them. And what did we get ? A great game.

Edit : I just want to add that I agree with you on pretty much everything. Especially about how it takes way too much time before entering the first dungeon. Fortunately for us, from this moment, it starts getting very interesting and it stays that way until the end.

 

[MMaRsu]

Well I can only agree with you, it was one of my favorite games of last year . So awesome that I just picked it up in stores cause I wanted a new game, and only heard the score of one review to decide I was gonna get it. Not that the score was anything special, the box just looked cool to me. Such a sweet surprise I got .

 

[Sydle]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=427791

Could have used the other LTTP: Darksiders thread. Anywho, excellent game, definitely buying the sequel on release.

 

[Shalashaska161]

I liked it. It wasn't the most spectacular game ever but we hardly ever get Zelda type games anymore so I appreciated it.

 

[legbone]

yep, best zelda game this gen. and that includes actual zelda games.

 

[Barrow Roll]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=427791

Could have used the other LTTP: Darksiders thread. Anywho, excellent game, definitely buying the sequel on release.

I did a search and saw that both threads kind of fizzled out after only a day and that ones a few months old anyways. I was under the impression that reviving threads even if they are only a few months old was frowned upon? I thought making a new thread would spark some new discussion.

 

[Manus]

See I loved everything about Darksiders, but The Black Throne. Got really old quick.

 

[QP3]

hmm..after recently reading the preview for Darksiders 2 in GameInformer I am currently considering picking this one up. You may have just convinced me

 

[walking fiend]

I was really interested in DS, because I had been told its combat mechanisms were superior to zelda, and a marriage to GoW.

But I didn't like it, because although its combat mechanism was better than Zelda, much more smooth, but it wasn't GoW level (and GoW wasn't DMC3 level), and boss fights weren't nearly as good as Zelda games or GoW.

So I never understood the love for the game.

yep, best zelda game this gen. and that includes actual zelda games.

have you played any zelda game this gen?

 

[zlatko]

I bought this during the steam sale last week for 5 bucks and I haven't gone back to it after 4 hours. It mostly has to do with the combat being boring as hell to me. Mash X to win yay. Plus, dodging in that game is damn near pointless sometimes because you'll do a few quick dashes to try and escape w/e is coming your way and you still get hit by it even though the character models aren't even touching. The story so far is damn lackluster and the environments aren't much to look at. I'm up to where I meet up with that big hammer guy and we mess up a bunch of pigeons together.

The problem might be I wrapped up Castlevania Lords of Shadow recently before Darksiders, and that game does a lot of what Darksiders hopes to accomplish in that genre a lot better---mainly the combat and story pacing, as well as having some fantastic scenery.

I'll probably go back to more of it when the mood strikes, but it hasn't grabbed me at all yet.

 

[Neuromancer]

The ending of this game is amazing. Probably in my 5 top ten endings this generation.

Spoiler

No, not alone...

 

[szaromir]

I also bought it during the Steam sale a week or so ago and already played it through. A really nice game.

The most unexpected thing about this game is that there is no element that sucks - Darksiders includes a lot of gameplay mechanics and none of them are frustrating or badly done. Combat? It's pretty good. Shooting sections? They're quite fun. Boss battles? Mostly decent. Puzzles? Nice. Horse riding? Decent. Underwater sections? Playable. Usually such games have at least one moment that's a nightmare to play.

Though sadly all of them are only decent to very good, nothing in this game really shines, so it ends up being a nice mix of God of War and Legend of Zelda, but nothing more. I think the story was really good for what it was, though, which rarely happens with video games.

have you played any zelda game this gen?

I haven't played TP, but DS is much better than Spirit Tracks or Phantom Hourglass.

 

[legbone]

have you played any zelda game this gen?

yep. twilight princess. i stand by my opinion.

 

[Barrow Roll]

The ending of this game is amazing. Probably in my 5 top ten endings this generation.

Spoiler

No, not alone...

Yeah, that was pretty cool even if the story was unnecessarily difficult to follow.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

I thought the game was alright, but the combat was mostly boring (dodge, attack; weaken somehow, combo until it recharges). But more than the combat, the problem was the intensely bad pacing. The game seriously drags more often than it should and caps off one of the more climactic moments in the game with a fetch quest.

And the Black Throne, goddamn.

I liked the game enough to be interested in Darksiders 2, but I feel it only succeeds at being a Zelda-like and far from a Zelda-killer.

 

[Alexios]

I liked the game but didn't feel it was much like Zelda. More like Devil May Cry, imo. It had plenty horribad and/or repetitive sections too.

yep. twilight princess. i stand by my opinion.

