Darksiders

by THQ

Product Features

• Graphic novel art style by Joe Madureira (X-Men, Battle Chasers, The Ultimates) highlights a unique visual art style and original storyline
• Use War's extreme arsenal of angelic and demonic weapons to Unleash War's fury on enemies, and use virtually anything within your environment as a weapon (lamp posts, cars, buses...)
• Experience the God-like Power of War, Horseman of the Apocalypse: a combination of brutal attacks, supernatural abilities and seamless traversal that delivers intense action combat and adventure
• Open World Exploration allows player to discover hidden secrets as you explore the vast terrain of a ruined Overworld, and ward off relentless enemies
• As a Horseman of the Apocalypse use the services of your phantom steed Ruin as you blaze a trail through enemies and across devastated environments

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B003FSFSEW
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 7.5 inches ; 4 ounces
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: September 23, 2010
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,688 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Platform: PC

Amazon.com Product Description

Darksiders is a third-person, single player action/adventure game inspired by the characters, themes and mythology of the apocalypse and the battle of Armageddon as described by the Book of Revelation. But this modern interpretation is not your run of the mill Sunday school stroll through the New Testament. In the game players take on the role of "War," one of the dread Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. But things are not as they were. The Story Deceived by the forces of evil into prematurely bringing about the end of the world, War - the first Horseman of the Apocalypse - stands accused of breaking the sacred law by inciting a war between heaven and hell. Dishonored and stripped of his powers, War must return to Earth to search for the truth and punish those responsible. But there is no clear definition of good and evil in this tale. Hunted by a vengeful group of angels, War must take on the forces of Hell, forge uneasy alliances with the very demons he hunts, and journey across the ravaged remains of the Earth on his quest for vindication. But the answers he seeks will reveal a deep conspiracy in which War will find, and have to resign himself to the reality that although once the hand of God, he is just a pawn in the eternal battle between heaven and hell. Devastating weapons arsenal. View larger. Upgradeable abilities. View larger. Enemies from heaven & hell. View larger. Fight & explore atop your mount. View larger. Gameplay A mix of exploration and fast-paced action gameplay, Darksiders is based on nonlinear play situations. That means that as War slowly regains his previous powers of destruction and carnage in order to continue his search for the origins and reasons for his betrayal, players will be able to backtrack to areas and scenarios that they may have left unexplored upon first discovery. Almost all areas of the game can be explored and some of the things players will find as they do so are treasure chests, health chests, and bonus life points, etc. The ability to go back and explore areas is important, especially as the game progresses and War finds himself up against enemies whose defeat require special skills and/or weaponry. As for combat gameplay, Darksiders features a variety of weapons--including blades and firearms--that can be used in combo moves or in single strikes. Some of these can be charged up for quick, but devastating attacks on enemies and all can be arranged on your controller's D-pad for easy and preferred access. Additional gameplay elements include the ability/necessity to fight from the back of your mount, Ruin, and the collection of the souls in the form of glowing orbs that fall to the ground as enemies are dispatched. The latter can be used to level up War with new items and abilities. Varied Characters and Environments Although players take on the imposing role or War, Darksiders also contains a wide variety of equally intriguing and sometimes frightening characters. These include: an assortment of vengeful angels; demons, such as "the Jailer" whose body is made up of the remains of countless cadavers; a bestiary of wicked and vile creatures created to bolster the armies of hell on Earth; and Ruin, the trusty steed of War. Gameplay environments players will experience are equally varied, and include areas both underground and on the surface, that call to mind both familiar, if ruined modern urban environments, as well as ones seemingly pulled from the nightmarish scenes of the biblical apocalypse. Key Features Apocalyptic Power of War - Unleash the wrath of War, combining brutal attacks and supernatural abilities to decimate all who stand in your way. Extreme Arsenal - Wield a devastating arsenal of angelic, demonic, and Earthly weapons, and blaze a trail of destruction atop Ruin, War's fiery phantom steed. Epic Quest - Battle across the wastelands and demon-infested dungeons of the decimated Earth in your quest for vengeance and redemption. Character Progression - Uncover powerful ancient relics, upgrade your weapons, unlock new abilities, and customize your gameplay style. Battle Heaven and Hell - Battle against all who stand in your way—from war-weary angelic forces to hell's hideous demon hordes. Weapons and Gear - Darksiders features an extensive arsenal and inventory of weapons and gear. Varied Play Environments - Players will fight through varied environments, including those above and underground, and modern and nightmarishly mythical in design. System Requirements Minimum: Recommended: OS: Windows XP (SP3), Vista (SP1), Windows 7 Processor: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3800+ 2.4Ghz or better, Intel Pentium 4 530 3.0 Ghz Processor or better AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Dual Core 2.60 Ghz, Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Dual Core 2.13 Ghz RAM: 1 GB XP, 2 GB Vista / Windows 7 2 GB XP, 3 GB Vista / Windows 7 Disc Drive: DVD-ROM drive Hard Drive: 12 GB Video Card: NVIDIA (GeForce 8800/GeForce GT220) 256 MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon X1900 256 MB graphics card or better (must support pixel shader 3) NVIDIA (GeForce GTS 240) 256 MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon HD3870 256 MB graphics card or better (must support pixel shader 3) Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible

