I recently decided to play all three Darksiders in chronological order, in an effort to cull down my game backlog. So what better place than to start with the first entry in the series? If you wanted to experience the edgyness of late 2000s and early 2010s, this game has heaps of it. Channel your inner emo/angsty teen and follow War on his journey to uncover the truth. Outside of me being unable to unhear Illidan (same VA after all) while also visualizing Arthas instead of War, I gotta give kudos for the wonderful job all around. The voice acting (what a cast!) is spot on, the environments are beautiful and varied, the music compliments the visuals and atmosphere nicely. there's a constant flow in the storytelling and the dialogue is sensical, and the various characters and enemies are well designed. Combat is very hack-n-slash. It reminded me a good bit of Devil May Cry where you progressively unlock new moves and combos for the different weapons you gain throughout the story. It didn't become stale either, it was quite satisfying the majority of the time. There aren't many repeats, or reskins, of enemies throughout the game, thankfully. A couple of the floating ones can be annoying to fight, but you eventually gain sub-weapons and skills to deal with them better. Every area where you have to find a big baddie had a huge Zelda dungeon feel to it. You go through rooms in a certain pattern to find keys to unlock more of the dungeon, find the special item, then keep going until you get to face the boss of the place. Each dungeon has its own gimmick, with the final one requiring you to use each of them at some point or another. My missing star is due to 2 things: the game is definitely rough around the edge and it's noticeable at times, and there were a couple of times where a puzzle or encounter difficulty spiked for no reason whatsoever. The game still holds well despite the years, I thoroughly enjoyed.
