Warning: Rated M for mature. Violence obviously and mature themes.

Darksiders is one of those games that kind of got lost in the holiday retail season of ’09 and it’s a shame that that happened. Darksiders was created by ex-comic book artist and creator Joe Madureira and his development studio, Vigil Games. Darsiders tells the tale of the final battle between heaven and hell through the eyes of War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I won’t give too much of the story away as it is one of the highlights of the game.

Darksiders is basically a hack and slash game with some platforming elements thrown in.

What really amazes me though about this game is how solid the game is, especially since this is the first game Vigil Games has ever developed. You can tell these guys really did their homework on it and didn’t just slap together a game for the sake of having a game. Everything from the gameplay to the art is fantastic as well as all the character designs.

What I liked: The story in Darksiders is really good. It has a very comic book type feel to it and Joe Madureira’s influence can be seen heavily in the game. It’s also the perfect length for a game of this type. You can beat this game in a few days and the length keeps you interested the story the entire time. The game is graphically amazing as well with very interesting character designs and some great environments and level designs. Voice acting in Darksiders was also very good. It’s still amazing to me that this was the first game Vigil Games had ever made.

What I didn’t like: I didn’t like the fact that I had to go back to certain areas in the game over and over again. This made parts of the game feel a bit repetitive. There are also certain enemies in the game that are ridiculously difficult to kill which also made that quite annoying as well.

If you haven’t had a chance to play Darksiders yet, I do recommend the purchase or a rental. It’s a solid hack and slash game and I found it to be quite fun. I only did one playthrough of the game but was able to an easy 6508/1000 achievement score. The rest require a couple more playthroughs but I was playing it more for the story with this rental. Play it and you won’t be disappointed.