I knew very little about this game prior to its release and bought it solely on the strength of a very good review at Gamespot. It was money very well spent because Darksiders is an absolute blast!
Darksiders is a third person, action adventure with you playing as War, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse & it's your job to maintain balance between the forces of Heaven and Hell. Needless to say, the balance has been well and truly upset and War is sent to Earth to kick some ass!
Armed with a really, really, REALLY big sword, you'll hack, slash, mutilate and dismember your way through waves of some really great looking and imaginative bad guys. As you progress through the game, you can upgrade or ‘buy’ new weapons, abilities and fighting moves, which help to keep the game fresh and interesting right to the end. But that really, really, REALLY big sword will remain your best weapon throughout.
It's not all hack and slash though. The game was wise to include a bit of puzzle solving to help provide a bit of variety to the gameplay. The puzzles are not too taxing and not so easy that they got boring and I welcomed the change of pace (and challenge) they offered.
The game is punctuated by regular cutscenes that were always interesting to watch and extremely well voice acted, an area where many games fall down. I thought War made for a awesome character to both watch and listen to. He didn't say a lot but when he did, he said it with palpable menace. Great stuff!
O.K, so some people have criticised its lack of originality and for borrowing bits from games such as God Of War and Devil May Cry to which I say “Oh stop your whining”. Who cares when it does it as well as Darksiders does. I recently completed Dragon Age (PC), another game that got a bit of stick for lacking originality, but that didn't stop it from being one of the best games of 2009.
To sum up, Darksiders has great graphics, large and interesting levels to explore, fast and furious combat against imaginative opponents from heaven and hell, a good variety of abilities and moves to ‘earn’ as you progress through the game, a welcome bit of puzzle solving to break up the fighting, a lengthy single player campaign, always interesting cutscenes that are enhanced by particularly good voice acting and just a really cool main character… War himself.
I highly recommend Darksiders, I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end. A worthy purchase with no regrets.