It’s been over nine years since the first Darksiders game was released just after New Year’s in 2010. It was remastered and re-released a few years ago again as the Warmastered Edition. Earlier this week, the game was released yet again in a direct port to the Nintendo Switch. If you’ve managed to miss out on this first entry in the series to this point, picking it up on Switch is a good choice, but maybe not as “straight-forward” of a choice as just playing the entire series on Xbox or PlayStation. Those versions not only offer 4K support, but run smoother and are also cheaper (though the Switch version does MSRP for $30 instead of a typical $40 or $60). If the Switch is your only option, or if you find yourself on the move a lot and you enjoy the Switch’s portability factor, then it makes sense to give this release a close look.
Nine year agos, I wrote a review of the original Darksiders on Xbox 360. Server issues over the years have scarred the original review of its assets and final score, but I scored the game a 9/10 and, obviously, thoroughly enjoyed it. That review is quite detailed. Less than three years ago, Nathan Steven reviewed the Warmastered Edition, and he enjoyed it. Even more recently, I replayed through the Warmastered Edition just earlier this year, as well as the Deathinitive Edition of DSII in preparation for the underwhelming-but-still-good DSIII. I have not replayed through the Warmastered Edition on Switch as I write this, but I have played it some — enough that I feel ready to report that the game is still great but that this release is quite simply a direct port to the Switch with no new features or changes that I can discern.
About the only option you might find yourself adjusting is which performance setting you want to run at, and it’s good (and expected) that you can toggle between these two readily. If you want sharper visuals, like if you’re playing docked on a TV for example, then going for the Graphics setting might be preferred. Framerate will suffer, but it’s sufficient. If you’re on the go, the visual quality drops some anyway, so going with Performance settings is advisable to get that frame rate up much higher, approaching 60. Regardless of how you play, the gameplay remains excellent.
This review is especially short, but then again this is also the third, or fourth (if you count the 2017 re-release on Wii U) time this game has been released. The previous two reviews I linked to discuss the game in much more depth. If you tend to play on the go, then having that flexibility with one of the best third person action/adventure games in the last decade is a strong selling point. However, if you tend to play docked/on a TV, then it honestly makes more sense to get this game on Xbox/PlayStation.
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