Review: Darksiders [PS3]

[Note: This is the format for future reviews.  Score, Intro, Pros, Cons, Summary.  If you wish to submit a review, please keep this in mind.  I will post a note if this changes.  DLC will be in the format of the SOCOM: Cold Front review.  Also, I really wish I had the ability to take screenshots, but that will have to wait.]

Score: A-

Intro:
Have you ever played Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Nintendo 64? Have you ever played God of War on the Playstation 2? Imagine both of these games meet at a bar, and GoW ruffies Z:OoT, takes advantage of her, and gets her pregnant. This is the insane lovechild of that bar debacle. I heard someone say it's a mix of those games, and at first, I was like, "Eh, I'm only a minor fan of both those series', not a diehard fan, but I'll rent it." I pop this bad boy in, and at first, it's all GoW. But after a few hours, you start to notice the little things that are eventually building up to this beautiful marriage of styles. And then about halfway in, you stop comparing it to God of War all together. Instead, I started thinking of it as a Zelda:OoT with a more fleshed out combat system and on action-steriods.

In Darksiders, you play as War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse. As with a lot of games, you are powerful, but then stripped of your powers, and you are on a quest to destroy the Destroyer.

Pros:
NO QUICKTIME EVENTS! Anytime I hear "God of War like" I think QTE. I don't think about the mindnumbing, yet fun, brawling. I don't think of the story. I HATE QTE's. Very very much. In Darksiders, when you finally whittle that boss down to it's end, you run up and hit O. During the first few times, I kept expecting a QTE, but no, War does this bad ass kill sequence. Scene.

The God of War elements are easy to spot, you collect "souls" instead of the red orbs in GoW. The combo's are very similiar, except you have a sword. You do gain more weapons, like a Scythe for example, and can upgrade them as well. It is still very button mashy, but at the same time, it ditches the quick time events. Unlike GoW, when you go to open a stone door, you don't have to mash a button over and over. That's another thing I hate about GoW. But in the end, the theory is the same, but I dare say better executed. Granted GoW3 will blow minds with it's graphics, but I don't get off on fantastical graphics. I want solid gameplay, and if you want a solid GoW experiance, without the hassles that annoy me, this game will satisfy you.

The Zelda elements start to come into play a few hours in. The Citadel brought back so many memories from the Fire temple in OoT. This is where you get the "boomerang", a circular, bladed weapon. You hit the R3 button, and it comes in over-the-shoulder, and you can select up to five targets. It hits them in the order you target them. It's a nifty little gadget that makes puzzles feel right at home for a past OoT player. Some of the puzzles have you targeting a torch first to carry fire to an unlit bomb. While it seems miniscule to compare to Zelda, after about 5 hours, tell me you don't get that Zelda sense, even in level layout. I was reminicing so much, I started hearing Navi.

The story itself is well written, and enjoyable. I find it far more entertaining then I did GoW, and Zelda. It has a better plot, in my opinion, but I'm not saying either of those games fail at plot. And the enviroments are immense. While not open-world, it gives you the impression of Zelda, where you can go to past palces whenever you want, say, after you get the boomerang, to get to chests you couldn't get to before.

Cons:
This could completely be my controller as something has spilled in it, but when I try to jump at the edge of a cliff, he just walks right off. It doesn't happen often enough to complain about, and like I said, I don't know if it's the controller or just a problem with the game's perception of the ground and where you fall.

You can only skip some of the cut scenes. Example: One of the boss' talks smack (as usual) when you enter the area, you can skip that (thank God). The boss flies around for about 10 seconds before you can move. Granted, I am talking about 10 seconds, but if I JUST died there, and am retrying it, don't you think making me watch them fly in a half circle is enough? Why can I not hit X like I did with the last little scene and skip it? This happens more often than not, and is just plain annoying. Not to mention, some of the cut scenes can't be paused, which is horrible when the oven timer is beeping.

Voice acting is always touchy in a game for me, as I generally find it horribly done. Some games pay the big bucks, and spend more time on it, which always show. However, I think the voice acting in Darksiders was overall poorly done. In that case, I tend to read subtitles more often than not, so I was saved in that department at least.

No custom soundtracks. Yeah, that will be pointed out to every game that lacks them. GET ON THE ****ING BALL PEOPLE!!! It would be AWESOME to be rampaging it up to some Five Finger Death Punch, or A Life Once Lost. AWESOME I say!

Summary:
This game exceeded my expectations. I knew what it was, but it delivered a level above. Rent or buy? Simply put, if you are a fan of both genres, you might as well save the money and just go buy it. If you liked Zelda:OoT, and not just because it was a Zelda game, go buy it. Personally, I like it more than Zelda:OoT, as I enjoy the setting and story more. As I've said, though, I'm also not a huge Zelda fan.

In conclusion, this game has puzzles, makes you think, and has a pretty nice combat system. What could makes this game an A+? Not really sure. Probably just more originality, though I really didn't mind the Z:OoT flavor. Simply put, go buy it.

-Sobær