Darksiders Catch-all

garion333 wrote:

There will be no demo, unless something has changed in the past two weeks.

Well, that stinks. Perhaps I'll rent it if the reviews aren't stellar or I'll otherwise snag it on sale down the road.

This sounds like my kind of game, though it comes at an unfortunate time right after the xmas spending frenzy, will probably pick it up next month or so. Looking forward to reading some more opinions from those that get it.

I played my first hour and am very satisfied with my purchase so far. Combat is solid and fun, though I am craving some more variety. I expect this will come based on all the empty slots in my powers and items menus and all the moves and upgrades available to be purchased from the merchant. It looks fantastic and is animated even better. I've died a few times and am happy to say only lost a minute or two of progress. It will put you at the beginning of the battle or the platform sequences and that's about it. I can't really say too much more than that since I'm just to the start of the first "dungeon", but so far so good.

I actually thought it started off a little slow combat-wise. There is a bunch of slots for more powers, as you mentioned, but the fighting is a tad button mashy. I'm only saying that because Demon's Souls might have ruined 3rd person action for me.

Anyway, I like the game. I can see why there's no demo. Like a Zelda game, you gain abilities and toys as you go. I just don't know where the devs would put you to give you a good sense of the game. I mean, if you had to make a demo of Ocarina or Wind Waker, what would you do?

The game is exactly what everyone says it is, a giant mashup of different games. It's very much God of War meets Zelda. GoW in battle, Zelda in overall design and level implementation. I think I played over 2 hours so far and while I'm certainly not blown away by it, the game has progressively gotten more interesting as its gone along. The puzzles are way too simplistic right now, but that's how these things usually go.

In the end, so far, everything executes rather well. The controls are little strange at times and the audio design is pretty weak (they have a sound, like Zelda, for when you unlock secrets and whatnot and it's wholly unsatisfying and deep down in the mix), but combat is still fun and the artwork is pretty good. The voice work is over the top in a good way (ie. it fits) and is of high quality. For a studio's first offering this is a really well put together package and I'm happy to report this doesn't require a patch to feel like a complete game. Darksiders plays well out of the box and there was no mandatory or optional hard drive installation.

I'm really looking forward to getting my horse. I can't wait for that.

garion333 wrote:

Anyway, I like the game. I can see why there's no demo. Like a Zelda game, you gain abilities and toys as you go.

Demo would not be a problem. The hard part is justifying the money and time investment into something that could either pay off by increasing sales or at worse kill them.

Personally, I'll wait for the demo.

In Darksiders you play (1) horseman of the apocalypse sent to modern day earth (NYC) whose mission it is to kill the devil (who framed you) and any angel, demon or human that gets in your way. I thought that was worth mentioning because I knew nothing about this game and that hook was enough to get me through the first two hours with a big grin.

However, now that I've played 3 hours, some problems are starting to accumulate. It does a good job of playing god of war with rewarding combat (who doesn't like throwing cars) and lots of moves and upgrades to unlock. Things started to go downhill when I arrived at a flying sequence that shifted combat to 'throw sh*t at the screen' mode and went on for much too long. After suffering through that I've arrived in a puzzle solving area and now the flaws are many. The controls that worked well for combat are just silly complex for exploring. Too many button combinations require you to hold something or click something. Not many games get 3rd person cameras right and Darksiders' camera wouldn't have been an F- if it weren't for the persistently annoying screen tearing. The combination of tearing and poor camera function actually made me stop playing due to headache. I'm not done with it yet, but Darksiders is going to have to get better fast if it doesn't want to end up in the gamefly envelope.

I am enjoying it so far, but haven't put more than 2-2.5 hrs in.

As d3p0 said, there are a lot of moves that seem to want you to hold LB or RB while doing other things. So far, I've been doing a lot of mashing and holding X. That seems to work.

I've seen people complaining all over the place about screen tearing. I'm now going to make an assumption that all those people are playing on the 360. I've put nearly 8 hours in (about an hour past halfway) and I've experienced minimal screen tearing.

The flying sequence d3p0 mentioned was terrible, but they usually are. I grin and bear those and thank the gods when I get through them the first time.

