Darksiders (PS3) (From Daily Echo)

Darksiders (PS3)

6:05pm Thursday 4th February 2010 in

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Genre: Darksider

Platform: PlayStation 3

Publisher: THQ

Classification: 18 (PEGI)

FOR years people have told stories about the end of the world. There’s something about the subject, however daunting, that actually captivates. And whether its earth engulfed in a huge fireball from hell or an epidemic that spreads itself across the earth – we will morbidly listen with intrigue.

One of the stories that has always had people captivated is from the book of Revelation – the four horsemen of the apocalypse. War is one of these horsemen and is the main protagonist for this story.

Taking control of the hard-nut, demonic rider, players are thrown into the thick, fast and relentless action from the offset, with the game taking shape from a third-person viewpoint.

The one thing to note is the fact that this game is so super smooth that it even makes Morgan Freeman’s narrating voice seem like high grit sandpaper. There are admittedly moments when the action will freeze for a second, but these are so far and few between that they never really hinder the fluidity.

The loading times are at an impressive low, especially when considering it’s peppered with cutscenes. This really helps to add tension to the games super fast pace as you’re either deep in the action or watching a beautifully animated and deeply engrossing part of the story.

Character development is not only vast but it is constant with new moves and skills being discovered all the way through. This gives the end user a great level of satisfaction as they constantly feel as though they’re being rewarded for their efforts.

And this is where the game becomes so much more than just a hack-and-slash. The terrain is like one huge puzzle in the fact that the skills you develop will help you travel |to places that you couldn’t before. These levels are expertly crafted – developers Vigil should feel proud.

Camera angles in these types of games can often be as painful as watching an episode of the done-to-death Big Brother. But Darksiders somehow seems to cope with it in a good way and there’s rarely a moment of frustration.

As an action game, Darksiders is phenomenal. As a puzzle game, Darksiders is phenomenal. As a game in general – Darksiders is phenomenal.

SCORE: 9 / 10