I completely agree with what Yahtzee said in his Zero Punctuation review of Darksiders; the combat system is clunky. When I'm in the middle of a chain of blows in one direction I'm still vulnerable from behind and when I'm getting mobbed it's very likely that one of the mooks behind me will land a blow before I can break the chain and turn to face them. It feels like it cheapens the combat a little, but there are ample opportunities to restore health around the levels so it’s not like I died after every two mob fights.
The special moves require all manner of button combos that feel really awkward to use in conjunction with the targeting system and the alternate weapons. For example: to target a single enemy you have to hold down the left trigger, but the Wrath moves use the left bumper with the face buttons so I either have to stop targeting to use a Wrath move or else pull the trigger with my middle finger and use my index finger on the bumper. I’ve tried holding the controller like that for other games and it just feels weird to me.
So far, however, it's not enough for me to give up on the game. I'll probably go back and play through further than the allotted 3 hours for this blog, but I'm not itching to do it right away.
Darksiders has everything! From Half-Life Barnacles...
... to Prince of Persia Wall-Crawling...
... to a throwing glaive that behaves very much like the Legend of Zelda Boomerang.
As I’ve reached the first 3 hours I am in the middle of the first Zelda-style dungeon trying to make my way to fight Tiamat, the first of the four demon guardians that block my way into The Destroyer’s spire. I made myself laugh at one point because as I opened a chest I said “You got the Map!” and I did. This game is definitely taking cues from other games, though it seems the list Yahtzee provided in his review was incomplete: One thing he omitted was the several-minute-long Panzer Dragoon section as I made my way to Tiamat’s Dungeon; flying, shooting, and dodging my way through both Angels and Demons to get there.
Otherwise things have been all right. In coming back to the game after yesterday, the controls feel familiar and I’ve had a better time using them. It’s still slightly awkward to target while using special abilities, but I’ve found that it’s almost better to not bother targeting during combat. My other complaint is that the FOV is really narrow and can’t be adjusted in the normal options menu. This is one of the few games where I’ve felt a little discomfort while playing close to the monitor, when I scooted my chair back about a foot the feeling went away so I doubt they changed much from the console release where you’ll typically be 6-8 feet from the screen.
At one point in the second area I was tasked with clearing five of what were effectively Challenge Arenas in order to proceed. Each was a variation on the “Kill [X] enemies within the time limit using [Y] restriction” theme and did well to practice some of the finer points in the combat system. The first two were straight-up timed murder-fests, the second had the twist that I was poisoned and my dwindling health bar was the time limit, but the other three were more interesting: one had me killing a number of enemies with my finishing move which I could use directly on the flying enemies--the most fun was chaining 6 of these mid-air finishers together--but the other ground guys I had to whittle down first; another required me to kill enemies while in the air so I had to use the sword uppercut skill to launch them and then wail on them before we fell back to the ground.
So far nothing’s completely turned me off of the game. I’ve died several times, but it’s been pretty clear that’s from trying too hard to tank the larger mooks rather than dodging and kiting during a melee. Yahtzee was also correct that the enemies will heavily telegraph their strikes as they start an attack chain of their own so getting hit is really more or less my own fault. The story of the game is pretty amateur-hour so far and from the synopsis on the game’s Wikipedia page it doesn’t look like it gets any better so I’m ignoring it for the most part and just beating up the hell-beasts for the fun of it.
I definitely want to go back and at least finish Tiamat’s Dungeon to see what my reward is--I suspect it’s the Not-Hookshot because outside of the entrance there were several lit beacons hanging on the air in a row going off in a direction that looked like the exit to the next area. The rest of the game has some Metroidvania elements: there are ice walls dotted around everywhere and I don’t have a flame-based skill or weapon yet, and there are some bomb spawners that are situated on out-of-reach destroyable walls that I’m sure I could detonate with the Not-Hookshot or some other projectile weapon.
If you already own this game but haven’t played it yet, I think you’d enjoy it. The art style is neat, much of the environment is drab so that War’s costume pops out. He almost looks like a DotA hero dropped into Hellgate: London. However I don’t know that I can recommend that anyone go out and buy it. The gameplay is pretty repetitive and so far I haven’t found any bonus or other satisfaction from combat finesse, you just succeed by hitting the enemies more than they hit you. It’s currently retailing at $20 on Steam and honestly it’s nowhere near worth that. If you can get it for 75% off like I did, either alone or as part of the franchise pack, that’s the only time I would recommend buying it.
ADDENDUM: I originally played this for the blog before the Warmastered Edition came out in October, 2016 so this was written without knowing of any graphical settings updates like an adjustable FOV slider or whatnot that may have been added to the game.
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