That's a last gen Zelda. And still better than DarkSiders. Sure, it had flaws, but DarkSiders wasn't devoid of those either.

 

[Neuromancer]

Yeah, that was pretty cool even if the story was unnecessarily difficult to follow.

Yeah... Can't argue with that.

 

[szaromir]

I liked the game enough to be interested in Darksiders 2, but I feel it only succeeds at being a Zelda-like and far from a Zelda-killer.

There aren't many Zelda like games at all and the ones out there are usually pretty bad (e.g. Okami).

 

[A Human Becoming]

Darksiders was my biggest surprise of last year. I agree with pacing issues, but not in the same way as you. I though battles could have been cut in some spots.

I do think it's better with Twilight Princess just because for me it used the same formula without feeling stale. TP to me was Ocarina of Time 2 and not its own game. Anyways, I'm glad Virgil will be making another game like it over the multiplayer focused sequel (for now).

EDIT: I also don't get people who say it feels more like God of War or Devil May Cry. It has all the fucking Zelda tropes.

 

[Grisby]

Yep, one of the most underrated games. This and Okami proved that I still loved the Zelda formula.

 

[Barrow Roll]

Yeah... Can't argue with that.

My only concern is that we may have to wait until the third game to see it played out since Darksiders 2 will be a parallel sequel. Then again, they've mentioned that 2 will be twice as big as 1 so maybe it will only be parallel until a certain point?

 

[walking fiend]

yep. twilight princess. i stand by my opinion.

you could have said that it was better than Twilight Princess, anyhow.

what did it do better than TP beside combat and and maybe pacing (TP somehow being really bad in my opinion)? check those you think:

- Artistic Design
- Music
- Level Design
- Boss Fights
- Story
- Character Development

I really don't like Twilight Princess, like it considerably less than Phantom Hourglass (that's why I asked what Zeldas you have palyed this gen), but calling DS being a better game than TP is a stretch, being a better "Zelda" game is totally unacceptable.

There aren't many Zelda like games at all and the ones out there are usually pretty bad (e.g. Okami).

I am out of this thread, sorry to bother.

I do think it's better with Twilight Princess just because for me it used the same formula without feeling stale. TP to me was Ocarina of Time 2 and not its own game. Anyways, I'm glad Virgil will be making another game like it over the multiplayer focused sequel (for now).

I haven't played OoT (hides), so I may agree with this stance.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

The filler in the game could be downright insulting, as well.

Like the "Find the shadow rooms to let me move out of the way" sections. Really, search for portals to do rooms where I battle for 3-5 minutes? Who thought that was a good idea?

 

[Barrow Roll]

hmm..after recently reading the preview for Darksiders 2 in GameInformer I am currently considering picking this one up. You may have just convinced me

The game is dirt cheap now so you can't really go wrong.

 

[Stahsky]

I think the art design to it really gave it a fresh feel. I bought it randomly for about 15 dollars and was completely surprised by it. Fantastic game and I will be buying the sequel day 1.

 

[Glix]

I'm also late, and I like it alot, although sometimes its just too much.

I'm activating the three beams right now, and honestly, the first one was enough. The other two have just been a chore.

 

[yamo]

Double dipped and got it for the pc on the steam sale, just because it's so great! Have it on ps3 aswell.

 

[szaromir]

The filler in the game could be downright insulting, as well.

Like the "Find the shadow rooms to let me move out of the way" sections. Really, search for portals to do rooms where I battle for 3-5 minutes? Who thought that was a good idea?

I liked it. They were unique challenges that were fun to accomplish (nothing frustrating too). They might have made it optional, but in total you could breeze through both such sections in 20 minutes. Nothing comparable to going through the same dungeon 5 times in Phantom Hourglass.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

I liked it. They were unique challenges that were fun to accomplish (nothing frustrating too). They might have made it optional, but in total you could breeze through both such sections in 20 minutes. Nothing comparable to going through the same dungeon 5 times in Phantom Hourglass.

They are, however, directly comparable to the bug hunts in Twilight Princess, except with added annoyance on top.

 

[Barrow Roll]

The filler in the game could be downright insulting, as well.

Like the "Find the shadow rooms to let me move out of the way" sections. Really, search for portals to do rooms where I battle for 3-5 minutes? Who thought that was a good idea?

This was pretty bullshit and the worst of it was in the opening act before you get to the Twilight Cathedral (first dungeon). They were pretty much glorified tutorial levels that needlessly hammered into you these techniques. This stuff should have been skippable or accessible from a menu, not integrated into the gameplay.

