Diving deeper into the depths of hell is something gamers have been doing since the early days of Diablo and Doom, but now we have a new way of getting through the fire, poison, ice, and creature-filled hollows of the underworld. Airship Syndicate did an amazing job with Darksiders Genesis while working with only two of the four horsemen.

Story

As workers under The Council, you have been given orders to find out what Lucifer is up to as various parts of hell begin to show signs of extreme aggression and sly actions. Working together, both Strife and War find themselves going through a convoluted set of situations in order to learn what Lucifer is up to and to put an end to his plans. No matter what troubles come up or enemies cross their path, the job must be done and so they continue to press on.

Gameplay

Giving us a top-down view, we are presented with some classic RPG-type mechanics. Both Strife and War have their own fighting styles which work to let the player choose how they want to approach any given situation and max out their preferred fighter as they move through the story mode.

If you like the Barbaric, hard-hitting melee-focused type then I would suggest using War more often. His attacks are brutal and full of power. I found enemies are quicker to defeat with him, but he is also quicker to die if you don’t utilize your evade option. Once you get more of his moves unlocked, you will get to choose a style you like and when holding the hard-strike button he will do a special based on your choice.

If you like the ranged, kill-from-far and lethal-up-close style then you want to use Strife more often. His attacks don’t typically hit as hard, but he also has his guns to rely on so you don’t need to be close. With him, you unlock bullet types rather than moves and selecting the different bullets gives a few different situations. Each bullet has its own unique property and attack style, but only the standard bullets are infinite. Also, you can equip two different types of bullets at the same time and they each use their own ammo but you only have to collect one ammo box to replenish both lightly.

When I mention unlocking moves and bullets, I really mean finding them throughout the massive levels. You will end up fighting hordes and mini-bosses in order to reach these, but most of the time they are worth it. Other moves, like power-ups to your standard attacks, potions, and such can be found in the shop areas. The two shops are Vulgrim, who has items and cores mostly, and Dis, who has new moves and powered strikes. They both use the same currency, so be sure to know what you want before spending all your blue skulls and boatman coins.

As far as collectibles go, you have the blue skulls that are used as currency, trickster keys that are used to unlock hidden doors to extra rooms with treasures in it, and the boatman coins which are used alongside blue skulls to purchase stuff from Vulgrim and Dis. Boatman Coins are harder to find as they are hidden throughout each map, but with a little curiosity and exploration you will come across plenty of them through a casual playthrough. If not, you can always use your map to find them as they are marked.

When playing in single-player, you only use one horseman at a time and can switch at any moment. There is no AI for the second horseman, so be prepared to fight solo. The good thing is if you die there is just a 20-second timer for that horseman to revive while you use the other one. When playing co-op, be it with a friend online or split-screen, you can revive each other or just let the timer bring the fallen one back. The best part is that you don’t have to actually stay in the same section of the map regardless of how you are playing with a friend, which a lot of games have been doing lately.

Last thing to mention is the power-up system for your horsemen. Instead of it being based on experience earned, it is a custom-style power-orb tree. Each enemy type will occasionally drop an orb that you can collect and by collecting multitudes of these you will power up that specific creature orb. You then take these orbs and fill them into the orb tree as you would prefer. Each enemy has its own type and by matching the enemy orb type with the orb slot type you get a bonus boost from it as well.

Visuals

It has an upgraded version to the somewhat cartoonistic style that most top-down RPG’s use. It gives it a nice look and each level has its own atmosphere, style, and theme as well. The variety and range they provide when it comes to the visuals are definitely noteworthy.

Sounds

All of the sound effects are accurate and add to the hell-bound atmosphere that the game takes place in. Add in the intense music that isn’t distracting while being an entertaining asset to the gameplay and I would say they did just as good with the sounds as they did the visuals.

Replayability

There is actually plenty of reason to go back to this game. There are, of course, plenty of collectibles and hidden rooms to find if you are interested in being a completionist with the game. Aside from the collectors benefit, there is the Arenas section fo the game where you can continue to power up your characters and fight endless amounts of enemies.

What Could Be Better

While I appreciate the idea of keeping players from seeing parts of the game they haven’t been to yet, I don’t see why a friend can’t join my online game just because they don’t have a profile that is at that stage yet. They can simply take over the second horseman in my campaign and fill the slot with the power level and power-ups I have been providing that character. It made a little sense to me when I joined their game and was still the powered up horseman from my campaign playing at the earlier levels on your file, but doesn’t seem like enough reason to strictly ban the co-op option.

Conclusion

Darksiders Genesis is simply entertaining mayhem! I loved playing through it and see myself hopping back on my horse to reign terror through the depths of hell again. With the only flaw being permissible, this game is nigh perfect. Great work from the developers on this one and I hope to see a game where we can either use the other two horsemen or maybe even get the whole squad together!