Product Description

War, the first Horseman of the Apocalypse, stands accused of inciting a war between Heaven and Hell. In the slaughter that ensued, the demonic forces defeated the heavenly hosts and laid claim to the Earth. Dishonored and stripped of his powers, War must return to Earth in search of vengeance and vindication.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Passable port of a great game, September 25, 2010

By 

Burr "Agnostic Centrist" (Ithaca, MI) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Darksiders (DVD-ROM)

Action-adventure games are nearly nonexistent on the PC and while researching the subject some months ago I came across a forum thread filled with hopeful wishes of a Darksiders port. Despite plenty of skepticism, over 8 months later PC gamers finally have a chance to play this great game.

This review is intended for those who are interested in this game and are curious as to how it translated to PC. Those who are interested in this title know who they are and are probably already familiar with what it's all about from a gameplay perspective. Just in case, though, I have read it described simply as Zelda meets God of War and find it hard to disagree with that evaluation, but the developers took inspiration from many different titles, as all developers do, and created a very good game in the process.

First of all, you will need a Steam account. There are clear pros and cons to digital distribution that I won't get into. Downloading took a little over an hour and additional installation another 5-10 minutes or so. The download came with a Darksiders .pdf comic as well as the soundtrack. Secondly, if you play a lot of ports you may have found that owning an Xbox controller for Windows is in your best interests, and playing this game with one is the recommended method. Again, standardization also brings about its own set of pros and cons. The game was up and running immediately after taking a moment to adjust video options, which brings me to the only major issue I found with this port.

Aforementioned video options are essentially nothing. You get resolution & v-sync and that's it. There is no anti-aliasing (and using the built in AA from my graphics card panel didn't work). This isn't as much of an issue at resolutions such as 1920x1080, but if you don't have a computer capable of running games at higher resolutions you may find the graphics to be an issue, so be advised if you aren't confident in your system's capabilities. I did notice some minor choppiness here and there, but overall the game runs very well despite the lack of options and is technically sound.

I will update my review if future patches bring about any major changes. In the meantime, I recommend this game to those who are on the fence. If you like this sort of game, it is a rare opportunity to play one on a platform that has so few like it. Despite the issues I mentioned above, I can only hope that more games like Darksiders become available on the PC. I am thankful that it was released at all, but there is some room for improvement.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly good!, April 28, 2011

By 

BillyWallace "3d Guy" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Darksiders (DVD-ROM)

I got this off steam during a 75% off sale. It was 10 bucks down from 40 so I figured why not. I had never heard of the game so I wasn't expecting much.

