Raziel, Kratos, Asura; these bad boys are the epitome of angry protagonists when it comes to hack ‘n’ slash video games. These guys are solely fueled by pure rage and wrath that they go to hell and back to extract revenge on those who did them wrong. Well I’m happy to say that the now-defunct Vigil Games has added their own entry to the roster of angry video game heroes. Enter War, one of the four Horsemen of Apocalypse from the frigging Bible itself, and my God he is angry…..
The awkwardly named Darksiders:Warmastered Edition is the remaster to 2010’s Action-Adventure title Darksiders, developed by the ill-fated Vigil Games and published by THQ. The remaster is put together by THQ Nordic and features updated visuals and tweaks. It was released on November 22, 2016 for PS4 and XB1, and on November 29, 2016 for PC with a Wii U release on 23rd May 2017.
Darksiders:Warmastered Edition
Detailed Review
Story & Narrative
Story is one of the strong points of Darksiders. The story is loosely based on Biblical events. You play as War, one of the four Horsemen of Apocalypse who are tasked to maintain the balance between forces of light and darkness, good and evil. An ancient entity called The Charred Council oversees the peace-treaty between heaven and hell, which is held by The 7 Seals. One eventful day, the seals are somehow broken, causing the apocalypse and you, War is summoned to earth to slay both angelic and demonic forces and maintain the balance. But nothing goes as planned, and you are framed for breaking the seal that led to the apocalypse. War is stripped of his powers, and is held on a leash by the Charred Council, who sends him back to Earth to stop the Destroyer, the cerberus of hell.
The story is simple, told in a straightforward manner but is very well written. War himself is a likable and strong protagonist who the player really connects to. Throughout your journey, you meet a well crafted array of secondary characters such as the Watcher, who acts as your keeper, the demons Samael and Vulgrim, angel of death; Azrael, the scots speaking giant Ulthane and many more. All of them are well written and has their own agendas and personalities. There are a few twists and turns along the way which really makes you compelled to get to the bottom of the whole conspiracy and help War have his revenge. In short, the story takes the cake.
Gameplay
Darksiders is an ode to action adventure games such as Legacy of Kain, Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time and hack ‘n’ slash titles like Devil May Cry and God of War. To be frank, Darksiders pulls of this formula quite well. It takes the exploration and puzzles from Zelda, LoK and blends it with fast paced combo-driven swordplay of Devil May Cry and God of War. The camera is fully rotatable and the world is divided into several sizeable regions. War has to navigate the environments using the his acrobatic abilities and the tools at his dispersal, while occasionally running into a cluster of enemies and solving puzzles to progress further. The game is very easy on the normal difficulty and not that much challenging in the ‘apocalyptic’ difficulty.
Aside to the standard upgradeable health meter, you also have wrath meter, which well help you unleash some devastating power on your foes. You also pick up souls from enemies and items, of which there are three – your standard green souls which restores health, yellow stones which restores wrath and white souls which is the main currency. There is somewhat a lack of enemy variety, as each major region rehashes previous enemy types to fit the aesthetic. There is some backtracking involved. You can always go to previous areas, once you’ve acquired some new abilities which lets you access previously inaccessible areas. The drawback being walking through a giant empty area after you select fast travel option through the vendor. It’s a tedious process and quite an annoying one, in fact. The game clocks in around at 20+ hours, and I couldn’t help but feel that some of the latter areas could have been cut short to prevent boredom and exhaustion.
Hell Hath No Fury – The combat
Combat in Darksiders is visceral and satisfying. Throughout your travels, the game locks you in some areas and enemies pop out of the ground or come running to put a halt in your path. The player is locked in the area until all enemies are dead. By default, War is equipped with his gigantic sword, the Chaoseater which will be your primary weapon throughout the game. You can also acquire two secondary weapons such as a gauntlet and a scythe. All of these weapons have separate movesets and power-ups that you can buy from the demonic vendor Vulgrim by quenching his thirst for souls. They can also be enchanted by using various augments which can be found, as well as bought from the vendors. The two secondary weapons feel nice to use, but most of the time, you’ll just be sticking to chaoseater. Although it makes sense story-wise, ability to switch primary weapons would have been nice. There are also some additional weapons such as a razordisc, a gun and a grappling hook, all of which can be used to solve puzzles, as well as in combat. Along with purchasable magic powers, there is also a short term power-up called ‘chaos form’ where you turn into a large beast covered in hellfire and deal massive damage to enemies.
