Darksiders Genesis

Fans of the Darksiders series have been speculating how the final Horseman's game would work since his signature weapons are dual pistols. Would the fourth Darksiders title be more of a third-person shooter than a hack and slash game? Or will Strife even get his own game? Not necessarily answering either question, Strife is instead introduced as a playable character in a spin-off prequel Darksiders Genesis.

Darksiders from a top-down perspective

Darksiders Genesis is essentially a twin-stick shooter which definitely works for ranged weapons. It is a hack and slash game too because Strife... is not alone. (I love the opening cinematic.) His brother War is also playable in this co-operative title. The game works perfectly as a solo game too though. You can switch between the characters at will and puzzles work fine. (I actually wonder if they work as well with two players.)

Despite the top-down camera and twin-stick controls (that took a bit for me to get adjusted to), Genesis is a legitimate Darksiders title. It has the same artstyle, puzzles, combat, platforming (more on that later) and writing. The game was developed by Airship Syndicate, a studio founded by ex-Vigil developers, including Joe Madureira who is behind the visual style of the whole Darksiders series (if I have understood correctly).

All the returning characters had their previous voice actors reprise their roles: Liam O'Brien (War), Phil LaMarr (Vulgrim), Troy Baker (Abaddon), Vernon Wells (Samael), and I think even at least two of the Charred Council heads had their familiar voices (Fred Tatasciore and Jamieson Price). Also in a minor role as Astarte is Fryda Wolff (Watcher in Darksiders III, Sara Ryder in Mass Effect: Andromeda). Strife is voiced by Chris Jai Alex whom I hadn't heard of before.

Strife is a jokes-cracking fellow, clearly the least serious of the Four Horsemen. That creates a stark contrast with the ultimate serious face War who has hard time understanding his brother's humor. The classic funny and straight man dynamic works well enough. Having more than one Horseman at once is in fact quite awesome. The camaraderie of demon slaying is so heartwarming.

I really wish that Gunfire Games (or someone else) will at some point make a Borderlands style and size up-to-4-player co-op third person action roleplaying game with all the Horsemen as playable characters. That would be incredibly awesome. I reckon it would take a full triple-A game budget to happen though. I don't know if THQ Nordic has the will or resources for that.

I played Genesis with a gamepad and that's what it recommends. Aiming Strife's guns with a mouse might be easier though and I did momentarily switch to mouse and keyboard for one jumping puzzle because I had trouble hitting three targets during one jump.

Genre not suited for platforming

Platforming has the familiar mechanics and set pieces from the first Darksiders game. The angled top-down camera makes platforming sometimes require precision previously not needed in the series though. I feel falling off a ledge is way too easy as well. I reckon it shouldn't be possible to fall off at all unless you're jumping. That's how things work in Victor Vran which I replayed recently.

There is also one optional 3-phase platforming sequence in the game's hub location that was intentionally made unreasonably agonizing. In my opinion its inclusion was a poor decision, not really having a place in this game. It's such a tiny part of the game yet takes disproportionately long time to beat.

Even if you're going for 100% achievements, you only need to complete the first part (which is not even the easiest) but I was doing absolutely everything there was in the game so that I wouldn't need to buy the game outside the Game Pass. For each completed part of the platforming sequence you get one level of Leviathan creature core (for the game's passive talent tree system). It's not a unique core in its effects but it's good and having two of such cores is better than one, especially if you want to make the game's Apocalyptic difficulty easier.

In the first part, you have to make your way across narrow stone pillars floating in the void. If that wasn't challenging enough on its own, the game also moves the camera directly above your character to look down. What kind of platforming camera angle is that?!

The second part is fairly easy once you figure out the correct route to negotiate the rock walls. The camera is in its usual angled position too.

For the final section, the camera moves to be directly on the side, making the game a 2D sidescroller. The controls aren't tight enough for such platforming to be easy though. Falling and fake platforms will likely cause immense trouble. It took me a number of tries to even get started on the final stretch where you have to make your way directly up on a column of falling platforms. Eventually I figured out I should not double jump and then turn to get on the platform above rather than jump, turn, and then jump again. And then repeat that 20 times until I was rewarded with level 3 Leviathan core and the iconic Darksiders puzzle-solved tune (though it's played with a different instrument in this game).

Gareth Coker composed a rather nice soundtrack for the game. Two tracks I particularly noted were Eden's haunting and melancholic tune and the apocalyptic industrial theme of the Dredge Works.

Darksiders Genesis has some rough edges in platforming (and some minor details like how The Hoard chapter's side quests refer to it as "The Horde") but it is otherwise a worthy entry in the franchise. It is definitely from the better end of games I've beaten this year.

Edited 2023-07-10: Fixed a dead link.