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DARKSIDERS |OT| More like Zelda than God of War

DonMigs85

Member
Just got to The Black Throne after around 15 hours of play on Apocalyptic. The combat can get frustrating at times, but overall I really dig the game and some of the puzzles are really clever. Voice acting is topnotch too. Definitely looking forward to the sequel.
 

Maffis

Member
MattKeil said:
Can't fool all of the people all of the time. Terrible game, most overrated title of 2010, IMO.

lol no. darksiders isn't AAA-material, but sure as hell is better than average.
 

DonMigs85

Member
Finished the game on Apocalyptic yesterday and have 92% of trophies. I just have to ride Ruin around in circles and level up the scythe and glove.
Pretty fun game, I give it a sold 8/10.
 

Bebpo

Banned
I've heard from several people that the game is a better experience if you play it on easy because the only difference between easy/normal is padding out the enemy health and making things go on too long.

Any truth to this?

I'm planning on really putting some time into the PC version soon and I'd rather get the most enjoyable experience out of it I can.
 
Bebpo said:
I've heard from several people that the game is a better experience if you play it on easy because the only difference between easy/normal is padding out the enemy health and making things go on too long.

Any truth to this?
Absolutely.
 

Ledsen

Member
Bebpo said:
I've heard from several people that the game is a better experience if you play it on easy because the only difference between easy/normal is padding out the enemy health and making things go on too long.

Any truth to this?

I'm planning on really putting some time into the PC version soon and I'd rather get the most enjoyable experience out of it I can.

I played on Hard and thought the difficulty was just right. The enemies didn't have too much health or anything, felt well balanced.
 

El-Suave

Member
ZealousD said:
Bump!

Was browsing Amazon.com when I came upon this guy right here. 288 page art book from the game.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1926778103/?tag=neogaf0e-20

When did this come out?

November 23rd, according to that Amazon page.
It would have made more sense had they managed to release it closer to the game itself. I would love a few good artworks of Ruin (the horse) though. It's the game's best character art asset in my opinion.
 

Maffis

Member
So, no news about Darksiders 2: The Sequel?
I thought they started working ASAP after their first game.

I'm actually very excited for it. Darksiders had its share of problems, but with a larger budget, and more expertise, Darksiders 2 should be effing great.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Maffis said:
So, no news about Darksiders 2: The Sequel?
I thought they started working ASAP after their first game.

They did, but little has been officially released. We've only seen it mentioned in THQ financial reports. We know that War won't be the main character again and that it won't necessarily take place immediately after the ending of the first, but that's it.
 

Nakiro

Member
ZealousD said:
They did, but little has been officially released. We've only seen it mentioned in THQ financial reports. We know that War won't be the main character again and that it won't necessarily take place immediately after the ending of the first, but that's it.
Last I heard was that it will take place at the same time the first game took place... during the Apocolypse.
 

grumble

Member
Nakiro said:
Last I heard was that it will take place at the same time the first game took place... during the Apocolypse.

That's annoying if true. They had a huge cliffhanger at the end of the first one.
 
LovingSteam said:
So this is about $15 on D2D for the PC version. For those who have it, how was it? I have seen some youtube clips but not sure how enjoyable the game is.
I had it on the 360 and it was one of my favorite games this year.
 

Maffis

Member
LovingSteam said:
So this is about $15 on D2D for the PC version. For those who have it, how was it? I have seen some youtube clips but not sure how enjoyable the game is.

It's more than worth 15 bucks.
 
MattKeil said:
Can't fool all of the people all of the time. Terrible game, most overrated title of 2010, IMO.

No, that would be Epic Mickey. Subtract Warren Spector's name and the Disney license, and no one would look twice at that game.
 

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
JasonUresti said:
No, that would be Epic Mickey. Subtract Warren Spector's name and the Disney license, and no one would look twice at that game.

I don't know how Epic Mickey could possibly qualify as overrated when all I see on the internet are people ripping on it. :lol
 

Haunted

Member
LovingSteam said:
So this is about $15 on D2D for the PC version. For those who have it, how was it? I have seen some youtube clips but not sure how enjoyable the game is.
Totally worth it.

Solid length, and a good entry into a genre that's way underrepresented.