The combat here, feels more slow paced compared to its contemporaries, due to the tank-like nature of War. Controls are tight and fluid and dispatching enemies is smooth. Slicing up enemies feel great and satisfying. Raking up combos is tough as the game sometimes refuses to act seamless when switching from one enemy to the next. Like I said, War is more of a tank and hence it’s wise to block opponents rather than dodge their attacks. I felt like there could have been more varied aerial combos and moves. But it’s not a pure hack ‘n’ slash game and in the later levels, there is a far more focus on puzzles than combat, so you don’t feel like you are missing out on much. There are some moments in the game where the game lets you fire mobile cannons, fly an angelic beast, traverse and engage in combat while riding your horse Ruin. These all provide some variety to the formula and some of the boss fights are really nice, although they are rather on the easy side of things. Even with all the shortcomings, it comes off as a highly enjoyable and fun experience.
Paradise Lost – Level design
Darksiders is not a linear game by all means. The game is divided into several large sections, each having its own distinct style and layout. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic hell and most of the time, it stays there. The levels vary from generic city streets to abandoned subways to demonic fortresses. The early levels come off as quite generic and boring, to be honest. The developers had quite a unique story and they could have gone to places with it. But the levels set on city streets and subways are very disappointing in terms of style, layout and puzzles. It’s only in the late half that more impressive levels and puzzles show up. There are several hidden and blocked-off areas hiding upgrades and collectibles. I felt that they really underused the horse and some of the more interesting levels like the demonic influence in Earth. But most of this is only apparent from an in-depth viewpoint and when you have to repeat a level more than once, and trust me I had to repeat the entire game over again, which leads me to my next point. 
Bug-infested wastelands- The technical issues
I was having a fun time with the game until the very end, where two item spawns I needed to complete the given puzzles teleported two floors up magically. My last manual save was over 15 hours ago near the very start and I had no choice but to restart the game. But the fault is not entirely the games’ as there are more than enough manual save slots and I didn’t use them well. Then I did some research online and found that some of these bugs were present in the original release and the developers didn’t patch them up even in this so-called remaster. Then there was random crashes when I used a late-game item which lets you make portals in the environment. This too broke the saves, but thankfully I had learnt from my mistakes and made a manual save every 15 minutes. Then there was also the almost-muted music during cutscenes which is a well-known issue without a workaround. That means the more dramatic cutscenes ended up like a badly acted play. But these bugs are not universal and only a few people have encountered them. Still, it’s no excuse for not fixing them up.
Graphics, Sound & Performance
Now this is where the game completely contradicts itself. By the tone and seriousness of the story, you they’d go for a something that complements it. Instead the game opted for an art style that is reminiscent of World of Warcraft rather than Legacy of Kain or God of War, with a pinch of anime in it. To make it look ‘edgy’ there are tonnes of skull imagery from the blade of your sword to the treasure chests in the environment. It all comes off feeling very cheesy and generic. I think the game would have benefited largely from a more gothic art style rather than the one it has now.
When it comes to graphics quality, the remaster has bumped up the texture resolution, shadow quality, better anti-aliasing, ambient occlusion and all the usual stuff. Still, the number of customizable graphics options remain low. The addition of an FOV slider is greatly appreciated. Cutscenes are now in 1080p. PC, PS4 and Xbox One versions runs at 1080p and 60 frames per second. Overall very standard stuff and game looks decent enough in most situations. The game runs well even on a budget build and I had no problem getting 60+ fps at 1080p with a GTX 750.
The music and sound effects are rather very well down. Everything sounds the way its supposed to. The soundtrack fits the tone of the game and is very atmospheric. Sadly, my game bugged out and music during cutscenes got reduced to ridiculously low volume and stayed that way til the end of the game. Other than that, good stuff.
VERDICT
Darksiders:Warmastered Edition is a highly enjoyable experience due to the engaging story, satisfying combat, rewarding exploration and the pure badassery of War. It’s not a flawless game in any means, but the core gameplay is solid, has more than enough content and is sure to appeal to both Zelda and God of War fans.
