It's been a little while since we've heard anything on Darksiders, but in the meantime we've seen mythological heroes take centre stage in the battle to make hack ‘n slash games popular again. With God of War 3 imminent and Dante's Inferno on the horizon, it should be of no surprise that we're seeing this title resurface again.
So, to set the scene, Darksiders follows the story of a certain horseman, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. This horseman, War, has been framed for the premature Armageddon which destroyed pretty much everything on Earth. Humanity is annihilated, and this is not a story of its salvation, but rather the story of War, and his quest to achieve redemption by finding those responsible for the end of the world.
Despite being disgraced, having no horse (which is a bit of a bugger for a horseman) and no powers as a result of a scuffle with a demon called Abbadon, War must discover what caused the apocalypse and all but destroyed the world. The game's colour palette helps to portray the bleak atmosphere of post-apocalyptic earth. Buildings are torn to pieces, humanoid zombies populate the streets and cars lay strewn and piled across the landscape, while demons and angels fly around the environments ripping each other apart in an ongoing battle between the good and evil, a battle which War cares little for. His quest has a single focus. This is extremely important and sees War associate with demons and angels in the hope of finding whoever prompted the end of days. But first, War will need his horse back and, when you're reunited with Ruin, you can move a lot quicker around the world and even access areas which were previously inaccessible.
Player progression works in an RPG-esque way. There is so much here that screams Zelda, especially the way in which the game is based on a hub-system, but equally there are enough puzzles, platformer bits and environment changes to keep you interested in moving forward. And move forward you will, especially if you find all the tools that will help you defeat bosses in your quest. At your disposal you'll have a grappling hook as well as some kind of automatic machine gun, which can be used to dispose of the armoured enemies.
What's different about Darksiders is the almost free-roaming aspect (reminiscent of another Nintendo classic, Metroid) which allows players to re-visit hubs which they may not have been able to get to. This, of course, means that there are more areas to explore and more hidden items to add to your arsenal of weapons.
The combination of RPG-action gameplay, an engaging gameworld and the admittedly none-too-original idea of warring mythical figures may just make for a compelling experience. The story sounds like it has the potential to be Darksiders' most interesting feature and it's refreshing to see an apocalyptic narrative in which the survival of humanity is not a primary concern.
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