Darksiders III

Gameplay

Darksiders III is a departure from the previous games, borrowing structure and gameplay elements from Metroidvania and FromSoftware's Souls series,[1][3][2] the game is viewed as a mashup of elements of previous games and a new direction. Players take control of Fury, sister of War and Death, two of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, from a third-person perspective. Fury, a mage who is described as the most unpredictable and enigmatic of the Four Horsemen, relies on whips, swords, flails, daggers and magic in combat.[4][5] Fury can take on multiple different elemental forms in order to enhance her combat capabilities by granting her new weapons, attacks and traversal abilities.

The combat is described as more methodical [2] and straight forward[6] not focusing on large crowds of enemies like the previous games and removing the hit counter. Enemies are stronger than in previous installments but appear in smaller numbers during encounters, so as to make battles feel more personal. Some enemies from previous games return, while other foes are new. Gated combat is not a feature, in an attempt to make everything within the setting contextualized and interconnected like the Souls series.[2]

Darksiders III focuses on its leveling system in which Fury's damage, health, and arcane damage [2] can be upgraded. The threats of the game's world will grow stronger as the player progresses through the story. Similar to War, yet dissimilar to Death, Fury collects souls from enemies and from objects in the environment, as a form of currency or an expendable resource. The player can attach "Enhancement"s to Fury's weapons for different perks and damage boosts.[7]

The game takes place in a continuous environment where exploration plays a large role in gathering more lurchers and materials to upgrade Fury herself and her arsenal. While exploring, Fury must solve simple puzzles[6] and overcome platforming obstacles, some of which make use of her whip. Such puzzles include using bombs to blow up obstructed pathways or Fury's Forms to interact with the environment.

Plot

Taking place parallel with Darksiders II and before the majority of Darksiders, Fury, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is summoned by the Charred Council and tasked with hunting down the Seven Deadly Sins, which have escaped imprisonment; one of the Watchers accompanies her on her quest.

Upon arriving on the war-torn, post-apocalyptic Earth, Fury encounters the first of the Sins, Envy. Upon Envy's defeat, Fury claims one of her talismans and uses it as a prison to hold Envy. Not long after, she finds her way to a sanctuary named Haven, where she encounters Ulthane (previously introduced in Darksiders) and some humans who survived the Apocalypse. Ulthane tasks Fury with sending any Humans she finds to Haven. She then leaves to find the next Sin, Wrath. Fury comes upon Wrath engaged in fighting and killing angels. Gaining the upper hand, Fury summons her horse, Rampage, which gets killed by a mysterious, angelic weapon. Grief-stricken and enraged, Fury loses focus and Wrath runs her through while she is distracted. With her dying breath, she pulls the blade out and stabs Wrath in the face before losing consciousness. As Fury lays dying on the ground, a fiery portal takes her to the Lord of the Hollows, a powerful entity with the ability to release other beings from the cycle of life, death and rebirth in the Well of Souls. The Lord informs a skeptical Fury that she is being manipulated by the Charred Council for their own schemes, but nonetheless aids her by giving her the Fire Hollow, a mystical artifact that enhances her combat abilities. He also instructs her to hunt down the demon Abraxis and return to him with the demon's soul.

As Fury recaptures the Sins after another, the Lord of Hollows continues to gift her with new Hollows to aid in her mission. Confronting Abraxis in the demon's stronghold, Fury demands to know why the Lord of Hollows wants him dead. Abraxis tells her that a new dark lord is coming, known only as The Destroyer, and reveals that the Lord of Hollows intends to hollow the mortal realm to install a new order. At this point in the story, the player is given a choice:

• If the player chooses to believe Abraxis, the demon will thank Fury and welcome her to his master's home any time. Upon returning to the Lord of Hollows, the player will be given the option to face him in combat or choose to believe him. If the player still chooses to believe Abraxis, the Lord will simply be killed.

• Alternatively, if the player decides to believe the Lord of Hollows, Abraxis will be killed and his soul claimed as the prize. The Lord of Hollows then reveals details of his own past and the Council's corruption: he was once a welcome delegate who wholeheartedly sat at their table, but quickly grew disillusioned with his brethren's obsessive ways and half-measures in enforcing the Balance, only monitoring the kingdoms of Heaven and Hell while leaving the Kingdom of Man to fend for itself. This culminated in the Council pleading ignorance, when in truth they deliberately allowed the premature Apocalypse to happen, in the wake of mankind's decimation. The Hollow Lord goes on to explain that his gathering of souls was a means of making amends for an eternity of inaction before ending his own life, leaving behind a mysterious object for future use as his way of aiding Fury; his chosen.