There are literally hundreds of impressions in this thread, even if you just skim it.
 

Ledsen

Member
LovingSteam said:
So this is about $15 on D2D for the PC version. For those who have it, how was it? I have seen some youtube clips but not sure how enjoyable the game is.

It's pretty great. It's a very well-paced Zelda clone with character action-type combat.
 

itxaka

Defeatist
Ok, Steam version here as soon as I boot the game the cursor starts moving trougth the options like a madman.

I can't choose anything at all because it keeps on moving by itself. Anyone know about this? I been checking the official forums but I can't find anything related to it FML
 

Red

Member
I started playing this game not long after it released, but stopped after about an hour. Just getting back to it now.

Man, it's sluggish (360 version). Screen keeps juddering even when nothing is happening. I'm just walking forward and it's chugging. When I use my revolving scythe attack it must go down to like 15fps, it's so damn choppy.

Really annoying, because I already feel like the attacks, blocks, and counters are slow without the introduction of a poor frame rate. Sometimes it seems War won't react until a full half second until after I hit a button.

I'm also having a lot of trouble with the camera in combat. It has a similar lock-on mechanic to Zelda games, but tosses way more enemies at you, enemies that are typically much quicker than those in a Zelda title. It's so tough to manage, and I never know what enemy my lock is going to switch to whenever I try moving to a new target. It makes battles so schizophrenic. I've actually had to stop playing four or five times because of motion sickness.

I'm about five hours in now. Playing on Apocalyptic difficulty. I beat Tiamat a little while ago, and am now in some water area looking for someone named Ulthane. I keep getting frustrated, since things seem so padded and redundant. Why do I need to talk to a stone giant before I can open these arena portals? I can see them fine, I don't need glowy eyes for that. Let me activate it. Needless backtracking IMO, really takes away from the game.

Besides that, I have all the upgrades for my scythe besides one which says it required the scythe to be at level 2. What's weird is I've already bought level 3 upgrades for other attacks, I'm not sure what's keeping this last one from unlocking.

Does the game get better? Right now it's so plodding and drawn out, and the gameplay is so sluggish I feel like I'm nearly constantly fighting the controls. I'm trying to kill five enemies right now with counters to open a gate, and fuck is it annoying. What's the timing for counters? When enemies begin swinging? Seems like that's too early. The game is saying to hit block on contact, but that's way too late. War takes so long to react that I get hit every time I try to do that.
 

WarLox

Member
Crunched said:
I started playing this game not long after it released, but stopped after about an hour. Just getting back to it now.

Man, it's sluggish (360 version). Screen keeps juddering even when nothing is happening. I'm just walking forward and it's chugging. When I use my revolving scythe attack it must go down to like 15fps, it's so damn choppy.
Really annoying, because I already feel like the attacks, blocks, and counters are slow without the introduction of a poor frame rate. Sometimes it seems War won't react until a full half second until after I hit a button.

I'm also having a lot of trouble with the camera in combat. It has a similar lock-on mechanic to Zelda games, but tosses way more enemies at you, enemies that are typically much quicker than those in a Zelda title. It's so tough to manage, and I never know what enemy my lock is going to switch to whenever I try moving to a new target. It makes battles so schizophrenic. I've actually had to stop playing four or five times because of motion sickness.

I'm about five hours in now. Playing on Apocalyptic difficulty. I beat Tiamat a little while ago, and am now in some water area looking for someone named Ulthane. I keep getting frustrated, since things seem so padded and redundant. Why do I need to talk to a stone giant before I can open these arena portals? I can see them fine, I don't need glowy eyes for that. Let me activate it. Needless backtracking IMO, really takes away from the game.

Besides that, I have all the upgrades for my scythe besides one which says it required the scythe to be at level 2. What's weird is I've already bought level 3 upgrades for other attacks, I'm not sure what's keeping this last one from unlocking.

Does the game get better? Right now it's so plodding and drawn out, and the gameplay is so sluggish I feel like I'm nearly constantly fighting the controls. I'm trying to kill five enemies right now with counters to open a gate, and fuck is it annoying. What's the timing for counters? When enemies begin swinging? Seems like that's too early. The game is saying to hit block on contact, but that's way too late. War takes so long to react that I get hit every time I try to do that.


