Darksiders III

So, this game is different. If you just finished DS 2, you are in for a suprise. A welcome surprise I'd say. The Loot system that dropped rubbish in 90% of the time is gone, as is the large but empty world. Even though DS 3 has a smaller world (with many shortcuts you unlock and a fine quicktravel system) it isn't much shorter and on par with DS 1. But the elephant in the room is the revamped combat system and increased difficulty (meaning you die quite quickly, when compared with DS 1/2). Therefore DS 3 was branded as a "Dark Souls clone". I thinks it's questionable to title anything like that, just because you have savestation (where you respawn) and enemies respawn when you die. Anyway, at least since patch 1.2, the combat is awesome! If you die it's your fault 90% of the time. In the other 10% you die, because you don't know the enemy yet. But after you did your homework you dodge, counter, stun and kill enemy after enemy. If faced with more enemies it gets a litle hectic, because you loose vision of the other enemies if you lock onto one, so the amount of running and blind dashing goes up. The 4 hollows you unlock each give you a new weapon and combat ability (also unlock different movement methods like walljumping). Use these! They recharge super quick and help alot. The weapons feel distinct from each other and you are free to use your favourite one (also the whip is always equipped). Last word on difficulty: The game is the hardest in teh beginning, the more ou play the better you get and the more items/potions you aquire to heal/come back. The visuals hit the DS-style perfectly and the soundtrack does a good job, esspecially the main menu theme and song after defeating a sin are great. There still are some crashes left, but I never lost progress to them, as they seem to happen when I had to replay e.g. a bossfight multiple times so I just take one star away. If you think a combat heavy game, which rewards learning, is for you give it a shot!

Overall I like the game. Premise is good. Characters and story is enjoyable. Some good plot twists and setups while having a fulfulling ending. Combat is mostly enjoyble. I say mostly because and this is the few problems here. Not everyone is going to like the dark-souls influences. Me being a big fan of the gameplay, dungeon design, puzzles and combat of darkiders 2. I was at first a bit sour at the idea of dark souls influence. Once I played it its not as punishing with most bosses and enemies you can handle. Problems do arise dealing with multiple enemies. Especially when higher ranked enemies are mixed in. These times the game gets frustrating. As the emphisis on well timed doges gets difficult unless you use a crystal or well timed spell. Even then it gets difficult to manage. Despite this the combat maintains good flow for most encounters. With souls and items being given enough that you don't feel completly hepless. Puzzles weren't as good as the second game. Most are way to simple I'd argue due to this being more metroidvania. Where its obsticales that block you until you get the right move. Its a personal preference situation here. Story is good. They are doing a good job with giving each horseman a unique personality and style with fury also getting the same fleshing out war and death did. I did wish they'd go a bit more into her personality change. Which could have been done if we were given a bit more buildup to each of the sins. This really being my only story complaint with the rest being enjoyable. As for advice to the defelopers. I'd prefer they go back to the style of darksiders 2 and work out some of the flaws. Like the big open areas that did nothing. While keeping the excelent combat and level design. They can mix in some of the ideas in this game like the interconectedness. Overall I'd say the series is on a good track and I'm confident with some helpful feedback we'd get more good games like this and genisis.

Despite a few issues (minors imho, read below), Darksiders 3 is a fantastic game and as a fan I'm glad that the franchise is alive and well. First about the game, the gameplay is very good. It has been often compared to Dark Souls, but I honnestly feel it's much more close to Bayonetta, and it actually does a good job. The fights are quite fast-paced, require to carefully manage the positionning rather than rush on the ennemies and the "counter-attack window" system is satisfying as well as a good way to breathe a little bit during the fights when doing right. The difficulty is well-designed and the normal mode is already a good challenge. The system of secondary weapons is absolutely great, both thematically and in practice, and a good evolution from DS2 (where you had to chose either a slow or a fast secondary weapon for Death). Three little drawbacks for me are the fact that Fury can sustain damage during the charged attack (which is counter intuitive given the slow mo), that bosses lack mechanics involving those 2ary weapons, and that the game could use a little bit more puzzles. The gear and "talents" system is really good : it is less grindy than in DS2 and more streamlined, but still offer some ways to adapt the playstyle (and same goes for the stats). Overall, the game takes good elements from DS2, but reverts the complexity of them to go back to a more straightforward adventure like in DS1. In that regard too, it's a really good sequel. Fury is also surprisingly well written. The character, a bit cliché at the begining, is very well evolved and humanized, not all at once, but slowly, among other things when talking with her watcher. It's rare to have main char with a big temper well-written. The music is a bit lacking, especially after DS2 which was fantastic in that regard. The environments are good, but not really innovative compared to DS1-2 ; nothing dramatic but this could have been better. Overall, a great experience. Can't wait for the DLC !

I'm with armaankhan on this 1. I decided to buy this on sale with some reservations because of the reviews. i selected "combat similar to Darksiders 1 and 2" in the options and then played for about 6 freakin hours. Totally glued to the controller and didn't stop playing until my wife came home and wanted to watch tv (I was streaming from my pc). To me, DS3 is more similar to DS1 (I got tired of DS2 about 3/4 in). Can't wait to fire this back up. I can't remember the last time I stayed up past 12am on a work night playing a game.

I am not played other games from darksiders series and from my perspective - this one is awesome. Why it is awesome: World in game changing a lot from location to location in many cases. Regular fights some time taught, so not boring and attack combinations mostly intuitive. Not many items and skills to learn. Not many quests to do. Level design very enjoyable, because beautiful, atmospheric, no "loading" between locations - it is smooth and you are not walking without fun most of the time. Actually, all locations connected with each other in "smart way" - for example after boss fight you are not simply going to the portal, but use your new skills to go via different path. So most of the time you able enjoy world exploration with interesting fights with decent story line and some humor from "watcher".