Eventually Fury confronts and defeats the final Sin, Pride. Pride lends credence to the Lord of Hollows' claims, revealing that the Council have been secretly betraying the Balance behind everyone's backs from the start. The Watcher that has been trailing Fury the whole time reveals herself to be the game's true final sin, the real Envy. Having tricked Fury and the Council to strengthen herself by absorbing the rest of the sins into her amulet, Envy confirms the truth in Pride's words after taking the Talisman, and with it the powers of those trapped within. Taking advantage of Fury's weakened state, Envy uses the Talisman of Sin to immobilizes the Horseman and absorb her strength. Envy reveals that the Council's plan was to pit the Horsemen and Sins against each other, hoping that both sides would destroy one another, all the while boasting of having been able to take advantage of everything from Fury's egotism to the Council's trickery in order to obtain supreme power for herself; ultimately, Envy intends to use her enhanced abilities to face the Charred Council for control of the Earth.

Fury takes a steep fall, but survives her predicament with help from Humans that she had rescued over the course of her adventures and turned over to the Makers care. Ulthane aids her by presenting a means he'd spent the whole story working on. Revealing the Black Hammer knew more than he was letting on, having constructed a Reflecting Pool to get her to the Council's domain and confront Envy as well as her former masters. If the player has the mysterious stone sigil given by the Lord of Hollows will marvel at the sight of which before declining Fury's humble forfeiture of which in wake of her less than stellar performance. Sighting that the Hollow Lord chose her and that he would not dispute that. With newfound resolve, Fury defeats Envy and binds the Sin within the Talisman, but the Charred Council no longer values Fury and wants her dead along with her brothers.

• Without the Sigil the council pushes their onslaught, Fury simply renounces her masters as corrupt and detonates the Talisman used to entrap the Seven. defeating them and leaving their citadel to crumble around them, while beating a hasty retreat back to Earth.

• With the Sigil in hand Fury uses it to block the Charred Council's attack, the latter halting out of fear of its presence. Although she does not know what the stone truly is, she realizes the council abhors it and knows it to be a tool of great power. Fury resists when they demand she give it to them and instead detonates the Talisman of Sin, defeating the Council and leaving their citadel to crumble around them, while beating a hasty retreat back to Earth.

Returning to Haven, she finds it beset by demons of the Destroyer's army. With Hell's forces converging on their location, Fury comes to the epiphany that the early apocalypse was motivated by the fear that Heaven, Hell and the powers that be holds towards humanity. All sides wishing them annihilated, The Black Hammer having long been aware of such findings. Opts to utilize the same portal created to breach the Council Chamber as an exit strategy to save what remains of mankind. Having been changed and humbled by her journey, the rider of the black horse vows to protect the last surviving remnants of man and prepares to depart. Realizing that War was innocent all along, Fury requests that Ulthane aid her brother in any way possible should they meet. As she watches the fight before departing, the lone human helping the Makers fend off the demons is revealed as her brother and fellow horseman, Strife; the two share a knowing nod before Fury leaves.

With the survivors now safe and hidden away in another realm, Lucifer knows what Fury has done and, depending on the player's choices, is angered at Lilith for not silencing the Lord of Hollows when she had the chance. However, he still intends to carry out his own plans of destruction.

Development and release
Promotion at the 2018 PAX West

A third entry in the Darksiders series was originally planned by Vigil Games, however, the fate of its franchise was threatened due to financial complications. Its parent company, THQ, filed for bankruptcy in 2012. The company's assets were sold at an auction, excluding Vigil Games, which was shut down along with the parent company, THQ. In April 2013, THQ began a process to auction off the remaining IP that it had not yet sold, including Darksiders. Several companies publicly expressed interest in bidding for the franchise, including the Japanese developer PlatinumGames, and Crytek USA, a new Crytek subsidiary led by former Vigil CEO David Adams, and primarily staffed by former Vigil employees. Adams had expressed interest in allowing Darksiders to come back "home" to its creators.[8][9] On April 22, 2013, Darksiders, along with Red Faction and MX vs. ATV, were purchased by Nordic Games in the final transaction of THQ's assets. On June 14, 2013, Nordic Games has stated in an interview with Joystiq that fans "[should] not look for a Darksiders III before two years from now".[10]

On May 2, 2017, a product listing for Darksiders III appeared on Amazon.com.[4][11] The game was announced the same day by publisher THQ Nordic to be under development by Gunfire Games. The development team largely consists of former Vigil Games employees whose previous work includes development of the first two Darksiders games.[5] The game was revealed to be released on November 27, 2018. Alongside it, THQ Nordic announced various editions for the game; a deluxe edition, which comes with the soundtrack and two future downloadable content packs, the Collector's Edition, which comes with a Fury figurine, and the Apocalypse edition, which comes with figurines of War, Death, Fury and Vulgrim.

