Darksiders Genesis Review: Burn It Down

When I first saw the trailer for the newest entry in the Darksiders franchise, I immediately assumed Darksiders Genesis was switching genres and releasing an aRPG like Diablo. In many ways, my assumption was correct, but nothing had prepared me for what Airship Syndicate had in store for their first take on the fourth release from the series.

Overall, the gameplay hasn’t changed much despite the isometric viewpoint, which is a blessing and a curse. The panned out camera angle suits the signature Joe Madureira style, which has always looked amazing in terms of the bigger baddies and protagonists, but historically looked a little less impressive when it comes to the mobs that swarm you on the regular basis. This change hides a lot of the more basic assets that ruined the immersion for me in the past adventures of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

The inherent problem this causes is that the zoomed out viewpoint makes the standard platforming that has always been in play that much more frustrating. It’s something that almost every level touches on in some way, be it racing through the level evading a wave of lava, or simply making it across the decent-sized levels to your goal. The mixture of a fixed camera, anger-inducing lack of way-points or direction, misplaced checkpoints, and a static map that offers about as much help as making it through the desert with a broken compass all lead to some of the worst platforming I’ve ever experienced, and that’s not an exaggeration. Simply put, there is a reason Diablo doesn’t incorporate platforming – it doesn’t work. At all. Ever.

The fourth release in the franchise marks the first addition of co-operative play, which can be done online or via couch co-op. During the combat segments, it was a welcome change that helped deal with some of the more difficult battles, but made the already problematic platforming even more taxing, since my partners would often struggle to move in tandem, which a few of the segments require. That being said, going in solo was my preferred way to play.

Playing solo allows you to switch between War (the hero of the first Darksiders) and the newcomer Strife at will. Each of the characters offers a unique way to play, bringing their own strengths and weaknesses to the table. War focuses on most of the same melee attacks he’s known for, while Strife plays the long game, taking potshots at the enemies from a distance. Since I was a Demon Slayer main in Diablo 3, I opted to spend most of my time with Strife as it suited my play style.

Overall, the combat is passable but lacks the depth that I found in my previous favorite Darksiders II. Most of my time in battle resulted in me dancing circles around the enemies, slowly taking down their overly spongy health. If I fell during the battle, I would bunny hop about as War, waiting out the respawn clock to step back into the shoes of Strife. This became tiresome early in, as the slow progression of upgrades and lack of proper weapon drops (akin to the dungeon brawlers of the past) left me feeling kind of empty. The massive, multi-layered boss battles from the past are long gone as well, leaning more on pushing larger enemies with never-ending health bars in its place.

If you’re one of the few people on the planet who have yet to dip their toe into the franchise, Darksiders Genesis is a great jumping-off point as it’s a prequel. It follows a paint-by-numbers plot that involves Strife and War investigating some nefarious plans brewing in the depths of Hell. The writing and voice acting reminded me of a bad buddy cop movie where the tone is all over the place. It’s more like an even worse version of Cop Out, where War is the grizzled no-nonsense veteran played by Bruce Willis and Strife is an urban goof off in the vein of Tracy Morgan. This feeling only escalated the more I played, finally settling in that Strife is the Great Value version of Cayde-6.

Unlike the past releases, this entry follows a Destiny style mission progression system. Packing a whopping 15+ levels that take around 30+ minutes each to complete, there is a lot to see here. The issue I found with this was after each successful mission I had to return to a hub to peruse the stores and upgrade options instead of simply moving on to the next task. While the loading times are not overly long, it felt kind of obnoxious to load into the hub, make my transactions, and then load into the next mission when you can just as easily upgrade throughout the mission’s themselves at regular intervals.

Darksiders Genesis is far from the worst game in the franchise, but it likely won’t be your favorite either. If you are a fan of the series, you’ll probably find a lot to love here as it’s essentially the same as the predecessors in a different package. If you’re looking for something to fill the void Diablo 4, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

7 out of 10

Pros

  • Panned Out View Suits the Visual Style of Joe Madureira
  • Co-op Play
  • Decent Amount of Content
  • Combat

Cons

  • Horrible Platforming
  • Spongy Enemies
  • Lack of a Proper Map/Way-points
  • Inconsistent Tone

Darksiders Genesis was developed by Airship Syndicate and published by THQ Nordic. It is available on NS, PC, PS4, and X1. The game was provided to us for review on PS4. If you’d like to see more of Darksiders Genesis, check out the game’s official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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