“Darksiders” at Amazon.com

Rated Mature; Reviewed on PS3

Darksiders is one of the crop of bad-ass, third person adventures that glutted the market after “God of War 3” took the entire industry to school.  While I enjoyed Darksiders it falls far short of “God of War” in nearly every area.  It may not be completely fair to compare the two games so directly but it’s more difficult to ignore the similarities.

The story of Darksiders is simple enough, but hurt by the concepts introduced and a failure to fully embrace them.  We’re told that the “Charred Council”, and their servants, the four horsemen of the apocalypse mediate the uneasy between Heaven and Hell.  But while the game adopts many aspects of Christian mythology it stops short of committing and never engages God or Satan.  This leaves an intellectual power-gap that’s never sufficiently explained and leaves the player unsatisfied.

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