On December 20, 2018, a patch was released for the game adding a "Classic" mode to make the game 'feel' more like its two predecessor games, such as allowing Fury to dodge, interrupt her attacks and use items instantly.[12]

Reception

Critical response

Darksiders III received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[13][15][14] The third game was widely criticized for the technical issues in both consoles and PC versions of the game.[1][2] Eurogamer review criticized the "straight forward combat" saying it is a matter of "upgrade weapon damage" and that the few puzzles are too simple, and in concluding that it "has done better in the past".[6] GameSpot review said that the game is "unfocused", that the "clear inspiration from Dark Souls" go against the rest of the series design, that the game has "rudimentary puzzles" and concludes by saying that "Darksiders 3 retrogrades on its predecessors with an unfocused approach that constantly clashes itself".[2] PC Gamer review said that the game doesn't commit itself enough on the RPG department due to the game's lack of a loot system and weapons being earned as the plot goes on, "you're just bumping up damage output". He ends his review saying "It doesn't condemn Darksiders to oblivion, but it’s the lowlight of the series so far."[7]

Sales

The game debuted at 32nd place in the UK's all-format sales charts.[17] According to reports, the game managed to sell 71,000 copies on Steam alone in its first week.[18] On February 18, 2019, in a financial quarter report, THQ Nordic has announced that the game has made its development and marketing budget back and reiterated its commitment to the franchise.[19]

Sequel

Prior to the game's release, the CEO of THQ Nordic announced that if Darksiders III reached over 100,000 copies sold, the company would look into a sequel.[20] A spin-off game was announced on June 6, 2019 titled Darksiders: Genesis.

References
  1. Lowry, Brendan (November 26, 2018). "Darksiders III review: Don't sleep on this relentlessly engaging, macabre action RPG". Archived from the original on November 26, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
  2. Wakeling, Richard (November 28, 2018). "Darksiders 3 Review - Soils-Like". Archived from the original on November 28, 2018. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
  3. Hatfield, Daemon (November 26, 2018). "Darksiders III Review". Archived from the original on November 26, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
  4. Pearce, Alanah (May 2, 2017). "Darksiders 3 Announced - IGN First". IGN. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on May 3, 2017. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  5. "THQ Nordic Announces Darksiders® III". THQ Nordic. May 2, 2017. Archived from the original on May 3, 2017. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  6. Hetfeld, Malindy (November 29, 2018). "Darksiders III Review". Archived from the original on November 29, 2018. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
  7. Horti, Samuel (November 26, 2018). "DARKSIDERS 3 REVIEW". Archived from the original on November 26, 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2018.
  8. "Crytek USA wants the Darksiders series to come home". Digital Trends. Archived from the original on April 5, 2013. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
  9. "Crytek USA hope to wrestle back Darksiders series in auction". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on April 9, 2013. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
  10. "Nordic Games explains who the f they are, plans for THQ assets". Joystiq. Archived from the original on April 19, 2015. Retrieved August 16, 2014.
  11. Romano, Sal (May 2, 2017). "Darksiders III reveal leaked for PS4, Xbox One, and PC". Gematsu.com. Gematsu. Archived from the original on May 2, 2017. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  12. Yin-Poole, Wesley (December 21, 2018). "Darksiders 3 patch makes combat more like previous Darksiders games". Retrieved April 20, 2019.
  13. "Darksiders III for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
  14. "Darksiders III for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  15. "Darksiders III for Xbox One Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  16. Carter, Chris (December 2, 2018). "Review: Darksiders III". Destructoid. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
  17. Phillips, Tom (November 26, 2018). "Darksiders 3 UK physical launch sales a quarter of Farming Simulator 19's". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  18. "Darksiders 4 All But Confirmed From Performance Of DS3". Power Up Gaming. December 4, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
  19. Brown, Fraser (February 18, 2019). "Darksiders 3 made its money back and is still part of a 'key IP'". Retrieved April 20, 2019.
  20. "Darksiders 4 Likely After Darksiders 3 Sales". GameRevolution.com. December 7, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
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