Darksiders

[LBzrule]

Game looks pretty cool

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/875/875437p3.html

I absolutely love Joe Madureira art style. I have several issues of Ultimates where he is doing the artwork.

[luv_mist]

Re: Darksiders

I read the story of this game. It makes me really want to try it out whenever it comes out. It is definitely high on my list. I'm very interested in seeing how they approach the game with the videos. I've been reading up a little in the Game Informer from last year or 2007 and it clearly is a pretty sure hit from what I see. I'm going to toss up a few more pictures and the information on here.

Penned by legendary comic book artist Joe Madureira (X-Men, Battle Chasers, The Ultimates), Darksiders: Wrath of War is set in a Post-Apocalyptic demon-ravaged world where evil forces have prematurely brought about the end of the time. Originally sent to oversee the destruction of Earth, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have been betrayed by their master, stripped of their powers and cast down to Earth. Players take on the role of WAR—the first of the Four Horsemen—as he embarks on a brutal quest of vengeance and revenge against the forces that betrayed him with the help of his phantom steed RUIN. Darksiders: Wrath of War features open-world exploration, a deep combat system and a huge arsenal of modern and mythical weapons.

[Cyros]

Re: Darksiders

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[Flawless]

Re: Darksiders

IGN Pre-E3 2009: Darksiders Hands-On

Darksiders in an open world game in much the same way as Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. There's a vast world to explore, ripe with secrets (and enemies), but the majority of action takes place in the various dungeons (and castles/skyscrapers) found along the way. The key here are the secret goodies. There are lots of them. Vigil Studios, developers of Darksiders, is stuffing the game world with collectibles, the vast majority of which earn upgrades for your character. If Vigil pulls off its promise, every dead-end alleyway and hard to reach nook will have a goodie inside, rewarding players for thorough exploration.

Throughout your journey, upgrades can be discovered to enhance War's abilities and to improve his various weapons. Many of these require finding a number of pieces (upwards of a dozen) in order to earn the upgrades.

These enhancements can then be slotted to your various weapons. Though there are a good number of enhancements (some give bonuses to damage, others can add effects to an attack), your weapon selection is a bit more limited. You aren't going to be choosing from one of a hundred swords. Basically, when you find a cool item, it's the one version you will get, with the ability to improve it through upgrades. You'll wield a massive sword, carry a powerful gun, get the Crossblades throwing star and acquire a hook-chain. Alone, any of these weapons can do some damage, but combined you can pull off all sorts of sweet moves. Hook an enemy and drag them towards you, then knock them airborne with the sword, pop them with a few shots from the gun, then hook them again and slam them to the ground. Good fun.

The early goings of Darksiders is fairly linear, but once you get your horse, things are said to open up quite a bit. The world is large and there's going to be plenty of variety, from ruined cityscapes to the desert of ash. I did get to jump ahead a little further to see a level that gives added spice to the gameplay. There is at least one sequence where you are on a winged horse, flying through caverns, dodging imps and other deadly creatures. In a clear nod to Panzer Dragoon, War can paint a series of enemy targets and then release a volley of shots. The lengthy sequence could certainly use a boost in speed to add a bit of exhilaration to the flight, but it is good to see that Vigil Games is switching things up throughout the adventure.

While there's a lot more of Darksiders to play, the first few hours of the game show an immense amount of promise. If the exploration elements across the massive world are worthwhile and the puzzle elements gain in complexity deeper into the story, then this could be a real winner come fall.p

Developer walkthrough and new trailer. Definitely keeping an eye on this for now on.

<embed src='http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf' flashvars='object_ID=818226&downloadURL=http://xbox360movies.ign.com/xbox360/video/article/983/983612/darksiders_spc_commentary_flvlowwide.flv&allownetw orking="all%"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360'></embed><div style='width:433;'><a href='http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/818/818226.html'>More Darksiders: Wrath of War News & Previews</a></div>

<embed src='http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf' flashvars='object_ID=818226&downloadURL=http://xbox360movies.ign.com/xbox360/video/article/984/984105/darksiders_trl_story_51809_flvlowwide.flv&allownet working="all%"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360'></embed><div style='width:433;'><a href='http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/818/818226.html'>More Darksiders: Wrath of War Info</a></div>

[Flawless]

Re: Darksiders

New trailer. Hope this turns out well, because it looks really cool.

<embed src='http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf' flashvars='object_ID=818226&downloadURL=http://xbox360movies.ign.com/xbox360/video/article/999/999150/darksiders_trl_balance_62909_flvlowwide.flv&allown etworking="all%"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360'></embed><div style='width:433;'><a href='http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/818/818226.html'>More Darksiders Info</a></div>

[Flawless]

Re: Darksiders

Destructoid Preview

There’s more to Darksiders than meets the eye. People seem to be worried that it’s yet another cookie-cutter third-person action game, but that’s not what I saw. The game has an intriguing, unique storyline, and its gameplay takes elements from a wide variety of genres.

