One of the PS+ freebies I graciously received recently, Darksiders is something I had wanted to play for quite some time - especially since its sequel (I think you can guess what its called) has just arrived.So, is Vigil's Darksiders the Zelda clone I had seen it described as?
Yes. It certainly is.
It rigidly follows the open "field" and self contained dungeon mechanics of every Zelda game since Ocarina of Time. It also adds the hack and slash combat of God of War meets Ninja Gaiden, and it takes story queues from GoW as well (just replace ancient greek mythology with the Old Testament and you're set). Oh, and you liked Portal, right? Right? Good, because that gets ripped off wholesale as well at one point.
War (our protagonist) also has a horse. And he is ridden with the same recharging GIDDYUP mechanic as Epona. On the subject of horses, remember the phenomenal sand worm boss from Shadow of the Colossus? Vigil certainly do, so expect to play that again here.
Taking inspiration from elsewhere isn't "a bad thing". Almost every bit of media available to us is iterative, and there are very few examples of absolute originality out there. However, there is something about the complete and utter plundering of mechanics here which I find slightly dispiriting, and it makes for a solid and reasonably polished - but ultimately soulless - experience.
It also drags on a bit too, and I had certainly had my fill after the 17 or so hours is took to finish. I would much prefer 10 or so awesome hours and no filler, especially as 6 of those hours were comprised of navigating a linear dungeon and doing basically the same thing three times, then revisiting various parts of the hub world on a fairly listless treasure hunt (or, in reality, map legend following exercise).
Special mention must go to the unnecessarily fussy and confusing item and map screens - they're a pain to navigate and never really tell you what you need to know without lots of random stabbing at the controls. This is true of the rest of the game as well, in fact; loads of moves, items and special techniques are shoehorned onto the pad and I never really mastered them - I just muddled though and regularly forgot about certain combinations.
Darksiders is an enjoyable game, make no mistake about that. It looks nice, sounds nice, and has a satisfying heft to the combat and platforming. Just don't expect anything which will leave a lasting impact.
It's a real shame, because a lot of care and attention has obviously gone into this. However, it lacks spark. And that's something you just can't clone.
6/10
