The original Darksiders and its equally competent sequel were two unique hallmarks of the last generation, boasting a fun, quirky visual aesthetic and a gameplay formula that shifted before the player’s eyes. Drawing inspiration from such a wide range of other titles, it constantly kept the player guessing as they explored dungeons amidst a battered, post-apocalyptic world.
Gunfire Games’ third instalment tries to do much of the same, stopping to adopt a splicing of modern mechanics along the way. It does so with mixed results as its combat fumbles between a Souls-esque dependance on timely accuracy and the relentless hack ‘n’ slash antics of Devil May Cry.
Exploration suffers a similar fate from what I’ve seen, trading previously sprawling, open environments for claustrophobic subway tunnels that simply don’t gel with the fast foes you’ll encounter. After spending 90 minutes with a recent preview build, I’m left cautious, if still excited about where this threequel will go.
You play as Fury, a sister of the Four Horsemen, stars of previous Darksiders outings. Taking place parallel to the events of other games, you’ll explore a decimated vision of Earth on a mission to murder personifications of The Seven Deadly Sins.
My demo began atop a narrow cliff situated inside a subway system long overtaken by paranormal arachnids and other morbid creatures. All of them are hostile, immediately engaging the player regardless of whether you see them or not. This brings to light one of Darksiders 3’s biggest problems: the camera.
It simply isn’t good, and the speedy nature of enemies means you’re frequently dealt damage from threats out of sight. It’s also detrimental to the tight, melodic combat you’re encouraged to engage. R1/RT activates a dodge, and if done perfectly, slows time for a brief second.
Sadly, once out of this animation, you’re immediately vulnerable to damage and powerless to stop an onslaught of attacks. I met an untimely death several times due to situations I was powerless to stop, pinned up against the wall by a camera that didn’t work in tight spaces, making it difficult to see monsters coming or fight more than one at any given time. A shame, since combat is quite fun!
Fury can use a multitude of weapons, the primary one being a fiery whip capable of slashing foes to pieces both at range and up close and personal. It’s a beautifully designed piece of her arsenal, complemented by a range of secondary weapons such as a colossal hammer capable of slamming enemies into nothing.
There’s ample room for experimentation thanks to customisable runes and movesets for almost all equipment. Once again, Gunfire Games is eager to combine a traditional hack ‘n’ slash outing with a robust role-playing experience, and the third instalment doubles down on such things.
Restricted during my demo, here you can fast-travel, purchase goods and level up your character using what I can only describe as ‘souls’. Obtained from fallen foes, this currency is yours for the taking unless you’re killed, then you’ll need to fetch it from the vicinity of your fallen corpse. You won’t lose anything for dying several times, as evidenced by me stumbling around and finding 10,000+ from many of my failed attempts.
My first task was to topple Sloth from his aforementioned throne, forcing him to stop lazing around and fight me like a bug! After this, the key to victory was memorising a fairly simplistic sequence of attacks, dealing damage as I went. After a few minutes, I emerged victorious, triggering a cutscene that expresses the no-nonsense attitude of our heroine. “That’s enough exercise for a lifetime,” the deity shrieked as I began to absorb his soul.
Gunfire Games told me at Gamescom 2018 that you will be free to tackle The Seven Deadly Sins in Darksiders 3 in whatever order you wish, choosing which areas you venture to and bosses you fight. Your level and the capabilities of enemies scale alongside one another so you should seldom stumble into areas filled with overpowered foes eager to one-shot you. Knowing that few will experience Darksiders 3 in the same way is exciting – if the full world is one truly worth exploring.
I have access to three of Fury’s weapons: the Barbs of Scorn, the Mallet of Scorn, and the Chains of Scorn, and digging into the menu screens here we find some numbers that hint at some depth and progression systems. You can slot ‘Enchantments’, in this case a ‘Demonic Fortifier +1 that adds 6 percent physical and arcane damage, and a five percent health boost. It doesn’t look like weapons and armour will drop as loot. I’d guess Enchantments are the main way to upgrade your weapons, and there is a section of your inventory dedicated to ingredients that a character called ‘Ulthane’ can mould into new weapon boosts. In addition, Fury herself has health, strength and arcane stats that you can increase with attribute points.
Personally, I will miss the ongoing visual character changes that loot allows for, but it looks like there will be some numbers to play with, and Darksiders has always leant heavily into the ‘action’ part of action RPG. You fight with a familiar array of light whip attacks and heavy secondary weapon attacks. You dodge with the right-bumper, and if you dodge at just the right moment you can respond with a powerful slam with your weapon of choice. Weapons have powerful abilities that hurt enemies and, in the case of Fury’s purple rock explosion power, be used to traverse the level—one trailer shows fury using the purple rocks to climb a wall of crystal. Sadly, there's no sign of any finishing moves.
The environment’s a bit underwhelming too. Darksiders has lots of dungeons, but particularly in the second game, there were outdoor areas too with a sense of scale and adventure. You even got to ride around on your horse of the apocalypse fighting titanic bosses in game two. Most of the screenshots and videos of Darksiders 3 are set in similarly glum cave structures. D2 had its share of derivative areas, but you also got to dangle off a ghost ship pulled by two flying, angry leviathans.
There are reasons for hope here. The huge grasshopper boss shown recently has some of that old Darksiders flair. Where is the rest of the personality, though? In all of the marketing materials we’ve seen so far barely a word has been spoken by any characters. We know that the seven deadly sins have overrun Earth, but there’s no sense of context or drive to Fury’s journey in this preview build or really anywhere. Maybe, for a change, that’s all being saved for the November release.
I really want Darksiders 3 to be good, because I've always had a surprisingly good time with the the series, and even ended up heading back into Darksiders 2’s DLC. Still, these few hours have put me back to ‘wait and see’ mode, even though I’m rooting for THQ Nordic to get it right. It's due out on November 27.
Here is trailer
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
No comments