Darksiders Hands On Impression

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to make it to the Big Apple Comic Con located in midtown Manhattan. The convention was totally overhauled this year to include B movie stars, comic book artists, and videogames. The only 3rd party title on display was the upcoming Darksiders developed by Vigil Games. This is the developer's first outing and the pressure is on to produce a brand new hit intellectual property. I had an opportunity to play through a portion of the game and form some pre-release impressions.

The demo opened at some point deep within the story. You play as War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. You are a hulking bad ass that is more than capable of laying to waste everything in your path. War has a variety of both physical and magic attacks. All of which are brutal, visceral and gruesome. Comparisons will immediately be made to the God of War series and with good reason. Darksiders wants to be God of War in every way imaginable. If you had dropped Kratos into the mix, it would have made little difference to the gameplay. The button configuration is nearly identical, including light and heavy attacks with a grab button for gore soaked close encounters. Darksiders even features simple platforming to accompany the carnage. Intimidating foes of various scale are ever present as you slice, dice and clobber your way through the level. Boss fights are massive, over the top and require quick time events to bring the behemoths to their knees. The developers at Vigil Games are clearly great admirers of the God of War franchise and with good reason. The question is, do we really need a God of War impersonator when God of War III is just around the corner?

In the coming months, no doubt more information will be released and the Vigil Games will be looking to differentiate themselves from the crowd while still appealing to the God of War audience. As it stands now, the game looks great. Character models are richly detailed and the environment is well defined. Famed comic book artist Joe Madureira provided the character designs for Darksiders and the developer's 3D artists did a fantastic job bringing his creations to life. For the record, there was little discernable difference between the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. However, the Xbox 360 version did appear to be a bit brighter. We shall have to wait and see if Darksiders is a worthy spiritual successor or a note for note carbon copy of one of gaming's biggest icons.

Big Apple Comic Con photos courtesy of Stephanie Koithan