Contents
Darksiders III offers a lot of action in an apocalyptic setting, but the linearity of the game, the crooked camera and the relentless enemies undermine the experience of killing demons.
Darksiders Reloaded and New
This fascinating action game focuses on combos and punchesHowever, despite this, the game manages to position its own identity. There are differences between its previous versions that in themselves differ from each other. Darksiders III has a fluid character combat, the looting and character building mechanics remind us of Diablo. The heavy action in this game revolves around challenging battles and groups of enemies that are scattered throughout the game world.
As the protagonist of Dark Souls, Fury does, she appears at checkpoints when she dies, doing a corpse race to collect the souls and experience that she leaves each time she dies. The supply of healing items is immediately replenished upon respawning. As you unlock more power-ups, you’ll be able to open previously inaccessible barriers that reveal shortcuts to regions you’ve been to before.
Darksiders III includes puzzle elements in exploration, and you must make use of the unique elemental abilities that you acquire throughout history to solve them. Flame Hollow, it is the first power you get and it gives you a new weapon, it also grants the ability to charge your jumps to reach greater heights. Stasis Hollow, acquired later in the game, allows you to freeze objects and stay above water. Storm Hollow allows you to float in the air and ride the air currents. With these powers you can progress and find secrets.
Given the linear nature of the game, you will not be able to unlock shortcuts in the interconnected world. There is a path that you are expected to take, and deviating from that path faces powerful enemies or obstacles that you are not yet able to overcome. You still have a lot to explore and find: each environment is packed with items, valuable materials that allow for upgrade and experience, as well as variants of empowered enemies to face if you feel up to the challenge.
Demon fight
Darksiders III’s combat form is a much more realistic affair than the fighting mechanics of the predecessor games. Fury is extremely agile. Fury’s dodge is his main defensive ability. You can dodge attacks or go under them with good timing. Most importantly, however, Fury can unleash a powerful counterattack if she dodges just before being hit.
If he dodges successfully, the result is a nice cinematic slow, and his next hit unleashes a powerful volley. This dodge is very beneficial and has the additional effect of interrupting an enemy’s combo, making it an effective way to create breathing space. Unique counterattacks are also gained based on the direction in which you dodge. Dodging left or right results in a downward snap with Fury’s whip, while evading into an attack gives you a throw, one of the few ways you can throw enemies into the air.
What’s more, each weapon features a unique counterattack. The Flame Hollow’s counterattack ends in a damaging swift attack that also sets the target ablaze. The Hollow of the Storm is a nasty spear throw that has excellent use as a ranged counterattack. These counterattacks, combined with the highly menacing enemies you face, make you feel like a crystal cannon as you are constantly dancing on the brink of death as you tear targets apart.
Darksiders III Evolution
If you’ve played at least the first Darksiders, you’ll have a better appreciation of the characters and the stakes in this roughly 20-hour story. Each game puts you in control of a different horseman of the apocalypse in a unique and interesting environment: a devastated Earth in which a war between angels and demons has practically extinguished humans. This time, your rider is Fury – the only female rider. But his debut isn’t especially memorable due to cheesy dialogue and forgettable voice acting.
You are sent to hunt down the Seven Deadly Sins. Each of them serves as one of the various main boss fights in Darksiders III.
Graphics
Regarding the graphics, Darksiders III you have good graphics. Stylized, cartoonish characters are in a somewhat generic-looking world and sometimes lacking in more detail. A couple of the Mortal Sin designs are great though: Sloth, for example, is a gigantic, obese slimy bug that roams on a throne of slave beetles.
Nevertheless, Darksiders III excels at punches and slashes. This is not a pointless hit where you take on a gang of monsters smashing the attack buttons. All kinds of demons, skeletons, angels, giant insects, and trolls have to be shot down, and you won’t get very far if you’re not attentive to their behavior. Wait for them to attack you, dodge at the right time and you can return their cruelty with a ruthless counterattack.
Fury’s ever-expanding arsenal includes a ton of fun options, and it’s up to you to decide which ones to power up and which ones to trust. The ones preferred by many users are Chains of Contempt because they set enemies on fire to cause them more damage over time. Along with his weapons, he gains new movement powers that give him access to new areas. Once you’ve unlocked them all it’s fun to switch between all of their different forms to find the right tools for different combat jobs and obstacles.
Some forms are common in video games, such as ability to float over short distances provided by the Spear of Contempt. Others are not so much, such as the ability to transform into a magnetic ball that can roll on walls and ceilings granted by the Sledgehammer Gavel (Fury is a very despicable woman). But Fury’s magnificent mane changes to a different and fabulous shade for each shape. At least all of them are worth playing with.
Advancing in the game
Although the bad guys don’t reveal their level, there seems to be an annoying level scaling. No matter how powerful Fury is, basic enemies can kill her with a few hits at any time. Level scaling is not an appreciable design option – it’s so much better to feel like an almighty god after putting in all that time and effort and then use that power to fight new, stronger enemies to level the playing field.
The bosses of Darksiders III
Darksiders III bosses don’t fool around. Although the former may not pose much of a threat, in the end you will come across one that does not seem to respond to any tricks or attacks that you have learned up to that point. Don’t be surprised if a boss doesn’t go down as easily as it seems. It can be frustrating to be suddenly turned the tables, no doubt, but with persistence, success comes (thankfully). In this sense, Darksiders III seems from another era, a time when designers weren’t afraid to scare you with difficulty.
Nevertheless, bosses’ checkpoints could have been adjusted to better respect our time. In one case, losing to a boss sends you back to a checkpoint with all sorts of enemies blocking your way back to the second round. In another, they send you back to an area that is far away but with no enemies in your way. So you only have to spend a few minutes running back to the fight. The bosses here are tough enough that these downsides pile up after a few flops.
Rather than open world, Darksiders III can be described as a connected world game. It is a series of small rooms connected by corridors and tunnels. The closest mortal sin is always marked with a skull on your radar at the top of the screen. So play Darksiders III means running down the hallways from one room to another, keep that skull Focus and fight the monsters that stand in your way.
That’s 90 percent, and environmental puzzles make up the remaining 10 percent. These puzzles are a nice break from the action. One or two were difficult enough to stump us for more than a few minutes.
That doesn’t leave much room for rewarding exploration, but looking for the upgrade items that are hidden all over the place behind corners and out of the way is very enjoyable. You have to go back a bit to the previous areas. Surely you realize that there are opportunities that were not within your reach because you did not have the right skill yet. Those moments flesh out Darksiders III and they make it look like more than just an action game.
Final notes
The simple simplicity of Darksiders III it’s a refreshing change of pace after exploring so many dense open world games. However, that simplicity doesn’t refer to combat or boss battles, which are complex and almost astonishingly relentless. His throwback philosophy is a comfort food for action players of a certain age. However, it would have been nice to see the third game in the series introduce some new concepts to relaunch Darksiders in the modern era.