Gameplay:

Excellent mechanics, similar in this respect to God of War, Prototype, and Onimusha. However it feels less repetitive than Prototype, not that it actually is less repetitive but I found I didn't grow bored as quickly as Prototype.

On PC this game is a port from console. Overall the port is good, but no third-person console port will ever control as well on a mouse and keyboard when the game was designed with a gamepad in mind. I went out and got an xbox360 controller. This basically nullifies the issues with it being a port. Controller was easy to set up and the game runs great with it. So for games like this on a PC just bite the bullet and buy yourself a gamepad. Don't worry, the mouse and keyboard will still be superior on FPS's for a while still.

Graphics and Artwork:

Textures are fairly low resolution, and the engine is based on aging technology "dx9" It's not bad for what it is, but it is definitely limited by it's Console origins.

The artwork is excellent. A big congrats to the modelers, sculptors, texture artists and particularly the Art Director "whoever that may be." The overall design is very cohesive. There's nothing outstandingly original here, the heavy body and armor thing has been done to death ever since Gears of war and quake, and the over sized buster sword has been abused for well over a decade. However, I found it all integrated well into the game and it wasn't distracting "I found the Heavy armor in Gears of war distracting." Modeling and character design is top notch, I'd love to see what this team could do with a cutting edge engine and some tesselation.

Story:

Should we even bother talking about this? Totally derivative. However the voice acting and animation is excellent for a video game. Story segments fit seemlessly between sections/levels and despite how contrived of a story it is, I found I enjoyed it.

I gave this 4 out of 5 stars. I actually think it's more of a 3.5 but 3 is definitely too low. This team put out an original title and succeeded in entertaining me. I look forward to the future of this series and hopefully we'll see some more originality, pushing of technology boundaries, and attention to story next time around.

I definitely reccommend but 40 is a little steep.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nice game, but difficult console port controls make it hard to play, February 5, 2011

By 

D. Crain "nanohead" (NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Darksiders (DVD-ROM)

The first 3rd of this game was pretty good. Its basically a dumb fantasy game with, but pretty fun to play. In many ways, the dynamics remind me of Gears of War for PC, which was pretty linear and rigid, but basically a fun cartoon like action game. My brain, rightly or wrongly kept thinking it was playing a Gears of War clone crossed with Hellgate London, with a tad of Tomb Raider thrown in! All in all, a decent recipe for some time wasting fun. Darksiders storyline is pretty useless, another retread God vs Man vs Demon sort of thing that's been well played out over the years. But the general action is pretty decent in general, even though the overall environment is pretty shallow. There are some decent puzzles to solve, and some silly underworld inspired creatures.

The problem comes with the controls and the difficulty of basic maneuvers. I can usually deal with lousy console ports, which is not necessarily Darksiders issue overall. The fundamental problem comes in the form of controls. Console controllers excel at allowing button combination's to control complex acrobatic stunts and movements, as well as combo movements at weapon usage. Darksiders is a FAST ACTION game in many passages, where the PC keyboard is a total compromise, and fatally challenging. It makes the basic action of the game seem much more difficult than I'm sure the people who built the game intended. My fingers felt like they were playing a game of Twister some of the time, just to get the main dude to execute certain maneuvers that were required to progress. Other times, I simply had to stop, take a couple of days, then come back to try again. All in all, extremely painful controls make it's overall enjoyment very spotty and inconsistent.

The puzzles are pretty nice most of the time, and most of the creature fights are basically good. However, there are silly "boss" battles, as well as multiple layers of enemy battles where the keyboard just gets in the way so badly, it takes 900 tries to get to the next checkpoint. A dysfunctional save system makes it even worse.

My general conclusion is that it is a good cartoon video game, that was probably much better on the console. I liked many parts of it, but the finger gymnastics required to make the controls work could have been better thought out.

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