I knew Darksiders was something special the first time I saw it at E3 many years ago. Since then, the franchise has seen three excellent games released. I have played through the first two of them twice on two different gens, and then once DSIII got itself patched up (nearly a year after release), I thoroughly enjoyed playing through it. As you may know, the series is based upon the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the first three games have featured War, Death, and Fury, respectively, in a lengthy third person action adventure. Late last year, a new developer to the series, Airship Syndicate, released the fourth game in the series, Darksiders Genesis. It was a PC-only release at the time, and notably it’s not Darksiders 4, but it is canon. In fact, the story takes place before the events of the first Darksiders that came out over ten years ago.
Darksiders Genesis has made its way to consoles now, having released on Valentine’s Day. Between being sick for several days and wanting to co-op this game instead of playing solo, it’s taken a while to get this review together. Before I go any further, let me see that I was as skeptical as anyone that this move to a fixed camera, isometric, dungeon-crawling, co-op experience for Darksiders was maybe a dangerous move. I had my doubts. I loved what the series had done to this point, and what THQ Nordic and Airship Syndicate were doing with Genesis was a major transition — but they stuck the landing, as they say.
So, Genesis can be played solo, or in local splitscreen co-op or online co-op. I’ve spent very little time playing solo, but Airship did a nice job with it. The way that works is by allowing the player to switch between Strife and War at anytime. In co-op, each player takes one of the two horsemen, but you can still switch anytime if both players agree to press L1+X and complete the swap. Furthermore, if you’re playing single player, and someone wants to jump in, you just have to go to one of the obelisks scattered throughout the gameworld to let them join in.
The balance between the melee brawler War and the confident shooter Strife is excellent. Both characters compliment each other nicely in combat and also in their personalities jive really well. The characters will sometimes discuss what’s happening as it unfolds, other times there are dialog scenes that you advance through, and comicbook style cutscenes further advance the story and the brotherhood between these two characters. Regarding the story, by the way, it takes places before the original Darksiders and has the duo under the command of the Charred Council. They’re tasked with seeking out Lucifer, who is intent on destroying humanity, but to do this would upset the ‘balance,’ so the Council directs Strife and War (who do not know where Death and Fury are) to go to the Blackstone Keep to find Samael and eventually Lucifier.
The story is certainly serviceable and I had no real issue with it as the levels unfold. Each area is pretty large, some more so than others, and I loved the variety in the landscapes that you encounter. From the brown and orange fiery pits of hell to lush green areas and snow-covered ones, Airship Syndicate did a fine job with the art direction here. Not only are the locales great, but the animations and colors used are really beautiful and a sight to behold as you play. The game offers a lot of options in terms of toggling different visual elements of the UI, too. I also loved the sounds of the game, especially the satisfying punch of Strife’s charge shot. The presentation quality of Darksiders Genesis is excellent.
Getting back to gameplay, I appreciated the effort that went in to making this a Darksiders game but from a very different perspective and including the co-op functionality. The fixed camera, isometric view works great, and any time your co-op partner is out of view an indicator pops up on your side of the screen giving you at least some idea of where they are. There didn’t seem to be any limit to how far apart the players could get from one another either which is cool, but it’s a lot more fun to tackle the enemies together. Additionally, there are simple puzzles and platforming sequences that require both players to be present at the same time. Loot collected by one player does get matched to the other player as well, and of course there is no friendly fire damage.
I liked the openness of the maps and the ability to go exploring to find the edges. Doing so is key to completing the variety of optional side/fetch quests that give you rewards and it’s a vital thing to do to experience the game to the fullest. Along the way, you’ll also discover a variety of items to pickup, making it worth your while to explore. As you upgrade and get more abilities that enhance traversal, you can revisit areas to further explore them, giving this game impressive replay value.
Darksiders Genesis is a strong entry to the franchise and it’s one that should appeal not only to fans and newcomers of Darksiders, but also to anyone that enjoys a isometric dungeons crawlers with two player co-op support.
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