Darksiders Genesis Review

"Twin Stick RPG"

Campaign

March 6, 2020 at 8:13pm
By Jason Stettner

This is a spin-off entry in the Darksiders franchise that follows War and Strife as they head out on their latest mission from the council. These are of course two of the legendary Horseman, both carrying unique and contrasting personalities. This is an interesting aspect as the two play off one another very well and in a largely humorous way.

This is a narrative driven twin stick title with a neat dynamic at play. When alone, you can switch between the two on the fly or if you’re in coop you both take on a role. This has both local coop for two, or online as well which is a nice touch. It would have however been better with online matchmaking too, could have had a passive join system which would have been nice. The story here is actually lengthy with a good number of levels to work through.

There are also hidden secrets, and extra goals so some replay value aside from trying harder difficulties. The maps are also dynamic with multiple options to progress in some, and various gaps in the style of gameplay. Sometimes you might be doing dynamic movement or puzzles in order to progress aside from just battling it out. There are also some challenges, and large scale bosses to take on along the way. I quite enjoyed the narrative here, especially with the setup and the connection this does have to the overall universe.

Gameplay

I really enjoyed the visual aesthetic of this game, it was an over the top perspective with a great sense of scale in every scene. There are a very wide range of biomes and locations you’ll visit that are each filled with depth to them. From sandy fortress walls to lava filled rooms of death. The layouts are well done, and entirely creative. I did at times find navigation a bit hard in the more open ones, but a lot of it is linear in design.

When it comes to cinematics they either use some neat almost comic-like art and then in-game chats between the characters during key moments. The combat feels great here, whether you’re shooting or blasting away. Each character has unique abilities for either battle or puzzle solving. You can even summon your mystical powerful horse at most moments.

There’s also an RPG design layered on this and I actually wasn’t a fan of that. The game gets more difficult and you might have to grind in a previous level to make yourself strong enough power wise to go forward. I hate that artificial style of progression locking. You can lower or adjust the difficulties, but still. There are neat traders, and I liked how they added collectibles or extras to discover for those that are interested in them. That definitely adds some replay value.

The Conclusion

Darksiders Genesis is actually a great spin-off for the series with two leads that work very well together and this perspective was a very neat change-up. I definitely enjoyed playing this and it was far longer than I had anticipated in terms of just the main narrative.

They have neat enemies, varied locations and wild bosses to tackle. I liked the inclusion of coop, I do wish they would have had matchmaking though or some sort of passive setup there. It was fine to play alone, a better time with another as you’d have to coordinate skills.

This game works very well and I’m curious to see if they might take this franchise in other directions as it clearly does have a wealth of lore and characters. I wasn’t a huge fan of the RPG elements, but those do make this feel very on brand for the series.

Read our Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince Review
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Darksiders Genesis Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by Evolve PR

Rating Overall: 8.2