Maybe your tv has a poor refresh rate... did you install it ?

I just started playing lastnight (360 install), and it ran fine.... Silky smooth
 

Red

Member
WarLox said:
Maybe your tv has a poor refresh rate... did you install it ?

I just started playing lastnight (360 install), and it ran fine.... Silky smooth
It's not installed, and it shouldn't be the TV (plasma).

I just watched the gametrailers review and gameplay there looks to be much smoother than what I'm seeing on my X Box. I'll try installing. Gotta figure out what I can delete from my hard drive. I'm only on a 60GB, and I have about a gig free :lol
 

Jonsoncao

Banned
Crunched said:
It's not installed, and it shouldn't be the TV (plasma).

I just watched the gametrailers review and gameplay there looks to be much smoother than what I'm seeing on my X Box. I'll try installing. Gotta figure out what I can delete from my hard drive. I'm only on a 60GB, and I have about a gig free :lol
there is an update fixing the framerate/tearing problem
 

Red

Member
Jonsoncao said:
there is an update fixing the framerate/tearing problem
I did have to download an update when I first started the game. I haven't noticed any tearing, just frame rate oddities.
 

Red

Member
I was very interested in this game because of the praise that seemed to be heaped on it following its release, but now that I'm a good ways in (fighting Silitha currently), I find more to dislike than enjoy.

The lock on camera is abysmal, first of all. It's so functionally terrible that I find it completely useless. It actually makes the game harder to play. It's very fickle about changing targets, and it constantly gets hung up on geometry, to the point where 90% of the time I have no fucking clue what is going on. The game has this cool diffused light effect on a few enemies, but it makes it really hard to gauge depth and shapes when the camera is zoomed in on some demon's ass and War is getting clusterfucked over in a corner. Makes it way too difficult to differentiate between similar foes.

That's not to mention the fact that at some point in nearly every combo, if you use the lock on camera, War will inexplicably turn completely around and start attacking in the opposite direction of what he's locked on to. I haven't figured out why this happens, but it does sweet fuck all and renders the lock on system completely pointless.

I've found that while using lock on it's also much harder to direct War's dash move, and he frequently winds up going in a direction I didn't intend, or immediately dashing back into a monster after dashing away.

There's also an issue, even with the regular camera, with enemies approaching quickly or launching attacks from off screen (Ninja Gaiden syndrome). I'm being placed into fights within a context fitting for God of War, but with a camera ripped out of Zelda. It doesn't work. Multiple fast moving enemies work in God of War because the camera is placed in a way that facilitates battles on that scale. It's not a player-controlled implement. I can't manage (or, don't want to) swinging a camera around while trying to target five enemies near me and three more far away, with half of them to my left, one to my right, and another behind me. Unless I have an option to zoom way out, it doesn't allow me to have the full control and viewpoint that I want. It simply doesn't work.

I've also got a problem in that the only way to instantly center the camera is to use the lock on. That works when I'm outside of battle, but when there is a monster or environmental target nearby, the camera will lock onto them instead of centering. That would be okay if they were my only intended target, but as described above, that's often not the case. What's even worse is that just clicking the lock on button doesn't keep the camera oriented in the direction of your target -- it immediately switches back to the perspective you had before pressing the button at all. Why not just have a click of the right stick center the camera?

I could use a first person view as well, but that's a minor gripe compared to the rest.

My second biggest problem is the controls. There is a lag between quite a few of War's attacks, where he's stuck in an animation until a weapon returns to his hands or until he completely follows through with a strike. In fights with smaller enemies, this typically isn't a big deal, but when War is up against bigger foes (particularly bosses, who aren't easily stunned by his attacks), he's placed into situations where he can't block or evade because he's stuck initiating the next step in a combo that can't be canceled. I hate not being able to cancel a move. What's the point in limiting controls like that? I can't properly react to what's happening on screen because I have to wait for War to finish his pirouette before I can dash backwards. I'm fighting Silitha right now, and I'm raging about not being able to evade from underneath her because War is fastened in place, spinning his scythe like a baton. Even if it's just for a tenth of a second or whatever the pause is between attacks, it's not necessary and makes combat feel clunky and slow.

