Falling back to the year 2012, I had my first hands-on with the Darksiders franchise via the game Darksiders II. My time with the second game had me hooked and finally realizing why I had friends telling me I should look into the game Darksiders. Soon as I had the chance I also decided to check out the first game of the franchise to brush up on the story. However, early in 2013 THQ filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, which put a lot of doubt if we’d ever see a Darksiders III by any of the team who worked on the game.
As we saw many of the game companies that handled the games THQ worked on being sold left and right, lots of the internet only hoped Vigil Games would be given a home. Alas, it wasn’t, but David Adam who founded Vigil Games came back in 2014 to found Gunfire Games, who remastered Darksiders II and produced a few other games as well. One game that had everyone excited was the announcement of Darksiders III finally happening. As you can guess the internet including myself was happy on the news that we’d finally get to see a continuation of the franchise even if 4 years later.
Darksiders III follows Fury as she hunts down the Seven Deadly Sins. For those of you who don’t know what the Seven Deadly Sins are, they happen to be Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride. This alone means you will be fighting seven different bosses throughout your time in-game. There is even the chance of more and bigger fights as you will be doing side missions from time to time. From my time with the game I’ve killed at least 3 of the Seven Deadly Sins and feel as if I’ve hardly scratched the surface of what’s to come in-game. So please note as I just stated I feel as if I’m not as far in-game since the wheels seem to turning harder to more of the Darksiders Lore and the Horsemen. When it comes to the game-play itself, for the most part, it is a classic third-person hack-and-slash, with some puzzle mechanics added in. While this isn’t anything new to the franchise, you’ll still be taking time to figure out the puzzles as well as when to land or dodge the perfect attack against enemies and the bosses. (See later on within review for one of flaws when it comes to fighting against other enemies.) Of course, you’ll unlock new abilities as you play, each of which will help you continue to progress through the game. This includes obtaining relics from the Sins you happen to beat, upgrades for your weapons and the relics you can attach to them as well. Fury has a lot of potential as the new main character. The upgrade system for weapons, relics, and other game tools were carried over from Darksiders II. Meaning you’ll be able to upgrade your different weapons with the ingredients you find, but as for some of the features from the past game such as new attacks, picking up items with better stats is nowhere to be seen in-game. You will be revisiting areas as you unlock the new abilities that allow you to complete tasks you couldn’t do the first time you were in that area. As for upgrading yourself, you’ll get to see your good old friend Vulgrim will be there to let you spend your hard earned souls to upgrade yourself, sell items that seem to increase as you purchase from him. (He’s got to make a living I guess!) As far as enemies, some seem easy to conquer, but others present more of a challenge (especially as you progress through the game). You’ll also have to watch out for hidden elements such as booby traps and side bosses–some of whom are more difficult to beat than they first appear. One downside I have noticed is that game loading between deaths seems slower than during other times, but that could just be me. I wouldn’t call myself a die-hard fan, but I’ve enjoyed my time with gameplay. There is so much of the story itself I’d like to talk about, but this would branch into spoilers for those that have yet to play the game.
The setting of the game is much different from the previous title in the series, as you’ve landed on a post-apocalyptic Earth. This represents a considerable change in the style of graphics used. The in-game world has been divided among angels, demons, and a few remaining humans. It remains to be seen how obvious the territories are defined, as the only information provided (so far) is the lore. The graphics portray the end-of-the-world vibe very well, with destruction everywhere. Gunfire Games certainly hit the mark with their post-apocalyptic world. When it comes to the musical score of Darksiders 3, I’ve enjoyed my time listening to the excitement in the music during major battles. In the game overall, there is not much music except basic ambiance. Most of the sound comes from weapon action and character attacks–whether from your character or your opponent.
The controls are no surprise to anyone who plays this type of game. As you learn new skills in the game, more controller buttons are used to employ different actions. Tutorials for the controls are fairly minimal, with the occasional vague hint of when to use a skill. One potentially flawed element is that the window of time to use “dodge” is very small and easy to miss at times. I would not recommend this game to a newbie to this style of game.
Overall, Darksiders III is a good game on its own for anyone starting the franchise or not. While some users may be confused on what’s going on between the first and second leading into this third game, the game does well enough to make some callbacks to the past games and to provide more lore of what’s going on. If you’re looking for a hack-and-slash game, Darksiders III is definitely one to check out minus the flaws the game comes along with. The team from Gunfire Games really outdid themselves reviving the Darksiders franchise with this third addition to the series. Darksiders III on its own will please some fans, but even then I myself would wait until a possible price drop with the few flaws the game seems to fall short on.
