Review for Darksiders Genesis. Game for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 05/12/2019 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 14/02/2020 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 14/02/2020 The version for Xbox One came out on 14/02/2020
After about two - inexplicable - months from the release on PC and Google Stadia, THQ Nordic has very recently released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and Nintendo Switch the fourth chapter of the acclaimed (at least until recently) series of action adventure RPG Zelda. Like and so on and so forth: Darksiders Genesis. As is clear from the screenshots accompanying the review of this console port of the game, it is, however, in a sense more than a spin-off, a new vision for the series, which shifts the camera to a view isometric from above and the gameplay more towards a sort of hack 'n' slash.
In case we haven't been able to confuse you further with this introduction full of technicalities and names of videogame genres apparently mentioned at random, you can go and read in our review a few weeks ago how Airship Syndicate, the new development team, fared in general on its debut with the series.
Journey to the center of Hell
Remarking a second time to find ourselves in front of a more than discreet title and whose gameplay loop, also including an interesting management of the skill tree and a more than enjoyable visual style, kept us with our hands on the controller for about 20h, today we focus more on the technical factor of this console adaptation, after extensively testing Darksiders Genesis on Xbox One X, the ultimate in console gaming these days.
Although in terms of graphic detail this version does not make you regret that PC too much, unfortunately there are some technical sacrifices and compromises that we were honestly surprised to find in the conversion of a game that apparently does not exactly scream a miracle from a visual point of view. These are, let's immediately set the record straight, of elements that do not affect the good basic quality of the production, but that become evident to a more trained eye and rightly affect the evaluation of the game on console.
How many compromises
First of all, it is impossible not to start from the most important sacrifice of the THQ Nordic game in this new incarnation: the frame-rate is set at 30 FPS, a factor that certainly affects the fluidity and speed of the action. Particularly disappointing considering that Diablo III, even more complex title if we want and with which Genesis will inevitably be compared, offers the 60 fixed frames on all platforms. And that's not all, because in some cases, especially in the most excited moments of the first levels or when you play in co-op (the game offers online and local co-op for two players, without however particularly impressing when faced in company, indeed resulting in some cases even more cumbersome), it will not be difficult to see the graphics engine lose a few frames around.
Darksiders Genesis also features a secure resolution not fixed at 4K, rather - also according to the statements of the development team - variable depending on the situation, a factor that makes the deficiencies in the frame-rate even more inexplicable. And all this speaking, among other things, of the version at least on the most performing paper.
Two months of waiting for?
Darksiders Genesis on consoles looks like it in general a package not too well cared for, even if released a few months after its release on PC: they were not even missing audio problems, for example during cut-scenes where dubbing - and subtitles don't work in perfect sync, and one large array of bugs, interpenetration and no improvement to the clear camera issues of the original, which will often hide enemies behind elements of the setting for no reason.
Airship Games is on its first project of this magnitude and for many things we must absolutely congratulate them on how they fared: Darksiders Genesis, although it certainly does not reinvent the wheel, manages to entertain as a pastime without too many pretensions and introduces the figure of Conflict, the last of the horsemen of the apocalypse that had not yet been made playable in the series, also giving him a style based on ranged attacks that makes the game look a bit like a twin stick shooter like Helldivers or Halo: Spartan Assault. At 40 € it remains a recommended purchase, for the reasons mainly exposed in our first review, simply do not expect any extras or special treatment as a console user: the PC version remains more than recommended, if you can we recommend that you download just that.
► Darksiders Genesis is a scrolling fighting game developed by Airship Syndicate and published by THQ Nordic for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia and Nintendo Switch, the game was released on 05/12/2019 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 14/02/2020 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 14/02/2020 The version for Xbox One came out on 14/02/2020
