I like that this exists just to round out the Darksiders franchise. Now, all 4 horsemen have gotten a spotlight. So like, that's cool. I also liked the light collectathon elements and how they tie into the upgrade system. I'm pretty picky about both collectibles and rpg mechanics in the modern day and those two being okay here kept this from being too miserable. Still nothing great but I'll take gaining buffs from a variety of enemy soul drops and hidden collectibles over "Do a trash fetch quest and now u can unlock the next node on the skill tree" type slop.

Still can't say this left me feeling much of anything. Combat is mashy and unsatisfying. Not a lot of impact is felt when hitting most things. My eyes glaze over whenever I see a modern game that's heavily reliant on a dodge roll/dash button...But at least Strife and War's dodges are both slightly different. Being able to swap between the two at any time makes playing both feel a bit better than the sum of their parts. Some levels drag on, some of 'em open up a bit and are pretty alright. The different enemies aren't super well defined so most of the time it's just the same interaction every time a fight starts. Bosses are mostly just stat checks which is kinda dull but is the one time I was really forced to engage with the upgrades in any meaningful way. Otherwise it's press dodge button right before attack hits, spam attack, repeat until win. I'd slay for an action game a tad more creative, at this point I'm so bored by this kind of thing.

The story is uneventful - and this may be the most abrupt end to a game I've seen...ever. Was legitimately caught off guard when the credits started rolling.

The music and presentation is often pretty dry. Funny enough when the main characters are behind a wall, you see a bright outline of them so you're not blind. The action looks so much more interesting in this flat rendition than it does when you can clearly see. Not a lot of strong visual flairs otherwise.

Fortunately for this game despite a few levels dragging a bit, as a whole it doesn't overstay its welcome. The mercifully short length keeps me from really having any truly negative feelings towards it. A lot of games would have gone for three times the level count and I'd be mashing my head against my desk wondering why I'm still playing. This game stays in its place and for that I'm glad to say it's perfectly average.

Esse jogo foi uma surpresa.

Já havia jogado outros darksiders mas a jogabilidade do genesis me pegou.

Divertido, rápido, dificil e viciante.

Recomendo

A prequel to the staggeringly lore-obsessed Darksiders series, Genesis puts us in the shoes of Strife, the moody gunslinger of the Apocalypse riders. Strife, alongside War, are kind of like celestial bounty hunters, sent out on contracts by their bosses. This time around they're tasked with investigating Lucifer because there's a suspicion that he might be up to no good (wonder what clued them in to that, maybe that he’s the literal Devil). Strife is a lot more prone to wisecracks than the other three, and that helps make him the most engaging character in the series thus far.

Genesis is yet another gameplay reinvention for the series as this game is a top-down twin-stick shooter. This actually works really well; Strife controls smoothly and you get a fair bit of customization to his abilities as you progress. War is always by your side and so you can freely switch between brothers during gameplay, leaning into some light puzzle solving that often splits the brothers up. Although it's smaller than the other Darksiders games, it's also a lot more tightly constructed and well-written, making it the best of the lot so far.

We have Diablo at home. And that's ok.

All you need to know is that it's on the shorter side (like 15 hours max). Fully co-op that's playable offline. And that for a series that does it's best to rip off other games, this game comes closest to competing with it's inspiration (Diablo, though this much more in the vein of Torchlight).

It's worth a sale purchase to have as a game to play with a bud.

A more interesting game than you might think! Nothing groundbreaking, but solidly fun as an action game and as a dungeon exploration game. While the usual comparison is Diablo, for the isometric action rpg-ish style, but I feel the more obvious parallel is found in El Shaddai.

Two isometric hack & slash games with moveset switching and vivid color palettes? Not to mention both series are set in a kind of pop culturey Abrahamic mythology? I'm surprised I didn't see it more when researching the game honestly.

That's not to say there's no Diablo here. The levels are like individual floors from a Diablo dungeon, with a focus on exploration that El Shaddai doesn't broach at all. Somehow though, the levels seem to move past their inspirations and emerge as really wonderful little worlds, laid out in a kind of linear yet expansive (with a small bit of collectible hunting!) style that just lets the gameplay sing.

The story feels a little tired, literally being a series of like 13 fetch quests with the occasional boss battle, and that's like, in context, but I didn't find it to take much away from the game. The structure was nice, I guess. The writing is fairly cliched as well, very much drawing on the series' comic book inspirations, with a dash of MCU in Strife's dialogue, but it avoids the pitfalls those movies fall into so often by at least taking itself fairly seriously outside of that one character. Drama is never kneecapped by comedy, I guess. It works, it feels true, but it won't change your life.

But really I'm kinda surprised at how much fun I had with this game. The themeing and art design are fun backdrops for stellar, if not groundbreaking, combat and levels. If you're in the mood for a very Video Game video game, but wanna stay away from the poison in games as a service, I really highly recommend picking this one up. It's only 40 bucks full price too, which is a real boon.

Oh the switch version is a little unstable, if I left it on too long (like in sleep mode without closing the game) it would tend to crash, but otherwise felt and looked great (especially on that handheld OLED screen aha)