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TL;DR: Darksiders Warmastered Edition is a fun hack & slash game that definitely has some flaws but at the end delivers on being a badass and satisfying title to play through. It offers a unique setting, interesting story, awesome boss fights and a serviceable combat system. It reminds me of those simpler 6th & 7th console gen times. If you like the original God Of War trilogy, you should give this one a go.
Darksiders is a third person action-adventure hack & slash. You control War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as he battles through a post-apocalyptic world filled with angels, demons, and mythical creatures. The game is reminiscent to the original God Of War games and Zelda in terms of mechanics but original enough to be its own thing.
- Performance & Steam Deck:
The game would run perfectly fine on any hardware with at least 1 GB of VRAM and a few GBs of RAM. I didn't experience any technical issues running it on modern hardware whatsoever so not much to say here in regards to my desktop performance.
Unfortunately, the game skips cutscenes on the Steam Deck and does not display button prompts. Performance wise, it runs pretty fine from what I've seen, but the process for fixing the cutscene skip can be tedious. Here's a one of the guides for fixing this issue if you feel like trying it:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3292513313
- Gameplay:
Darksiders combines hack and slash combat with exploration and puzzle-solving. It more or less goes like this: You traverse through a level from point A, do some platforming, puzzles and go through combat arenas some of which are mandatory and lock you in until you beat all enemies. Then you reach point B, do some tasks or beat a boss.
The combat system is the typical one for the genre, offering different weapons, abilities and combos.
Although you do have access to different combos with each weapon, it's somewhat limited. What I mean by that is that it's a one-button combat system for each weapon. Left click for sword attacks and right click for the scythe/tremor gauntlet attacks. The lack of "heavy attack" for each weapon unfortunately limits the combat by half but on the good side, you have two ranged weapons, four wrath abilities and a chaos mode.
The three main weapons can be upgraded by leveling them up. You level them up as you use them. The rest of the arsenal can upgraded by purchasing upgrades from Vulgrim(a demon merchant who becomes an ally) via the in-game currency - souls.
You can also buy different combos, enhancements and healing items from him.
Each weapon can equip different enhancements, e.g: more damage, more souls drops, more weapon xp. You have a chaos meter which fills up from using sword attacks and once you fill that meter up you can unleash chaos mode. This basically transforms you into a giant flaming demon, dealing massive damage. It's not that useful on lower difficulties, but it is essential on Apocalyptic.
There are a lot of puzzles through the game, which can range from doing some platforming to often requiring players to use a certain gear piece for the puzzle. The game encourages backtracking, rewarding players who explore every nook and cranny of its environments.
Fast travel and backtracking is possible, Vulgrim(the demon merchant) will let you use the so-called serpent holes to traverse through the areas fairly early in the game. If you explore thoroughly, you can find hidden collectibles and chests containing weapon enhancements, items or Abyssal armor pieces. Collectibles can be sold to Vulgrim for more souls.
That being said, I recommend that you play on Apocalyptic difficulty, since it makes the game more tactical and encourages you to use all combat mechanics to their fullest potential. Instead of simply spamming the left-click, you have to block, parry, dodge and then attack. It gives the game a different feel and makes the combat more enjoyable, since it's too easy on lower difficulties and the lack of more varied combos with a heavy attack doesn't do it any favors.
- Visuals: This is a remaster of the original. I have not played the original, but can say that the game looks pretty alright considering how old both the original and remaster are. The character designs are good and unique, the levels and the post-apocalyptic setting are cool, especially the levels in the city. The only generic-looking level was the Ashlands. Overall it looks good for its time, it doesn't have that gray and gritty look that so many 7th gen games have and the remaster makes it less dated.
- Audio:
The voice acting is solid. The guys who voice War, Vulgrim and The Watcher did a very good job. The soundtrack is also good, the main theme is badass and makes that main menu screen memorable. Each music piece fits the atmosphere and tone of the corresponding level and those meaty sounds of War swinging the blade and tearing through the enemies never get old.
- Story:
The game is takes place in the post-apocalyptic Earth where the forces of Heaven and Hell are at war, humanity is nearly extinct. You play as War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who is framed for initiating the apocalypse. The narrative unfolds as War seeks to clear his name and uncover the truth behind the chaos. At times It feels like it was a bit rushed. Character backstories and motivations are not properly explored. I guess it could use a few extra cutscenes and a longer opening sequence.
The Good:
- The story and setting are interesting. Also War is pretty cool.
- Fun combat
- Boss battles. There is a wide variety of bosses and minibosses in the game and all those sections really were well done and provided a challenge
- Different weapons, abilities and upgrades
- Doesn't look very dated despite its age.
- Cool level design, especially the first 2/3 of the game where you're walking through the war-ravaged city.
- Satisfying progression, especially on apocalyptic difficulty. You get stronger as the game goes on.
- Fast travel. You can backtrack to the main areas and do stuff that you previously missed.
- Apocalyptic difficulty. It encourages you to fully engage with all combat mechanics and Wrath abilities To survive, you’ll need to use dodging, parrying, and frequently activate War's Chaos Form.
The Bad:
- Occasional pacing issues: Some sections may feel drawn out, especially when backtracking.
- Some of the gear you obtain, such as the Earthcaller and Mask Of Shadows are only used like twice in the whole game. It's a permanent gear piece, but only used for a couple of sections…
- You get the horse halfway through the game. Why? Also even after you obtain the horse, you can barely use it, because most of the level design forbids it. So many areas are large enough for you to ride the horse, but you simply can't…
- Limited character development: While War is an interesting character, the rest of the characters could use more depth and backstory.
- The Black Throne tower puzzles. Not sure why they added Portal puzzles in this game. It feels really out of place and I really did not like some of them on this level.
- Controls can feel wonky and sometimes the jump doesn't register when you're a pixel too close to the edge….
- Conclusion:
Darksiders: Warmastered Edition is a decent and fun hack & slash. Sure it has flaws, but it's a solid 7th gen game. Like the original God Of War, it's rough around the edges, but has a lot of potential to be improved upon. I'll play the sequel and see how that goes. Looking at the 3rd game's reception, it's a shame that this franchise couldn't reach the GoW level heights, maybe in the future.
I can recommend the game if you like the hack and slash genre. Might wanna grab it on sale if you plan to play it on the Steam Deck tho' since you'll either play without cutscenes or you'll undergo the frustrating process to make the cutscenes work.