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  • Many games are set in the aftermath of the apocalypse, but few actually let you participate

  • in the end of the world itself. In the case of Darksiders, this is exactly where the action

  • begins. Heavily influenced by games like God of War and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of

  • Time, it offers an expansive world to explore, which is peppered all throughout with satisfying

  • combat and intriguing puzzles to solve. It falls prey to a poorly-fleshed out story and

  • some overly complex controls that don't always work the way they should, but Darksiders is

  • nonetheless a fun and visually engaging adventure that manages to take some old ideas and make

  • them feel fresh once again.

  • As War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, you're job's pretty simple--you keep the balance

  • between the forces of Heaven and Hell. Your most important duty, however, is to heed the

  • call of the Endwar and punish everything on Earth. When you're somehow prematurely summoned,

  • and subsequently charged with upsetting the balance, you're sent back to Earth to get

  • your vengeance on, or die trying. Though it's a grand setup, once the first hour or so of

  • gameplay passes, the plot quickly runs out of steam and the various plot twists and turns

  • are both predictable and unsatisfying.

  • War takes out his boundless rage on the legions of both Heaven and Hell in fun and brutal

  • combat. Slow-paced and methodical, battles pit you up against large numbers of foes,

  • which the wide, sweeping strikes of War's weapons allow you to hit en masse. Eenemies

  • can be brutally executed with the press of a single button when sufficiently weakened,

  • and War can also have a secondary weapon equipped, such as his brother Death's scythe. Surprisingly

  • nimble for such a bulky guy, War can transition instantly from a combo into an execution move,

  • making fights feel extremely fluid. But while it's incredibly satisfying to eviscerate a

  • devil or cut the wings off an angel, battle is, surprisingly enough for a guy named War,

  • only one half of the equation.

  • When not on the warpath, there's an enormous world waiting to be explored, and dozens of

  • intriguing puzzles to solve along the way. Moving from one area to the next isn't always

  • straightforward, for your progress is often hindered by your gear, or more often than

  • not your lack of it. The many dungeons in your journey contain useful new items such

  • as a bladed boomerang, each of which opens up new paths for you to travel and is used

  • in creative ways to solve puzzles and defeat bosses. Puzzle complexity ramps up nicely, and each

  • new variation encountered is a fair step up from previous ones. Though some can initially

  • look overwhelming, they never feel impossible, and are always gratifying to complete.

  • Darksiders does a great job of constantly rewarding you with new pieces of equipment,

  • weapons, and abilities to keep you going. The downside of this is that there are so

  • many different things to keep track of that it can get confusing sometimes. Not helping

  • to make this any better is a set of controls that are simply too complex. Certain actions,

  • such as throwing a charged boomerang at several targets, requires a dizzying array of inputs

  • to be made, and because only so many items are immediately accessible at a time, you'll

  • find yourself frequenting the cumbersome inventory menu in the latter parts of the game.

  • Varied and imaginative, the open world of Darksiders looks great thanks to its comic

  • book influence, though there are some unfortunate graphical issues with the Xbox 360 version.

  • Screen-tearing is a huge problem that surfaces almost any time the camera is rotated and

  • is bad enough to distract even when you're just exploring. Similarly, battles that get

  • too big cause the framerate to suffer, causing graphical slowdown. The PlayStation 3 version

  • suffers neither of these issues.

  • Darksiders unapologetically borrows gameplay ideas and mechanics from all over the spectrum

  • and is constantly cramming new ones in all the way up to the very end. While it's not

  • innovative by any stretch of the word, neither is it entirely derivative, as these all these

  • features not only gel together surprisingly well, but when put together even feel fresh

  • again. Though hobbled by a disappointing story and excessively complex controls, Darksiders

  • is nonetheless a fun and entertaining adventure.

Many games are set in the aftermath of the apocalypse, but few actually let you participate

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