I didn't like Darksiders from the get go. I found everything up until the Twilight Cathedral to be pretty average, nothing special and I was getting bored. But once that Zelda formula finally kicked in I was hooked.

 

[szaromir]

They are, however, directly comparable to the bug hunts in Twilight Princess, except with added annoyance on top.

I haven't played TP. But again, both those sections could take you 20-30 minutes in total (some fights took like 60 seconds only), I've seen much, much worse fillers in games. Riding the train in the most recent Zelda bored me after 5 minutes and those were much longer and repetitive than anything in Darksiders. Or clicking through a ton of terrible dialogs in Okami.

I'd say overall the pacing in Darksiders is quite tight, almost everything in the game is decent to very good, but as I said earlier there's nothing exceptional either and it keeps the game from getting classic status.

 

[Jocchan]

Those rooms should have been an optional sidequest. Clear them all to free a single stone giant chained somewhere and get *something* in return.

 

[Khal_B]

Awesome game. Went in expecting nothing much, and ended up being blown away. The end became a bit tedious, but other than that, loved it.

 

[plc268]

Darksiders was my biggest surprise of last year. I agree with pacing issues, but not in the same way as you. I though battles could have been cut in some spots.

I do think it's better with Twilight Princess just because for me it used the same formula without feeling stale. TP to me was Ocarina of Time 2 and not its own game. Anyways, I'm glad Virgil will be making another game like it over the multiplayer focused sequel (for now).

EDIT: I also don't get people who say it feels more like God of War or Devil May Cry. It has all the fucking Zelda tropes.

Maybe they didn't play it far enough? I agree, the pacing at the beginning is terrible, and it gives you all the indication that it's just another God of War clone.

 

[Tymerend]

The first time I had seen this game was E3 of 2009, was really intrigued by the trailer and followed it pretty closely. Bought it day it came out was was stupidly impressed. I loved the art style, and the voice acting was great. Could have used a couple more dungeons and boss fights, but yeah, great game. One of my favorites that year.

It doesn't hurt that I'm all into WOW and War looks like Arthas and has Illidan's voice actor.

 

[Barrow Roll]

Awesome game. Went in expecting nothing much, and ended up being blown away. The end became a bit tedious, but other than that, loved it.

The common fetch quest complaint which is fair but I never really have a problem with it. It's nice to be able to traverse the world and find all those extras at the end of the game since you now have all of your abilities. You could do that anyways even without the fetch quest but it's nice to have some incentive or reason to revisit that area beyond going "oh hey, I remembered something from earlier in the game I can check out now that I have this upgrade."

I was never bothered by the end game fetch quests in all 3 Metroid Prime games either. *shrug*

 

[Rimfya]

The game that made me realise I care a lot more about bad story and voice acting than I thought.

There's a lot I'm willing to give, but voices either growly, or screechy, ugh.

Then what a puss-out to not make a real sequel.

 

[ATF487]

Also got it on the Steam sale, just started the third dungeon.

I understand the criticisms about the level of depth in the combat is lacking, the story is sort of over the top, and the puzzles aren't zelda quality, but everything is good enough for me. It's been a fun ride so far, and was worth a lot more than the five dollars I paid for it.

I also like it because I'm a big fan of the God of War games that I've played, but have sort of strayed from Zelda recently. I think this is a good trojan horse to get me to play them again

 

[Effect]

Just started playing this tonight. One of the games I got from Goozexing Black Ops (PS3). Outside of some slow down when I'm in the middle of doing a lot of attacks during combat the game is fun so far. More so then I figured it would be. Playing it on normal and one creature so far I think is a bit unfair is this fire creature that hits for a lot and then explodes. It takes way to much damage I think considering the limited ways to regain health when you encounter. I'm heading toward the first major enemy I believe.

I'm not sure if it's really a negative though but the game seems to be a bit of a button masher in terms of normal combat. The game is Zelda inspired in some ways but Zelda games are still very different. I wouldn't consider it a replacement for any of the games. Or say it's the "best Zelda since....". That's kinda out there I think.

I thought War's voice sounded familiar. After looking it up I was right. He's the English voice actor for Kenzo Tenma (lead character) from the anime Monster. Excellent show for anyone that likes character crime dramas. Wish they had finished releasing the dvds but glad I DVRed it at the same time when it was airing on SyFy. He's also the does the English voice for the character Ukitake in Bleach and Gaara in Naruto. IMDB shows he's been in a TON of other things as well but these are where I've heard his work the most. His voice fits the character well I feel.

 

[ZealousD]

A shame there were only 4.

