Hey everyone and welcome to my Darksiders review. This is primarily a hack and slash adventure game that steals good and bad parts from many games including: Zelda, God of War/Devil May Cry, Portal, and more. I will get into more detail about this later. First lets hop right into the story.




STORY
This game is set in the apocalypse and you play as one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse War. There are three kingdoms, Hell, Heaven, and Earth. The apocalypse was meant to take place when the humans were strong enough to fight back, which they are not at this time. There is also a higher power called the Council who control the balance between the three kingdoms and order the horsemen around. The game starts out with War crash landing on earth to stop the fighting between the demons and angles. He looks around and realizes that he alone and he becomes confused. He eventually has all of his powers sucked from him. (Remind you of any game? Metroid? Castlevania?) So he starts out on a quest of revenge with a Navi like creature called The Watcher, (Voiced by Mark Hamill), to kill the head demon called the Destroyer and find out why he was called to earth and why his brothers were not. This is the strongest part of the game for me. The story was what made me keep pushing on through in the first few hours. If you are not big into mythological type story telling I would stay away. There is about 9 hours of story gameplay in this game and 12+ depending on the difficulty and if you go for extra stuff. So all in all this is a game not worth more than about $20.



GAMEPLAY
The game is structured around Wars sword which is called the Chaoseater.



 It is an oversized weapon that he throws around like a feather. There are a couple combos that you can buy for it in the shop to make the game easier. (Remind you of any game?). But there doesn't seem to be enough to keep the combat fresh and exciting. If your expecting a Bayonetta stylized game look elsewhere. You will be seeing the same 3-4 different combos per weapon. There are 2 secondary weapons called the Scythe and the Tremor Gauntlet. These weapons are not even needed. The only weapon you ever need through the entire game will be the Chaoseater. All three of these weapons have four levels to them. When you kill enemies they will level up making them stronger. The Tremor Gauntlet is given to you so that blocks of ice can be smashed to solve puzzles. The  Scythe you have to buy from the store keeper Virgel. There are also enhancements you can add to the weapons to make them stronger, help you receive more souls per kill (source of money, health, and chaos.), and get more rage. Rage fills up a bar and when you get it full you can turn into a giant fire demon. You are immune to any damage while in this form and very powerful. It usually only lasts 20 secs.

Gadgets are the:
Abyssal Chain - or the hookshot
Crossblade - Ever play Dark Sector? It is the Glaive. It has also been called the boomerang. It is used in many puzzles primarily in the beginning of the game. It can be charged up to do extra damage and can hit multiple targets.
Earthcaller - Big horn that wakes up stone Gollums. Looks kind of like Boromirs horn.
Mask of Shadows - Allows War to see the Shadow Realm. Also make you fight a shadow version of yourself. (Remind you of any game?)
Mercy - Devil May Cry like gun that never runs out of ammo but sucks ass.
Void Walker - Portal Gun. There are specific areas that this will work on and it is used in some complex puzzles. You can charge it up so that you exit the portal faster helping you to get to different areas.
Ruin - Epona. It is a horse that is on fire, has a black coat, and is bad ass. You can fight while on Ruins back.

If you haven't realized by that list this game has a lot of puzzles. Most are just repeats of what you have already seen but there are a few that cause you to really sit there and think. In my opinion the puzzles are a lot more fun than the fighting. The game keeps track of how much time you spend. Lets just say that after the game I had 13 hours and eight of those hours were in combat.

To unlock items, extra health, and extra rage you open chests. (Remind you of any game?) Usually in a dungeon there will be a chest that will give you an item. This item will be used to kill the boss and solve most puzzles in that specific dungeon. After you kill off a boss you will get a skull, yes, a skull. This will give you an extra bar of health. There are also skull pieces. You have to collect 4 pieces to get a full bar of health. (Remind you of any game?) You will find pieces to a special set of armor that greatly reduces the damage you take. There are 10 pieces in all. If you unlock the armor it can be used on another play-through so you will have an easier time on normal or hard.

Henchmen Review
This game is a great time killer. It has many things to collect, many weapons to upgrade, many enemies to kill, and many play-through possibilities. If you can make it through the first three hours you will find the world open up and become more exciting. Though the game is not as flashy or in your face as others in this genera it will keep you entertained. This game is not for everyone though. I would not suggest anyone who is primarily an FPS player to pick this up. I would also say if you want to purchase it to wait for it to go down in price unless you want your free copy of Red Faction Guerilla. (Great Game). All in all I would suggest you to rent it. It doesn't have the multiplayer aspect to it and it doesn't have a long campaign but is a nice ride and is the dark Zelda everyone wanted.