Game:

Darksiders Genesis (2019)

Duration: 7:55:41

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Part 4. After beating Darksiders 3 I was actually really excited to play Genesis. Knowing full well that it wasn't a mainline game and more of a spin-off I was still pumped to see Strife in action finally. And what we have here is a top down Darksiders. I was honestly expecting the game to be a lot more like a looter styled Diablo clone, but instead we really do get a top down hack-n-shalsh twin stick shooter game. It's kinda neat and not really what I was expecting. The combat is fast paced and super fun. You deal with hoards of enemies, but the game is designed around it. You move very fast and have a dodge that can easily and quickly get you out of harms way. Like the other Darksiders games you have a meter that builds up and you can go into a demon mode which will annihilate everything other than bosses around you. You also acquire special moves throughout the game that will also aid in your destruction, those moves rely on a meter that builds pretty quickly during combat. You can expand your health and ability meter by finding pieces hidden in levels or by buying them from Vulgrim the merchant. The leveling system is different from previous games. You spend your souls at either Vulgrim or Dis. They each have their own stuff that will aid you in combat. Whether it's buying new moves, the ability to dash more often, or to straight up do more damage. Pretty cool. There also is a sort of drop system at play and you get orbs from enemies that can be slotted in a skill grid and provide even more power to your characters. Each orb has its own unique attributes, some increase health, wrath, power, or even buff some abilities. Depending on where you slot these abilities will determine if you get a bonus to these buffs if you match the corresponding icons together. it sounds complicated but is really straightforward and gives you some great power. The game is presented in levels rather than an overworld with branching paths. Each has a recommended power level associated with it where buying power from the shops and slotting orbs come into play. As you explore the levels you unlock new powers and abilities, which like the previous games has a metroid-vania style of exploration and you can go back to previous levels and access places that you couldn't before for even more upgrades. The levels are pretty varied and the little platforming they ask you to do is pretty easy. Though from time to time, because of the sort of isometric top down camera used, the environment can sometimes block your view. The levels are not all that large and fairly easy to navigate. There are enemies around every corner and combat is the big focus. There's a nice variety of enemies, but combat really only boils down to mashing the attack button for war or squeezing the trigger for Strife. Every once in a whi8le you get to fight a boss that will take a little strategy and is really where the combat shines. My biggest complaint though is from an extremely poorly designed, totally optional, section called Leviathan's Landing. The section is pure platforming and it really shows that the movement was not designed around precision platforming. The camera also does you no favors and it's very difficult to get any sort of depth perception to tell where your character is. It did not feel as though it was designed around what the character could do, but more what they wanted the character to do. This game is not Hollow Knight or Celeste, with intuitive and snappy movement for tricky platforming. The sections feel amateurish in design, what you would expect to find in Mario Maker. Fake platforms with no hitboxes or way to distinguish them from the real, blind jumps over an abyss, pixel perfect jumps at poor angles with geometry sticking out just in your way. It's just very badly designed. Your movement carries a ton of momentum as well and you will easily find yourself sailing past tiny platforms with no way to correct yourself. It's bad. That aside, the game is fun. You also get small rewards for completing optional feats that reward you with money and enemy orbs. There's also the coliseum which makes a return and you can earn even more rewards fighting your way through it. Wicked K also makes an appearance, but you need to unlock all of the trickster doors in every level to find him for a fun optional boss fight. Overall, the game is fine. It's nowhere near the level of awesomeness the previous 3 games in the series are, but it was cool to finally see what Strife brings to the table. Enjoy my blind playthrough.

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