E3 2019: Hands-on with Darksiders Genesis

When the first Darksiders game was announced, there was talk of making a game for each of the four horseman and it took a while, but we eventually got a sequel and then last year the third one, but for the fourth horseman, things took a different turn.

Darksiders Genesis is still a Darksiders game, there is plenty of action, loot and puzzles, but there is one major difference, you now play from an isometric point of view, which takes the action and keeps it all in focus. For the build that was playable at E3, it had Strife, the new horseman and War, venturing into an old demon forge, in an attempt to shut it down, so the demons could no longer make any weapons, to use against the angels. If you had played the first game, you would know that War is a broody fellow, but Strife is the complete opposite, he is basically Nathan Drake if he were a harbinger of the apocalypse, lots of witty and snarky comments, but he also has the skills to back it up.

Each of the horsemen has had their own unique way of fighting, War was a lot of strong attacks, Death was about the speed, Fury was about agility and Strife is about guns and bullets, lots and lots of bullets. As I was exploring the forge, enemies were coming up everywhere and rather than having to run in and hack at them, I was able to stand back and shoot them from a distance, it was quite the change from what I was used to. As I started to get further in, some the enemies seemed to have some protection against my barrage of bullets, but Strife thankfully, can still use melee attacks, so there is a lot of variety that you can use in combat.

If that was not enough, I was able to swap to War whenever I wanted and take the fight to the demons as him, I don’t know if you can do that, with the other two horsemen, but I would hope so. As the forge started showing the larger equipment, the platforming started and for the first time, it was pretty easy to adjust to, no more jumping and hoping you were pointing the right way. The same moves that we got from Death, are back again, wall running, pole jumping and all that, are back and they all work as I remember them doing. I did have trouble with a particularly difficult bit, with moving platforms and such, but that was more a matter of my not wanting to wait until they were in place, before I jumped.

Finally, the forge ended on a boss fight and I can only hope that it was for the build, but the creature/demon thing was just way to easy, it would stand in the middle and shoot at me, a few presses of the dodge and I was home free. When I was able to deal out some damage, I found using the modifier button, which opens up some stronger attacks, was perfect for the guy, simply because I had not used them much until now. Some of the attacks are quite strong and using them against the small fry seemed like a waste, the best attack would summon a giant ring of stone spikes from the ground, which has a double benefit of damage and crowd control.

With the boss defeated and the forge decommissioned, my demo was at an end, but rather than being upset, I was happy because I had fun and I just wanted to go home and play the entire game, which sadly I can’t do just yet. If you have been a fan of the series like I am, then there is no reason to avoid the game, if you are new to the series, this is a strong way to start, but if you can, give the other a go first, you won’t regret it.

Screenshots are from an unspecified version of the game.