Third biggest problem is hit detection. Worst offender for this so far was the fight with the Stygian. I was taking damage when I was easily 10-20 feet away from it. Ruin kept collapsing even when nothing was onscreen. It happens in normal fights, too. Enemies swing and clearly miss, but I still take damage. The game operates on some internal logic and timing that isn't readily apparent by what is actually happening on screen. I don't like that. Like in this fight with Silitha that I'm in right now, I can dodge her and have maybe 5-10 feet of clearance, but still take damage because I didn't evade in the window the game wanted me to. It feels very rough, and I feel like I'm repeatedly fighting with the game to get it to do what I intended.

Ah, feels a little better to complain a little bit. I think the game is strongest when it's focusing on simple exploration and puzzle solving, with light battles strewn in here and there. Combat doesn't stand on nearly the same level, yet it seems like that's where most of the content is weighted. It's a shame, because I see a lot of potential here that seems to be squandered.
 

Ledsen

Member
Hm, can't say I share any of your complaints, except maybe being unable to cancel attacks. I understand why they did it, it makes the longer combos have a risk/reward factor to them where you have to be sure you're going to stun the enemy before you start them. It did feel weird after Bayonetta but it didn't bother me that much and bosses didn't give me much trouble. I have to say I didn't even remember the game had a lock-on system though so I don't think I ever used it :lol Never had any problems with hit detection either, unlike in Castlevania: LoS. The camera seemed fine to me for the most part, and I don't remember being frustrated when dying in battle, which I rarely did to be honest (playing on Apocalyptic). I only used the main sword though since the other weapons seemed useless when I tried them.
 

Red

Member
Ledsen said:
Hm, can't say I share any of your complaints, except maybe being unable to cancel attacks. I understand why they did it, it makes the longer combos have a risk/reward factor to them where you have to be sure you're going to stun the enemy before you start them. It did feel weird after Bayonetta but it didn't bother me that much and bosses didn't give me much trouble. I have to say I didn't even remember the game had a lock-on system though so I don't think I ever used it :lol Never had any problems with hit detection either, unlike in Castlevania: LoS. The camera seemed fine to me for the most part, and I don't remember being frustrated when dying in battle, which I rarely did to be honest (playing on Apocalyptic). I only used the main sword though since the other weapons seemed useless when I tried them.
I'm on Apocalyptic too.

The problem with the lock on I think, besides the fact it's made to focus on one enemy at a time instead of five to ten, is that it doesn't follow behind War. I guess it's trying to provide a "cinematic" view, which looks cool sometimes, but causes the camera to "float" slowly alongside War, causing it to get caught on nearby geometry.

For some reason the game inverts my X axis and disables rumble every time I start it up. Not a big deal, but another minor annoyance to add to my list :lol

It's mainly managing the camera that's giving me problems. This is the only "brawler" type game outside of Ninja Gaiden that's given me so much trouble. I'm comparing it to Arkham Asylum, Bayonetta, God of War, and Devil May Cry. For some reason I'm having tremendous difficulty seeing what I'm supposed to see, because the camera doesn't track War's point of view. It's inelegant compared to what I'm used to, and adds needless frustration.

I'm also playing on Apocalyptic. I find these days that not playing on a game's most challenging difficulty renders the experience a bit flat and boring. But Darksiders is getting me ready to rip my hair out. It's driving me mad :lol

I'm in the Black Throne now, I just beat the first guardian and I'm stuck on a platform before a bottomless pit where before I needed to flip some grapples to get across. I'm going back the way I came now, but need to fight some baddies before I can cross. Four sword-wraith things, a dragon-ogre, and a handful of those fire angels. I don't have any healing potions and my chaos meter is completely empty. I've been using the scythe nearly the entire game, it's the only weapon I've purchased upgrades for, but it's failing me here. I like it because of its range. It allows me to hit targets I can't see, and is great for managing groups of enemies. Right now I am getting my ass handed to me, over and over again.

My stats are showing 51 deaths so far, and at least 10 of them must have been from this battle. I am dying a lot.
 

Ledsen

Member
Crunched said:
I'm on Apocalyptic too.

The problem with the lock on I think, besides the fact it's made to focus on one enemy at a time instead of five to ten, is that it doesn't follow behind War. I guess it's trying to provide a "cinematic" view, which looks cool sometimes, but causes the camera to "float" slowly alongside War, causing it to get caught on nearby geometry.

