Declared death already seven years ago, Darksiders is back in good health thanks to THQ Nordic's takeover of the license. Finally, the last year published third part, according to publisher after a short time already import the development costs. But before we get a full-fledged Darksiders 4, Genesis will release a prequel spin-off. This is based on Hack'n'Slay role-playing games like Diablo and surprises with a healthy mix of action and puzzles.
Once again it is doomsday mood: According to the fiery council, Lucifer cooperates with the demon Samael to destroy humanity. The two apocalyptic riders War and Strife should therefore go out and stop the rogue. But it quickly turns out that Samael himself is in the sights of Lucifer's intrigues.
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As unspectacular as this plot approach sounds, the action develops so uninteresting in the following hours of play. No wonder: it is checked off over long stretches in tight audio dialogues between War and Strife or between the missions at a place called The Void, where you talk to a few allies. All conversations seem like a makeshift accessory instead of an essential part of Darksiders Genesis. The few cutscenes do not change that, which is limited to poorly animated comic pictures.
Thus, fans of the predecessors, who were interested in their history and staging, are disappointed. Fortunately, the game turns out to be significantly more substantial, although it also deviates greatly from the main series.
Double schnetzeln
First, as already indicated, you assume the role of both riders, between whom you are allowed to change at any time. Alternatively, you can play together with a friend online or as in the good old days via split screen on a screen. Here you follow the events from the isometric bird's eye view, which compares to the action RPG classic Diablo imposed.
Interesting is Darksiders Genesis, if you look at the different skills of the two protagonists: War is one of the classic melee fighters and shares with his sword strong blows. Strife, on the other hand, thanks to firearms, becomes a master of long-range combat. He shoots even in the basic equipment with a high frequency around, which in turn to twin-stick shooter like Nex Machina remind. In general, the game is clearly carved for strife, because he can put up with his equipment much more effective against the hordes of opponents to defend his colleague – mind you despite significantly weaker attack strength.
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You must master a total of 16 chapters to complete the story, with five of them each limited to a crisp final boss. Not only do you fight through rows of demons, but you open chests, collect keys and solve puzzles. These, in turn, require the use of the individual skills that War and Strife gradually capture. For example, the one with a kind of boomerang activates crystal-shaped switches, while the other creates portals and in this way can link certain locations together.
The roleplaying is also not to be despised: The opponents leave creature cores, for example, you increase your attack strength, optimized various skills or obtained more ammunition of demons killed. The more you pick from the same variety, the better the seeds. For this reason it is also worth repeating the fight against Endbossen, which fortunately works without any problems thanks to the convenient chapter selection. By the way, you unlock up to 21 levels of an arena in which you destroy one opponent wave after the other and also diligently pick up cores.
Skills surplus
Overall, Darksiders Genesis does not reinvent a wheel, but packs a lot of game elements into one pot. Still, developers have overdone it in some ways because they divide capabilities in far too many different ways and do not allow for a clean sort of user experience. No matter which button or analog stick you use which feature: The controller never feels so intuitive.
The biggest problem with this is the suboptimal balance of difficulty. If you start on "Normal", then you will progress well over long distances with a few basic skills. But in the last few chapters, you'll meet some really beastly bosses, who suddenly have to have a lot more abilities on their case – or contrite the level of difficulty down to "relaxed".
A party for music lovers
Technically, Darksiders Genesis at first glance, can not keep up with its predecessors, which is due to the distant camera perspective. However, the trick is deceptive: Although all figures and demons look much smaller than, for example, those in Darksiders 3, but they are excellently animated. Especially the final bosses are very impressive in this respect.
In the new trailer for Darksiders Genesis there is new gameplay to see!
If the crisp sound effects already generate a lot of flair, then the orchestral soundtrack of Gareth Coker shoots the bird off: It is pleasantly varied, because almost every chapter has one to three pieces of music to offer. Many of them are excellently composed and, ideally, even catchy-eared, which is rare in this style.
The music is sometimes emotional, sometimes sweaty and sometimes pompous, without ever exaggerating. Coker adds timid, but certainly synthetic sounds that give the atmosphere the appropriate-dark undertone. The only small weakness: There is a lack of momentum. The soundtrack hardly adapts to the current playing situations and turns up at best in particularly dramatic fights.