I don't, however, understand what you mean about the complexity for exploring. I was just thinking earlier about how much the exploring felt like the latest Prince of Persia. I mean, you jump, and he grabs. Slide along the rail, hold right on the stick and jump, and he grabs again. I'm basically hitting one button to jump and a bit of autopilot kicks in with the grab.

Even after 8 hours, though, the controls still feel a bit awkward. To use a power you hit L1 and then the assigned face button. Okay. To change into chaos form (or whatever it's called) you hit L1 and R2. Wtf?

Oh, and still no horse. Dammit.

You guys hating on Panzer Dragoon?

The flying section was sweet.

To those of you who have put some hours in: What percentage of the game would you say is combat versus everything else?

My problem with the Zelda games has always been that there's too much running around, exploring and backtracking and not enough combat.

Podunk wrote:

Scott Morton, the composer, is an old Internet buddy of mine. He's a talented guy. He was Iron Lore's staff composer until they closed up shop, and he wrote all the music for Titan Quest and Immortal Throne. I'm looking forward to the game just so I can check out his tunes. :)

Just finished playing Titan Quest and its expansion. The music was something that definitely caught my attention in the game.

Here are the gametrailers and gamespot video reviews. I think they are fairly accurate. The general consensus is stupid story, familiar gameplay, a few other minor complaints like some technical issues, but overall solid and fun if you like this style of game.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/re...

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/acti...

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

To those of you who have put some hours in: What percentage of the game would you say is combat versus everything else?

My problem with the Zelda games has always been that there's too much running around, exploring and backtracking and not enough combat.

It's about 1/4 of the time. There isn't a ton of running around and backtracking unless you are looking for secrets, which I've been doing somewhat faithfully, though not religiously. There are certainly periods of time where you are just solving puzzles, but there are just as long periods of time where you are near constantly fighting as you move through a dungeon.

I have yet to finish a 3d Zelda game because I get bored with all the exploration. I would say Darksiders has streamlined it a bit more than a Zelda game.

garion333 wrote:

I have yet to finish a 3d Zelda game because I get bored with all the exploration. I would say Darksiders has streamlined it a bit more than a Zelda game.

This game is sounding more appealling to me as I hear more about it. Can you continue the game after any checkpoint you cross? I like the Zelda-style games but for me the reason I never get far in them anymore is that nowadays I usually only have small gaps of playtime, so that thing Zelda games do where you have to start at the entrance of the dungeon or the centre of the world every time you turn it on ends up defeating my initiative.

There are checkpoints all over the place, so, yes, when you're in a dungeon and you quit it the game, it starts you back at the last checkpoint. I'm 90% certain of this. The only uncertainty I have is that I'm at work and not at home and I can't check to be 100% certain, but . . . nevermind. I know I'm correct because I rage quit on a boss yesterday and came back an hour later when it wasn't pissing me off and I was right outside of the boss.

So yes, you start at your previous save spot/checkpoint.

I'm enjoying the game a lot more than I thought I would considering the low key release and lack of buzz surrounding it. I picked it up along with Bayonetta on Tuesday with some old credit from Gamestop, and I've barely played more than 2 hours on Bayonetta due to this game. I just finished the first dungeon area last night and killed Tiamat, and it seemed very Zeldaish, even going so far as to give you a boomerang item (although it's a little more brutal than any boomerang Link ever wielded).

The controls do take a little getting used to, but they are by no means anywhere close to being broken. Once you get in the flow of combat it is actually one of the high points of the game for me. I've yet to feel any tedium when faced with a room full of enemies and look forward to chopping them up in varying ways with new skills unlocked from Vulgrim. War does look like a more detailed Warcraft character, but that's no problem for me as I like WoW's art design.

Good puzzles, great voice acting, fun combat, and a good story so far. Looking forward to playing more tonight.

Also you have five or six save slots.

I've been playing on 360 and really haven't noticed any screen tearing. There have been a few framerate stutters occasionally, but I suspect it's my xbox doing that since it does that in lots of games for no reason.

Story and setting are rad, I've had little trouble with the buttons although I am using my middle finger for the right trigger and my index finger for the dodge/block button, since you do need to dodge a ton, however the trigger is important since it holds an equippable item.

