Review for Darksiders III. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 27/11/2018
Developed by Gunfire Games and published by THQ Nordic, Darksiders III offers a narration of events parallel and contemporary to the one already known within the famous videogame series, showing from the point of view of Furia the murky events that brought a premature Apocalypse to Earth.
The player's mission will be the defeat and capture of the Seven Deadly Sins, to be brought before the Arso Consiglio to be judged. The brand is certainly not known for a particularly deep or original narrative, but if the first two games still did their duty well, Darksiders III seems to be struggling to mesh, because of a story that by now knows it has already been seen and of unoriginal dialogues. There is no shortage of fascinating scenes with a good directorial cut, but even the youngest players will have no difficulty in guessing where the story is headed, even anticipating this or that line of the characters on the screen.
Darksiders III also features a good dubbing, with some secondary voices not involved but with a final result that manages to convince; inexplicable and very annoying, however, the difference - often extreme - between the subtitles on the screen and what is pronounced.
For reasons related to the events and the plot behind the Knights and the entire planet, Furia finds herself without a mount; the structure of the game world is shaped following this concept, with areas less extensive than the prequels, to be covered on foot, and with greater verticality. There is no shortage of small secret areas with useful objects to enhance the protagonist, reachable only via backtracking and once you have acquired the power to overcome certain obstacles.
Darksiders III features a richly interconnected 3D map, within which the Knight will have to search, fight and defeat various Sins. The explorable areas are extremely diverse, with even entire underwater sections, although the general effect is always that of "already seen": with a few pleasant exceptions, the design of friendly and hostile environments and creatures is classic in the most banal sense of the term and the protagonist herself (as well as the fourth Knight, Conflict, shown briefly during the course of events) results uninspired compared to the previous anti-heroes, War and Death.
Same goes for the soundtrack, pleasant but curiously shy in coming forward, whose notes often recall - and too much - noble titles such as God of War, without being able to remain impressed after being listened to.
The gameplay is undoubtedly the most successful part of Darksiders III- Fast and surprisingly punishing even in the opening sections on standard difficulty, in case the hordes of enemies charge head down without a plan in mind. Furia will have his whip at his disposal and, as he progresses in history, several secondary weapons related to the Forms he will learn to assume (which in turn will unlock secondary powers for exploration) and whose attacks will be chained in a fluid and extremely satisfying way.
Even in this case, unfortunately, the feeling remains that of "already seen", given that the combo system is functional and fun, but very scholastic and the enemies, including bosses, fail to surprise the player with particularly original or diversified attacks in distinct phases of the fighting. Same goes for the environmental, basic and intuitive puzzles, which alternate a disarming simplicity with a really excessive duration in the development, capable of precipitating the replayability factor of the title.
The overall duration of Darksiders 3 stands out around 18-20 hours if played calmly and trying to uncover every little secret and optional area, to better prepare Furia in anticipation of the final battle.
Every single element of the game, from the weapon and runes enhancement system, continuing through the level up of the protagonist and up to the consumable items useful in battle, seems to scream at thewasted opportunity: Darksiders III appears as a trawler of mechanics found blindly around, a little from Souls-like (including camera problems), a little from any Action-RPG of the last ten years.
The same graphics do not reflect the late eighth generation software that it should represent and the same applies to the technical sector, which in its day one build it suffers from too many framerate drops, abrupt gameplay interruptions for intermediate map loads and very unpleasant crashes, accompanied by poorly managed checkpoints and with all the potential to transform an enjoyable experience into an agglomeration of frustration and… Fury.
Darksiders III is a tremendous wasted opportunity to bring back a promising franchise to say the least, a game that seems to have hit the shelves more out of duty than anything else. Fans of the genre and aficionados of the saga will undoubtedly find it enjoyable, albeit subdued, but the full price and the expensive collector's editions seem to want to flaunt a qualitative and productive level that, objectively, there are not.
► Darksiders III is an Action-type game developed by Gunfire Games and published by THQ Nordic for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 27/11/2018
