The Darksiders series has always been a strange thing in my group of friends. It always stood as a joke to taunt our aptly named friend Daemon who bought the first game during university, the only game he bought full price no less, and he hated. We have always presumed from his hate that the game was rubbish but in May 2017 a remastered version came to the Wii U, standing as the last significant release for the console no less, so i picked it up never really planning to play it.
Fast forward to 2018 and i have been re-energised to try out more of the games that sit in my backlog and now i have finally given Darksiders Warmastered Edition a fair go, so, 16 hours later... what did i think?
Well first of all the game is certainly not of the poor quality Daemon had so constantly insisted. You play the role of WAR, a member of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, tasked with upholding the balance between heaven and hell. WAR is wrongly called into action and must figure out who is behind the ultimate extinction of Mankind. It is a simple premise but it fits.
Most of the characters are very likeable, or not if thats the point, and are all well voiced. Mark Hamill as the watcher is a particular highlight for me personally as he effortlessly steals every scene with a character that sticks very close to his version of Batman's Joker. The rest of the sound design is solid. Swords hitting steel and flesh sound and feel great and the ambient sounds throughout the hub worlds add to the atmosphere. When the action calls for it the soundtrack really cranks up the epic and it feels like you are playing high budget dark fantasy movie, it is fantastic.
Darksiders has an interesting artistic design for its Dark Fantasy world. Characters a detailed but also colourful with large arms and legs. This works for the setting and helps the game stand out compared to the games it is often compared too. The Dark Fantasy also extends to the setting with a post apocalyptic Earth being a wonderful mix of contemporary buildings and vehicles with the large towers and churches of a classic hellscape, it is literally hell on earth!
Gameplay is a 50/50 split between Zelda dungeons and exploration and Devil May Cry fast paced combat. The dungeons are fairly well designed but they are a tad long. They follow the standard get item, use item to solve puzzle, beat boss, get story doo hicky that the Zelda series has lived off for a number of years but ironically, playing this after Breath of the Wild was somewhat refreshing. Whilst they aren't as well constructed as the excellent Twilight Princess or as visually interesting as Wind Waker, they are for sure the next best on the Wii U.
Combat is fun on the whole. War has a number of different weapons and items to call on from his giant assed sword to a boomerang style throwing star. Each weapon can be upgraded and tweaked for specific passive abilities which adds to the depth. War also has a number of Wrath powers that work in a similar way to Kratos spartan powers in the God of War series. I particular like War's Chaos mode where he basically turns into a Warhammer Daemon Prince and wrecks shop. Although by the end of the game mashing standard enemies into the ground gets kind of boring the wonderful boss fights keep the combat fresh throughout.
Performance wise the game certainly isn't running at the 60 Fps wrongly printed on the cases blurb but on the whole he sticks pretty close to 30 Fps. Aside from a few instances of falling through the floor the game is surprisingly glitch free, it is clear that this port was not a massive priority but you have to praise Vigil Games and THQ Nordic for following through and putting this on the Wii U in the first place!
Overall i was surprised by how much i have enjoyed playing through Darksiders. It doesn't break new ground and shows its age in a few places but to be honest there really isn't a massive amount of similar games nowadays. Its dungeons can drag a bit and combat gets a little stale once you are fully powered but tight controls, excellent boss fights and an interesting story kept me from putting this down.
If you have a Wii U lying around and you're looking for something fun and simple to play without the worry of online connections, micro transactions and ultimately at a reasonable price, you could do a lot worse than Darksiders: Warmastered Edition and hey, the Sequel was actually a launch title on Wii U so you could play that when you're done too! I just might....
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