Backhand of Justice

Who likes Zelda? Ok, put your hands down. Who is tired of playing the same crappy Zelda game over and over? Enough with the water temple, am I right? Ok, you can put your hands down again.

Now, what if Nintendo re-made Zelda except instead of a prancing elf fairy, you play as War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Instead of killing lizards, shrubs and some evil Hog King, you fight angels, demons and mythical beasts. Well, replace Zelda with Vigil Games, throw in the art style of Joe Madureira (long time comic book writer and cult icon) and you start to understand why I’m looking forward to Darksiders.

To summarize: Zelda + Joe Mad – Prancing Elf Fairy = Win.

Who wants to go on an adventure?

There’s something about the mix of light RPG elements with action and exploration that makes for a great game experience. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of quality adventure games in the past decade, and most of them start with Zelda. Now that Nintendo is releasing Zelda and Thomas the Tank Engine Throw a Dance Party, or something (maybe it’s called Spirit Tracks, I can’t remember), another developer has to step up to the adventure plate.

Enter Vigil Games and THQ. Although lately THQ has been famous for their UFC games, Darksiders focuses less on sweaty men groping each other, and more on hardcore badassery (yes I know ‘badassery’ is not a real word. Thank you squiggly red line).

Fantasy is about escapism, and there’s nothing more interesting than entering a unique and compelling fantasy world. Darksiders presents that and more, with an art style that crosses futuristic mechanization with medieval swords & sorcery. Did I mention it all takes place in the near future on Earth after man has been wiped out by the Apocalypse? A minor detail, I suppose, except that you play as the instigator of the whole thing.

In Darksiders, War has been tricked into starting the apocalypse and then takes the blame for kicking it off prematurely. He must right his transgressions with the aid of his fiery steed, Ruin. Righting his mistakes appears to take the form of slaughtering angels and demons, but hey, it looks fun, why argue?

If you were wondering how the world ends in Darksiders, wonder no more! Apparently it’s incredibly cool. Too bad we’re all dead:

More adventure than action

Previews want to shoehorn this game into the brawler category and compare it to the upcoming God of War III and Dante’s Inferno games. This is a mistake, as while Darksiders has a strong combat component, it’s more about adventure. This is a straight up Zelda game with dungeon exploration, item unlocks for progression, and light RPG elements including equipment and weapon customization.

While there are enough fighting game fanatics on the staff of Vigil that you can be assured action and combos are more in depth than Zelda’s simple mechanics, the game is very Ocarina of Time esque with enemy lock on, D-Pad item selection and pattern recognition bosses.

Darksiders takes everything I like about the God of War games (epic sized foes, gruesome battle finishing maneuvers) and removes everything I hate (button mashing, quick time events, hit point sink enemies). If the result is a re-skinned Ocarina of Time with more advanced battle mechanics and greater weapon selection, sign me up.

Joe Mad, we salute you

Style and substance

Joe Madureira is the creative director on this game. That means he’s the one designing the environments and all the crazy monsters you’re going to be fighting. You might know him better from the Uncanny X-Men or Battle Chasers comics.  

Darksiders is taking the epic, exaggerated comic book art style used by Joe Mad, mixing it with runic artistic elements, and building a world around it. It’s a style that has influenced all Blizzard games, except instead of over-simplifying, Darksiders simply exaggerates everything. Weapons and motions are all larger than life, and the resulting visual energy is like nothing I’ve seen before in a video game. Check it out:

Video games aren’t about graphics. Gameplay is critical. That being said, there is a difference between great graphics (Crysis) and great style (Darksiders). Even if the textures aren’t the sharpest, or the animations aren’t the most fluid ever seen, Joe Mad has incorporated the broad strokes of an original fantasy world into Darksiders. It’s far easier to get swept away in a fantastical story when you don’t have to be told the backstory of the world or creatures and instead simply know by looking at them.

Darksiders claims to be an epic game, but it comes from an untested team. While Vigil Games has worked on Warhammer games in the past, this is the first time they’re creating an original narrative from scratch. It could be a total disaster with disjointed gameplay, poor narrative and awkward controls.

Having said all that, if you came to me with the concept art for Darksiders and said ‘we’re going to re-skin Zelda with this,’ I’m sold. Zelda’s gameplay style has long been in need of an overhaul. Nintendo is not willing to do it, so I guess somebody else has to rise to the challenge. The bar has been set pretty high. Good luck, Vigil.

If you really want an in-depth look at what this game will be like, watch the video below. If you aren’t interested after watching it, you simply don’t like Adventure games. Or you have a prancing elf fetish and can’t let go.