groze: I've been a fan of the Darksiders games ever since the first title, mostly because I'm a fan of Joe "Mad" Madureira's work ever since his early Marvel days, then Battle Chasers, even having played the short-lived MMO he worked on for NCSOFT, Dungeon Runners. There's absolutely nothing wrong in being a fan of something, except when we start letting our judgement be skewed and blinded by bias and borderline fanboyism, and this is what I've been seeing coming from the so-called "true fans" of the Darksiders franchise on the Steam forums (and I'd probably see that in here as well, if the GOG game sub-forums weren't on life support as it is).

We should really "wise up" and start seeing things for what they are: money grabs. That's what Nordic has been doing ever since they started nabbing every single IP they can, then rebranding themselves as "THQ Nordic" so as to more prominently letting people know they're more than just Eurojank Nordic, but also the current publishers of (mostly) THQ IPs. Darksiders was a dead franchise, and even though I would appreciate more games in the series, I was glad, for the most part, because we had already gotten two superb games. Then "THQ" Nordic started making their appalling pun named remasters of the Darksiders games, first with the awful and bug-riddled Deathinitive (ugh...) Edition of Darksiders II, made by Gunfire Games, which is comprised of ex-Vigil programmers and employees, so... it should be in good hands, right? Well, wrong, apparently. This should have been an eye-opener when Nordic later announced this was the team who would be working on Darksiders III. Why did Nordic do this, first with DS II Deathinitive, then with DS Warmastered? Money, pure and simple. Sitting IPs generate no money, and they wanted the Darksiders fans to give them their hard-earned cash. We obliged. Then, news came of Darksiders III, some of us were blindly ecstatic, others were more cautious, others, yet, were downright skeptical.

If you haven't watched it already, I highly recommend having a view of the Gameumentary feature-length documentary/post mortem on the first two Darksiders games. You can watch it here, if you'd like. In it, you get to know that Vigil Games, the original creators of the Darksiders series, the ones who worked on Darksiders and Darksiders II, shut down when THQ went bankrupt and split up in two new studios: Gunfire Games (after a time with/as CryTek that went completely wrong), which is mostly comprised of Vigil programmers and software engineers, and Airship Syndicate, largely made up of ex-Vigil artists, level designers and creative personnel. If you watch that documentary, it becomes clear that the creative folk at Vigil saved the previous titles from the AWFUL ideas of the tech-heads, so... yeah. Gunfire being mostly the latter, some of us were scared of what could become of Darksiders III. Nordic, on the other hand, couldn't care less, as they knew the "true fans" would buy a new game in the franchise, no matter how bad it would be.

Lo and behold: Darksiders III was released to middling reviews, both professional and amateur reviewers and journalists agreed that it was not on par with the previous two installments, the production values were lower, the gameplay was nothing more than a Soulslike ripoff, the story was passable, the writing was sometimes cringe-inducing. Still, "true fans" quickly rose to the game's defense, saying it was a true Darksiders because the lore is still Darksiders enough, the camera is "classic TPP Darksiders", even using arguments as ridiculous as "the button layout is the same". Most of us, though, recognized that even if we loved the previous games, there's nothing wrong in acknowledging this new one wasn't that good, and skipping it wouldn't make us any less of a "true fan". What we loved about Darksiders was no longer present in Darksiders III, and that's OK. It's also OK to enjoy that game, to really love that game. More power to those who do. But at least acknowledge this was a money grab by Nordic, and that this title isn't nearly as good as the first two.

Now, Darksiders Genesis is getting a release, and the same "true fans" that defend Darksiders III are attacking it. Honestly, I pre-ordered Genesis, I'm glad Airship Syndicate is getting their go at Darksiders, because I miss the creative input those ex-Vigil people used to bring into the games, and Gunfire Games clearly could have done (way) better with it. Sure, the camera is now isometric, but the game is far from being a "Diablo clone". Plus, having the classic TPP camera in Darksiders III didn't seem to help it much, since it removed practically everything else that made Darksiders... Darksiders, instead going for a "Soulslike-lite" approach (probably because Nordic thought it would be more profitable, since everyone and their grandma "needs" to develop and publish a "git gud" title, these days; maybe because that's the style of game Gunfire wants to make, considering their current project, Remnant: From The Ashes, is yet another Soulslike), something most of us oldschool Darksiders fans never asked for. I have the highest of hopes for Genesis, especially when I know Joe Mad is part of Airship Syndicate, and that alone is reason enough to put my mind at ease. I also think they did a great job with Battle Chasers Nightwar, so I'm confident they know what they're doing. The camera perspective shift was something they probably had to implement for the sole reason they're a way smaller studio than Gunfire, and they're working with a fraction of the funding, too, since this game is a spinoff rather than a "proper" numbered main entry in the franchise. Still, again, I can't stress this enough, despite the camera change, it still feels more like a proper Darksiders game than the third one ever did.

Whatever your take on this, whether you love Darksiders III, whether you hate it, whether you don't care about it, it's all good. Just, please, try not to judge and belittle other fans of the series as "not being true fans" just because we're not blind fanbois and swallow everything Nordic throws our way just as long as they sell it using the Darksiders name. That's not being a true fan, that's being naive and borderline stupid. I've shared my thoughts on Darksiders III and Darksiders Genesis. I pre-ordered Darksiders Genesis, so maybe I'm just as naive and stupid as these "true fans" I'm complaining about. Except that if the game fails to meet my expectations, I'm not going to lie and rise to its defense blindly simply because it's a game in a franchise I like. I'll roast it just like I did with Darksiders III right before I asked for my refund.