For some reason the game inverts my X axis and disables rumble every time I start it up. Not a big deal, but another minor annoyance to add to my list :lol

It's mainly managing the camera that's giving me problems. This is the only "brawler" type game outside of Ninja Gaiden that's given me so much trouble. I'm comparing it to Arkham Asylum, Bayonetta, God of War, and Devil May Cry. For some reason I'm having tremendous difficulty seeing what I'm supposed to see, because the camera doesn't track War's point of view. It's inelegant compared to what I'm used to, and adds needless frustration.

I'm also playing on Apocalyptic. I find these days that not playing on a game's most challenging difficulty renders the experience a bit flat and boring. But Darksiders is getting me ready to rip my hair out. It's driving me mad :lol

I'm in the Black Throne now, I just beat the first guardian and I'm stuck on a platform before a bottomless pit where before I needed to flip some grapples to get across. I'm going back the way I came now, but need to fight some baddies before I can cross. Four sword-wraith things, a dragon-ogre, and a handful of those fire angels. I don't have any healing potions and my chaos meter is completely empty. I've been using the scythe nearly the entire game, it's the only weapon I've purchased upgrades for, but it's failing me here. I like it because of its range. It allows me to hit targets I can't see, and is great for managing groups of enemies. Right now I am getting my ass handed to me, over and over again.

My stats are showing 51 deaths so far, and at least 10 of them must have been from this battle. I am dying a lot.

Sounds like you should've upgraded the Sword more to be honest, it's the best weapon by far. There's also an amazing artifact for it that raises Chaos generation so that you'll get the Chaos form in basically every battle. Towards the end of the game I was so overpowered that the only time I died was on those minibosses in the Black Throne. Try switching to the sword, since it should be
fully upgraded automatically by that point.
 

Red

Member
Ledsen said:
Sounds like you should've upgraded the Sword more to be honest, it's the best weapon by far. There's also an amazing artifact for it that raises Chaos generation so that you'll get the Chaos form in basically every battle. Towards the end of the game I was so overpowered that the only time I died was on those minibosses in the Black Throne. Try switching to the sword, since it should be
fully upgraded automatically by that point.
It's at level 2. I have the chaos raising artifact, but I still need to wipe out half these guys to fill up the bar, and by that time it's useless (I really only need it for the big dude I have to fight, but I need to kill him anyway to fill it up).

I don't know. I think somehow I'm playing the game wrong, because it's constantly shitting on me. I know my experience isn't the norm, not sure how I can approach things to change that.

I have my wrath meter filled up, and the plague ability is useful for occupying one or two enemies, but I can only use it twice before it drains my meter. Stoneskin has been what I've been falling back on most of the game, but it's not much of a help here.

I think what's giving me so much trouble in this particular battle are the wraiths with swords. They phase away and can't be hit, which makes it really difficult managing them. I haven't figured out how to trigger them to appear physically.
 

Ledsen

Member
Crunched said:
It's at level 2. I have the chaos raising artifact, but I still need to wipe out half these guys to fill up the bar, and by that time it's useless (I really only need it for the big dude I have to fight, but I need to kill him anyway to fill it up).

I don't know. I think somehow I'm playing the game wrong, because it's constantly shitting on me. I know my experience isn't the norm, not sure how I can approach things to change that.

I have my wrath meter filled up, and the plague ability is useful for occupying one or two enemies, but I can only use it twice before it drains my meter. Stoneskin has been what I've been falling back on most of the game, but it's not much of a help here.

I think what's giving me so much trouble in this particular battle are the wraiths with swords. They phase away and can't be hit, which makes it really difficult managing them. I haven't figured out how to trigger them to appear physically.

Yeah I misremembered about the sword, sorry about that. I don't know what to tell you really. I never needed to use Stoneskin or any other ability except the one that makes spiky things come out of the ground around you. I guess I gathered a lot of health upgrades and didn't need to worry that much? The wraiths are a pain in the ass though, and now that you mention it I'm pretty sure I had some trouble at a particular fight in the Black Throne, probably the same one. Ultimately I think I just wailed on the wraiths until they became physical trying to hit me or something, it's been a couple of months.
 

