Do you have what it takes to get a review published right here on Kotaku? Daniel does, as he swaps Epona for Ruin and Hyrule Field for Central Park.
Yes, that’s right, we’re now publishing reader reviews here on Kotaku. This is your chance to deliver sensible game purchasing advice to the rest of the Kotaku community.
And thanks to the very kind chaps at Madman Entertainment, purveyor of all kinds of cool, indie and esoteric film, the best reader review we publish each month will win a prize pack containing ten of the latest Madman DVD or Blu-ray releases.
This review was submitted by Daniel Wright. If you’ve played Darksiders, or just want to ask Daniel more about it, leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Darksiders (PS3)
Darksiders follows War, Horseman of the Apocalypse, on a journey to restore The Balance to the worlds of Men, Heaven and Hell after Heaven and Hell get into the fight early and destroy the world of Men. No one seems particularly bothered that The Balance is now missing a side, and this doesn’t stop War from charging headlong into, well, war with every higher or lower power around to punish those responsible.
Loved
Zelda, minus the whimsy: Darksiders plays much like the Zelda series, mixing combat, puzzles and adventure, with a bit of God of War and Portal thrown in, but in a much darker fashion and with very little light on the horizon.
The World after The World: A fantastic post-Apocalyptic New York really brings out a powerfully dark view of Earth after the End. At one point, I paused in a large grassed area surrounded by collapsed buildings and infested with zombies and remarked “Holy crap! This is Central Park!”
Hated
Zelda, minus the whimsy: As well as removing the lightheartedness of Zelda and replacing it with more evil and darkness than Ganon’s soul, Darksiders also removes most of the fun, and the lack of a clear goal makes this even worse, leaving you pottering around accomplishing meaningless goals and not knowing or caring why.
Wraiths: Incorporeal and invincible half the time, and whirling dervishes of pain who can rapidly take off whole healthbars the other half, these are by far the most annoying and dangerous enemies in the entire game. Including the bosses.
Thanks to a confusing and seemingly pointless goal (what’s the point of the Horsemen after the Apocalypse has basically happened?) and a rather depressing atmosphere, Darksiders, despite borrowing the best concepts from other games, comes out as less than the sum of its parts.
Reviewed by: Daniel Wright
You can have your Reader Review published on Kotaku. Send your review to us at the usual address. Make sure it’s written in the same format as above and in under 500 words – yes, we’ve upped the word limit. Again. We’ll publish the best ones we get and the best of the month will win a Madman DVD prize pack.
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