Darksiders is the first title from Vigil Games, an Austin, Texas-based studio co-founded by comic book writer/artist Joe Madureira. (You may know him from his own series, Battle Chasers, as well as Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men.) Madureira serves as the game’s creative director, and that comic book influence is apparent in the game. You’ll see Gothic and demonic architecture juxtaposed with extant modern human buildings. Everything in the game was designed with that classic, Gears-style “bigger, better, more bad-***” mantra in mind -- even doorways aren’t just simple wood-block-on-hinges affairs.

But what I found to be worthwhile in Darksiders was the combination of this classic action game combat within the framework of an adventure game. You collect blue souls, the game’s currency, by killing enemies; these can be handed over to the demon Vulgrim, the merchant of the game, to upgrade your weapons and “Wrath” powers (magic). The prolific voice actor Phil LaMarr, whom you may know as Vamp in the Metal Gear Solid series, plays Vulgrim. In fact, Darksiders has a pretty significant voice cast. Liam O’Brien, best known for his role as Gaara on Naruto, voices War; Mark Hamill basically does his Joker voice as The Watcher. And Moon Bloodgood, of Terminator Salvation fame, voices the Archangel Uriel.

A creature that is loyal and helpful is your horse, Ruin. This mighty beast is actually invisible -- the “phantom steed” is made of ash, so he merely disintegrates when he’s hit. You can summon him at the press of a button as long as you’re not in an enclosed area, and he’ll even catch you if you’re falling. (Of Ruin, Kamel said, “He’s like a bad-*** Epona.”) Ruin will allow you to get to places you couldn’t reach without him, and he’s also a necessity in certain combat situations, à la Agro from Shadow of the Colossus. In a boss battle in the Ashlands (which are literally composed of human ash, by the way), you can’t step on the ash without being devoured by the boss. But you can ride around on Ruin with impunity.

THQ and Vigil wanted to stress the puzzle elements in the boss battles. It’s not just about hacking away until a screen-filling health bar is depleted; instead, like Zelda, you’ll often receive a new weapon or ability in a dungeon, and -- guess what? -- you’ll need to use it against the dungeon boss. I saw this in action when War was given not a hook shot, but a “cross blade.” It’s a sweet bow, but what’s neat is that you can lock on to multiple targets with it (it’ll fire at all of them at once). In the fiery dungeon, the boss isn’t harmed by regular attacks. But the cross blade also transfers elements. If you hit something that’s on fire, your arrows will then be imbued with flame -- and that’s how you can defeat the boss.

Since it’s an action-adventure game, a major part of the game is exploration. I spent some time running around and found what looked like a subway entrance -- it led to a small underground area where, after doing some platforming, I came upon a chest full of souls. Sweet! There will also be a number of sections where you’ll be given a heavy weapon to play with. These segments are intended to break up the gameplay. One of the special weapons was a Fracture Cannon, a demon-designed remote-detonated rocket launcher. You have unlimited ammo in the short time you have the weapon, so it’s a blast (ba-dum-tish) to use.

Darksiders incorporates gameplay from plenty of sources, and its developers aren’t afraid to admit it or even to invite comparisons. That’s because they feel as if they’ve got something special on their hands, and while we’ll have to wait until New Year’s Day to know for sure, I definitely enjoyed what I played so far. For more, hit up the game’s official Web site.

[Flawless]

Re: Darksiders

Eurogamer Hands-on

It's wonderfully realised in characterful designs, animations and architecture, skipping along at a fair frame-rate even this far in advance of launch, and it feels extremely solid, with intuitive controls that allow you to flick between different areas of the combat and ability spectrum quickly and efficiently. Enemies are skeletons in armour, flapping monster bats and charging biped rhino death-monsters, all of whom are quickly identified in combat by their appearance, next to which you'll file their patterns and weaknesses with similar speed, just as you might in a Devil May Cry or a God of War or a Zelda, again (sorry). It might not be the sort of THQ game of yesteryear, but in an already strong year for the venerable publisher, it could well be among the strongest.

[Candyman5]

Re: Darksiders

This game does really look good.

[Flawless]

Re: Darksiders

Darksiders Dated

THQ today announced the international release dates for the highly anticipated action RPG/adventure from Vigil Games, Darksiders. It hits store shelves on January 5 in the North America, January 7 in Europe, and January 8 in Australia.

[Flawless]

Re: Darksiders

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[Tiko7523]

Re: Darksiders

damn impressive looking game

[Flawless]

Re: Darksiders

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[Flawless]

Re: Darksiders

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[LBzrule]

Re: Darksiders

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This game looks so cool. Definitely want to see what it is all about in January.

[spankdatazz22]

Re: Darksiders

This game looks so cool. Definitely want to see what it is all about in January.

I agree - really looking forward to this. Great preview; the storyline sounds really cool. The action looks really well done. The first half of 2010 is ridiculously stacked with A+ titles