As Humans we like to pigeon hole things. When asked to describe something we like to throw in comparisons, this makes it difficult to make something original really appealing as its hard to draw up said comparisons. Thankfully then, for their first game, Vigil Games have taken core ingredients from already succesful titles and tightly bolted them together.

So what comparisons can be drawn up? Well, if you were to find a recipe for Darksiders it would read as follows:

One heaped serving spoon of God of War
A hulking great mound of The Legend of Zelda (3D works best)

Topping:

Essence of World of Warcraft

A rather mixed bag then I'm sure you'll agree, not to mention conflicting styles in the shapes of God of War and Legend of Zelda. But somehow Vigil have made it all work perfectly, kind of like Chilli and Chocolate, it sounds wrong but it tastes right.

The gameplay is clearly marked out, the combat is most definetly a stripped down God of War, even including "Finishing Moves" which are simplified to a single button press instead of a QTE which keeps the action flowing nicely whilst also giving your hands a much needed rest, whilst the Zelda ingredient gives the game a sense of adventure and exploration, with many of the dungeons feeling like they were considered for Twilight Princess. The Zelda aspect is probably the games most prominent aspect, even finding its way into the combat and boss battles via the use of unlockable items that are also ripped straight from Nintendo's hugely popular franchise. Throughout the game you'll have at your disposal a throwing blade (or boomerang) and a grapping hook amongst other things. War even gets to ride his horse, Ruin, across sandy barren landscapes and into battle against giant worms.

This in itself makes sense as War is indeed one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. However he's fallen from grace due to some conspiracy involving demons and a rogue group of Angels re-igniting the war between Heaven and Hell, which he tries to prevent but ultimately it ends up being blamed on him and Darksiders becomes a story of War trying to clear his name and exact revenge whilst also trying to return things to their natural order on a Earth that has been long stripped of human life (although there are Zombies, not quite sure how that bit works without Humans though). It's all a bit convuluted and ridiculous but it makes for an entertaining 12 hours or so thanks to the great cut-scenes and high standard of animaiton and voice acting.

As I've previously mentioned, Darksiders visual style feels heavily drawn from Blizzards World of Warcraft, but its to comic book artist Joe Madureria (who is also one the founders of Vigil Games) credit that the style holds up throughout the game and the blend of Fantasy art mixes well with the apocalyptic Earth on which the game takes place. There are some problems however, on my set-up (VGA to a PC monitor) there are huge borders making things look a little squat and the 360 has noticeable screen tear. There is a patch on the way to fix the latter issue, aswell as some slow down/frame skip when things get a little busy but its not surfaced as of yet. It doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the game as a whole unless that kind of thing really bothers you, and if it does and the option is there to you, go for the PS3 version.

Darksiders then is one of those games that borrows from a number of places, but makes it all work and is able to stand on its own ground. It's not hard to draw comparisons with EA's Dead Space in this respect, and thanks to the blend of gaming styles neither is focused on too heavily to deter anybody who may not be a fan of one of the games particular gameplay styles. Definetly a reccomended purchase and a great way to start the year.

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