Vigil Games first release is a lot of things. It is a little bit of the Legend of Zelda. It has parts of God of War and Devil May Cry. It has elements borrowed from the Warcraft universe and even the teleport gun from Portal. Heck even the basis of the story and “The Four Horsemen” is an adaption. Yep, that’s right, straight from the song of the same title from Metallica’s debut album Kill ‘Em All.
Let’s make a quick list of the things we know to be true:
The Legend of Zelda = Awesome
God of War = Awesome
Devil May Cry = Awesome
Warcraft = Awesome
Portal = Awesome
Metallica before the Black Album = Awesome
The question that needs to be answered is if you take pieces of all those games and mix it all together, is it still awesome?
Typically the answer is no. You usually end up with something that looks and feels like it was glued together by a 6 year old at summer camp. These games are also usually tied to a blockbuster summer movies and are rushed to market to match the movie release date. Since we know that Darksiders was based on a Metallica song from 1983 and not a movie, it was given the time it needed to get polished and put together properly. This is what you are getting with Darksiders, a graphically impressive game with solid controls and a well designed interface. The art direction is well put together and the cut scenes are even more impressive. While the 360 version launched with some frame rate and tearing issues, a patch has already been released to correct those issues.
The game play is very similar to what you would expect from God of War or Devil May Cry. You have different button combos and weapons that you can use to string together lengthy combos on multiple enemies. Defeating enemies releases their souls which you capture to cash in later for more moves and upgraded weapons. The puzzle solving elements and dungeons are straight from the 3D Zelda games with their own twists and advancements. One example is the addition of the teleport gun which works very similar to what you found previously in Portal. Also while traveling through the landscape, you have those “Ah ha” moments when you see some where that you can’t quite get to but know that you will eventually gain the equipment or skill needs to get to where you are going. You also unlock your trusty steed Epona…I mean Ruin later on in the game to make traveling through the environment much faster. I will be the first to admit that this game is not perfect however. They could have left out the swimming levels that no game developer can see to get right. One other common complaint is the lack of interaction and NPC’s in the environment. Hopefully these will be items that are addressed in sequels to this title. It is also quite short for an adventure game tracking in at just over 20 hours. The amount of replayability is high however as a result of this short play time and multiple difficulty settings.
The bottom line here is that this game is getting knocked around for stealing ideas from other games when it should be praised for making it work. This is the mature, high definition, Zelda game that fans have been demanding for years. This game has sold over 500k copies under its first 30 days at market. While it is a multiplatform release, it is a brand new IP and the first release from Vigil Games. It was also released in the shadow of two of the most anticipated sequels of the year, Mass Effect 2 and Bioshock 2. Vigil has now proven that there is a market for this type of violent adventure game. It is time for Nintendo to step up to the plate and take The Legend of Zelda franchise to the next level. Darksiders is a solid first offering from Vigil Games and is defiantly worth picking up. I am looking forward to 3 sequels for each of the other 4 Horsemen.