Darksiders is yet another popular franchise that I never had the chance to get into. I almost did with the release of Darksiders Warmastered Edition for the Nintendo Switch but I eventually decided to buy other games that fit my tastes better. However, a couple of weeks ago as I was browsing through the Eshop I came across Darksiders Genesis and immediately fell in love with its visuals and gameplay. After a week of debating, I finally decided to buy it and having just beat the game I'm finally ready to answer the question 'Is Darksiders Genesis worth it?'.
In this game, you'll play as War and Strife, two horsemen of the apocalypse who are tasked to stop Lucifer who is trying to disrupt the balance. While on their quest, they meet a demon called Samael with whom they form a temporary alliance until Lucifer is stopped. However, as you get deeper into the story you'll notice that Samael has ulterior motives and cannot be trusted.
Although the plot is simple it's interesting and engaging enough to keep you playing. Also, the main characters, War and Strife, have opposing personalities and it's always a treat to see them interact. And, the best moments of these interactions is when they pull out from each other deeper layers of their personalities that we probably wouldn't see otherwise.
Also, it's important to say that this game is a prequel meaning that it's a good starting point on the franchise. However, as I was playing I always felt like I was missing some references and each time a new character was introduced there was little exposure for me to show any care.
But, what about the gameplay? I did say that I fell in love as soon as I saw it right? Darksiders Genesis is played on an isometric view and you'll have the chance to play as War or Strife at any given time if you're playing offline that is. If you choose to play online or local coop you can play through the story with one of your buddies and each one will control one of the horsemen.
War's gameplay is focused on close combat and you'll be swinging away at hoards of demons with a sword as big as he is. Strife, on the other hand, is more of a ranged character meaning you'll be dashing away from enemies most of the time and filling them with holes with his trusted guns.
As I said before you can choose to play with any of them but you can't go through the entire game by playing with just one since some section requires a character-specific power up to go through. Also, in battle, you'll sometimes notice that some enemies are better suited for War or Strife and it's a smart choice to adapt your gameplay accordingly!
So, is there more to this game other than killing hoards of enemies after hoards of enemies? Well, if you're a collector I have good news for you because this game is filled with collectibles and hidden passages to discover! There are many different collectibles however, each one has the same goal, make your character stronger.
The thing I liked to collect the most were the creature cores though! If I'm not mistaken every enemy in the game has a creature core associate it to it and killing them has a chance to drop one. Each core has a unique skill and will raise your character's stats and you can combine different cores by placing them in a skill tree. I made it my goal to collect the most busted creature cores I could find and make my character as powerful as possible! Meaning, most of the chapters were a breeze to me.
But you know what wasn't a breeze? The Arena Mode. Unlike the Story Mode where you'll just go through the chapters and see the story unfold, the Arena Mode makes you defeat waves after waves of enemies. The first one was easy but as I was reaching the end of this mode I really had to start farming more creature cores or I wouldn't be able to complete it! I really had a blast with this mode but there is a major problem with it.
When things start getting crowded on the screen you'll notice a tremendous drop in fps. It gets really bad especially when I use Strife's transformation and start blowing up everything on the screen! I'd be okay with this if it would only happen in this mode but as I was playing through the story I noticed this too and there's a certain level where even if there are zero enemies on the screen the fps will go down!
Since we're talking about the worst side of Darksiders Genesis let's talk about something that I really hated, the platforming. Let me just say first that I didn't hate every platform section of the game, the ones I hated were just the ones that required more precise control. Precise platforming with an isometric view is hard to pull off and this game fails at it, unfortunately. If they decided to make this style of game again I really hope they improve this section.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The first thing that drove me to buy this game was its visuals and honestly, its cover is probably one of my all-time favorites. So, I went into this adventure with little to zero expectations and I think that's one of the reasons that made really enjoy this game for what it is. And, it felt really refreshing to play something different from what I'm used to. I'm not blind to its flaws, the bad platforming, and the fps drops are a big issue but the core gameplay is so much fun that in the end, I don't even care!
So is Darksiders Genesis worth it? If you ask me it was worth every cent and it's a game that I will remember fondly. However, if the issues I mentioned are a big deal to you I suggest waiting for a price drop, or just do what I did and take a leap of faith!
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