Red

Member
Ledsen said:
Yeah I misremembered about the sword, sorry about that. I don't know what to tell you really. I never needed to use Stoneskin or any other ability except the one that makes spiky things come out of the ground around you. I guess I gathered a lot of health upgrades and didn't need to worry that much? The wraiths are a pain in the ass though, and now that you mention it I'm pretty sure I had some trouble at a particular fight in the Black Throne, probably the same one. Ultimately I think I just wailed on the wraiths until they became physical trying to hit me or something, it's been a couple of months.
I'm up to 76 deaths now :lol

I'm yelling at the screen more than I'm playing. "No, go left War. LEFT. No, no, don't dash into the guy with the swor-fuck! FUCK! Fuck you! Why!?"

I need to do something to take my mind off of this or I'll break :lol

Finished, at 81 deaths. Nearly half my deaths in the entire game now come from a single fight. Damn.
 

Red

Member
Just finished. Despite all my complaints, I am pumped as hell for the sequel. That ending, man :lol

As long as combat is tightened up a bit, some variety is added to normal skirmishes, and the locked-door-arena fights get tossed out, the game could be something pretty special. I'm expecting some better puzzles, too. A lot of the stuff I encountered was more road block than cerebral... many puzzles simply require you to turn switches or levers in the order you encounter them, which isn't very puzzling at all. It's padding.

Turned out okay. I only died once or twice following that one despicably frustrating battle in the Black Throne (Abyssal Armor helps!). Glad I played it, in the end.
 

derFeef

Member
Got this very cheap on Steam and I have to say this game is amazing so far. I love the artstyle and gameplay. It´s very fluid and has a nice impact. Playing with M+KB is horrible though - gamepad is far better.
 

Zomba13

Member
Also got this cheap on steam. Not played much (like I'm about 10 mins after the tutorial level) but I'm enjoying it. Seems fun enough.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Crunched said:
Just finished. Despite all my complaints, I am pumped as hell for the sequel. That ending, man :lol

As long as combat is tightened up a bit, some variety is added to normal skirmishes, and the locked-door-arena fights get tossed out, the game could be something pretty special. I'm expecting some better puzzles, too. A lot of the stuff I encountered was more road block than cerebral... many puzzles simply require you to turn switches or levers in the order you encounter them, which isn't very puzzling at all. It's padding.

Turned out okay. I only died once or twice following that one despicably frustrating battle in the Black Throne (Abyssal Armor helps!). Glad I played it, in the end.
Go read Vigil saying it is going to be totally different and get depressed with the rest of us.
 
Tried playing it on my PC, but the Character models don't show up.
It runs fine other wise.

Setup:

AMD Athlon II Quad 3.0
ASUS Radeon HD 6850
4 Gigs of RAM

EDIT: Never mind... Apparently my video drivers weren't up to date.
Oy.
 

Red

Member
Y2Kev said:
Go read Vigil saying it is going to be totally different and get depressed with the rest of us.
I don't think I'll mind even if they drastically changed it. I liked the exploring but thought the combat mechanics were absolute shit, so a change could be for the better. Exploring the apocalypse from a new perspective is fine by me, it's not like the story's going to repeat. War was far removed from everything else. Even following a new horseman would be fine, as long as little ground is retread.
 

shawnlreed

Member
I played a lot of great games this year, including GOW3, Arkham Asylum, Mario Galaxy 2, NSMBWii, and Heavy Rain ... but I had the most fun playing Darksiders.
I love the Zelda series, and I think playing an HD Zelda style game with interesting weapons like the portal gun just happened to scratch the exact right itch I had for this game type.
I know there are plenty of haters in this thread who can't conceive of why someone would like this game.
For whatever reason, I totally loved it and Darksiders 2 will most definitely be a day 1 pickup for me.
 

Jonsoncao

Banned
Got the game on BF for $15, this week finally had some spare time to play, really enjoyed it, 1000'd just now, love the presentation, nearly grinding free experience, music, the art direction, the Panzer Dragoon part, and of course portal gun, hate the inconsistent framerate during combat, lack of challenge in the latter half.

Hopefully Darksiders 2 is gonna be better, bigger and more badass :D
 
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