Giantbomb has a quick look up.

http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-...

To note, the second half of that quick look is the "let's teach you about some combat techniques" part of the game. I haven't encountered another section like that.

I almost got through the first big dungeon tonight. I'm loving this game. It's like in a zelda game where you kind of zone out as you go from little puzzle to little puzzle, but brutally beating the crap out of things in between. I think the reason I'm enjoying it so much is that the character moves so well. I never feel like I'm fighting against the character to get him to do what I want. He is quick and agile.

Also, it appears a patch is coming soon for the screen tearing, but it hasn't bothered me much so far.

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/21827/...

IUMogg wrote:

Here are the gametrailers and gamespot video reviews. I think they are fairly accurate. The general consensus is stupid story, familiar gameplay, a few other minor complaints like some technical issues, but overall solid and fun if you like this style of game.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/re...

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/acti...

I wouldn't recommend anyone watching the GT review. As usual they tend to spoil a lot.

garion333 wrote:
IUMogg wrote:

Here are the gametrailers and gamespot video reviews. I think they are fairly accurate. The general consensus is stupid story, familiar gameplay, a few other minor complaints like some technical issues, but overall solid and fun if you like this style of game.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/re...

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/acti...

I wouldn't recommend anyone watching the GT review. As usual they tend to spoil a lot.

That's the reason I don't watch them anymore, unless it's a game you can't spoil like TF2. They're well produced, and usually have good writing, but it seems like they don't have any policies for what they show.

I'm a ways into what you might consider the third dungeon and I'm hitting more than enough "what the hell am I supposed to do now?" environmental puzzles. They amount to wandering around empty areas like a jackass until you figure out where to go next, so I'm losing some of the shine I felt earlier in the game. Lord help me, I'd kill for a golden bread crumb trail in those moments.

I feel like much of that is due to the camera controls.

Certis wrote:

I'm a ways into what you might consider the third dungeon and I'm hitting more than enough "what the hell am I supposed to do now?" environmental puzzles. They amount to wandering around empty areas like a jackass until you figure out where to go next, so I'm losing some of the shine I felt earlier in the game. Lord help me, I'd kill for a golden bread crumb trail in those moments.

Given that I'm much less patient about that sort of thing that I suspect you are, this makes me sad.

Note to developers: The tricky part should be solving the puzzle, not figuring out what the puzzle is.

Bought the game due to the hype it received. But I am very disappointed with it so far.
Dumped down button masher, with bland graphics and a stupid storyline.

Better stick to Bayonette besides the stupid storyline everything else is better!

Damn why didnt I finally pick up Borderlands instead of Darksiders and played Bayonetta. (Experience +500)

d3p0 wrote:

I feel like much of that is due to the camera controls.

I don't find the camera better or worse than 90% of the 3rd person games out there. It's not spectacular, but it does the job fine in fights and it's easy to move when you're wandering around.

Certis wrote:

"what the hell am I supposed to do now?" environmental puzzles. They amount to wandering around empty areas like a jackass until you figure out where to go next.

You know, I think those "what do I do now/where do I go now" moments are my least favorite part of gaming. I absolutely hate those moments, if this kind of thing happens more than once or twice in a game it can really sour the whole experience for me.

Which dungeon in particular were you talking about Certis? You said third dungeon, but I'm not certain on what all you are actually counting . . . or how it should be counted. Is it the third demon dungeon (spiders) or third overall dungeon, which I think is where you got the glaive . . . ?

I'm asking because I'm at the dungeon with the spiders (very beginning) and the only dungeon I really felt a bit lost in was the one with the glaive. Otherwise, they've been pretty straight forward. I absolutely despise the moments of now knowing where to go. Games like Jak (I think) were never finished for that reason.

You have a breadcrumb trail, summon the watcher dude and he'll fly out and go "hey dummy, see this big glowing switch here, ya, hit that".

Sinatar wrote:

You have a breadcrumb trail, summon the watcher dude and he'll fly out and go "hey dummy, see this big glowing switch here, ya, hit that".

Never seems to work for me. All the watcher does is say how he can't wait for me to kill the next boss monster I am tracking.