You're forgetting one. Twilight Cathedral. Subway. Desert. Spider Lair. Black Throne.

 

[Big One]

I don't get why people love the combat so much. It's completely unnecessary and bogs the game more than it seems like it should.

I've been pretty vocally critical of Darksiders, but I still love the game. My criticisms are mostly people who try comparing Darksiders to the massive beasts that are 3D Zelda, which makes Darksiders look way more poor than it actually is imo.

 

[matrix-cat]

I don't get why people love the combat so much. It's completely unnecessary and bogs the game more than it seems like it should.

I started playing a week ago and this is my main complaint. I was barely an hour in before I decided I wasn't going to use Finishing moves any more because they added an extra second or two to the eternity it took to kill every enemy in the game. I wanted to play Darksiders for the puzzles and the dungeons but they space that stuff out with these endless fights where every single enemy takes two or three or four sword slashes more to kill than would be enjoyable. You're a ten foot tall dude swinging a sword the size of an office desk and you have to hit human-sized enemies five or six times before they go down. The dodging and blocking mechanics suck, there's no feel to the combat, you just sit there mashing the button until it's finally over and you can move on to the parts of the game you actually want to play.

I played that hour-long demo back in the day and decided that I wanted to play the full game but I'd play it on Easy mode in an effort to make the combat as painless as possible, but even on Easy I don't really want to play the game anymore. I had just got up to the second dungeon gatekeeper when he told me I had to go and grind through another four of those horrible combat challenges I had to do to unlock the first dungeon, so I told him he could keep his curse. I just have no patience for this kind of thing anymore. My desire to explore the dungeon is thoroughly outweighed by my desperate need not to press the X button forty million times at the same enemies for the rest of the game.

 

[I'm an expert]

Wonderful game I bought on a whim and ended up loving. Even if it's not perfect, a nice fresh take on the Zelda formula is very, very welcome. Wish more games would do it.

 

[ampere]

I just started it last week and I'm about an hour into it.

So far it seems great. I'm playing on PC, but I'm using a 360 controller.

 

[Barrow Roll]

You're forgetting one. Twilight Cathedral. Subway. Desert. Spider Lair. Black Throne.

I don't really consider the Desert a dungeon. :/

More like a big area with a boss at the end.

 

[Xapati]

Darksiders was an amzing game. I think the only two real complaints I have are the two Sand Worms you have to fight which are terribly frustrating and the fact that it's story is really confusing.

 

[Nix]

If they were going to make War into a gritty kind of character, he could have at least had the personality to go with it. Cool, cocky, annoyingly suave. That's what I wanted to see from War.

Darksiders 2, please don't make your main character so...out of synch with me.

 

[ZealousD]

I don't really consider the Desert a dungeon. :/

More like a big area with a boss at the end.

It's totally a dungeon. There's puzzles. There's a special item you get. There's a boss.

Just because it totally sneaks up on you and the level doesn't have a roof doesn't mean it's not a dungeon! =P

 

[Guevara]

I started playing a week ago and this is my main complaint. I was barely an hour in before I decided I wasn't going to use Finishing moves any more because they added an extra second or two to the eternity it took to kill every enemy in the game. I wanted to play Darksiders for the puzzles and the dungeons but they space that stuff out with these endless fights where every single enemy takes two or three or four sword slashes more to kill than would be enjoyable. You're a ten foot tall dude swinging a sword the size of an office desk and you have to hit human-sized enemies five or six times before they go down. The dodging and blocking mechanics suck, there's no feel to the combat, you just sit there mashing the button until it's finally over and you can move on to the parts of the game you actually want to play.

I played that hour-long demo back in the day and decided that I wanted to play the full game but I'd play it on Easy mode in an effort to make the combat as painless as possible, but even on Easy I don't really want to play the game anymore. I had just got up to the second dungeon gatekeeper when he told me I had to go and grind through another four of those horrible combat challenges I had to do to unlock the first dungeon, so I told him he could keep his curse. I just have no patience for this kind of thing anymore. My desire to explore the dungeon is thoroughly outweighed by my desperate need not to press the X button forty million times at the same enemies for the rest of the game.

I am with this post. I really wanted to like Darksiders, I just can't stand how much the combat slows down the game. It's the same complaint I have about God of War. If these characters are so strong, why do I have to hit the most basic enemy 8 times to proceed? Why do I have to hit (X) 20 times in God of War just to open a fucking chest?

By comparison, combat in Twilight Princess is quick and Link feels powerful. Once you get the Mortal Draw forget about it. Link walks around one-hitting lizard men and stabbing skeletons in their faces.