The first two Darksiders titles were an absolute thrill to play, with its over-the-top action paired with its superb voice acting, making it one of the go-to action hack and slash titles of its time. Fast forward to today and we have the sequel right at our fingertips, Darksiders III, and its over-the-top thrills are still prevalent in this game along with much more additions for fans of the series to enjoy. Those who are entirely brand new to the series will be happy to know that picking it up will not require a great deal of effort, as Darksiders III does a splendid job of showing you the ropes and how to overcome any enemy that stands in your way. If you’re the type of player who just wants to rush in and hack your way through a horde of enemies, and then maybe style on the final bosses with your upgraded weaponry and powers, then it’s time to grab Darksiders III.

Darksiders III is jam-packed full of interesting features that fans of the series will most certainly enjoy, and it’s now up to you to ensure that the Seven Deadly Sins are eradicated before it’s too late. It’s a game of balance vs. chaos and now you, Fury, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, must use your abilities to take down every one of them, along with the degenerated beings that serve them. As a powerful mage, Fury has a multitude of different elemental forms that she can use at her disposal, which grants her enhanced combat techniques such as new weapons, attacks, as well as cool ways to traverse around the map. From the get-go, you’re able to choose your difficulty settings and jump right into battle.

Unlike the previous installments, Darksiders III provides a much more challenging experience as the enemies are now more tenacious and will do whatever it takes to strike you down at any moment. While they notably appear much less than they did in previous iterations the action is still very impactful, giving you ample time to dish out your most powerful strikes to eliminate the enemy. Look forward to seeing some brand new never-before-seen enemies, along with some familiar ones that fans of the series will most likely enjoy. Now that you know what to expect let’s dive a little deeper into the other areas.

So on a visual stance, Darksiders III is leaps and bounds better than its predecessors, as each level has been designed beautifully while Fury, along with the other playable characters, are animated fluidly. While there were some issues with framerate and some enemy bugs we encountered, the game maintained a strong presentation. The UI and layout are easy to look at, placing more of the attention towards the action on screen and not drowning you in a plethora of icons all around you. All that you have is your meter to know how much HP you have, along with your special magic meter. The magic meter will glow yellow as you attack enemies and collect their souls, and once the bar is fully red you can unleash your powerful attacks and deal massive damage. All of the special effects look clean and flashy which once again, adds to the overall presentation and experience.

Voice acting in this game was very well done and we loved Fury a lot. Her personality really is like a burning flame of passion, as she strikes down her foes with powerful magical powers, and then talking smack to them as she does it. Even the Seven Deadly Sins themselves are a treat because of how they interact with Fury in such a comical, yet very sensational way. You really get a sense that the developers really wanted to create a strong narrative between the Four Horsemen and the Seven Deadly Sins, which they capitalized on brilliantly. There’s a nice blend of comedy and banter, along with the very emotional moments where you get to develop a better understand of Fury and her intentions.

The environmental sounds were fitting and added to the overall immersion of the game, though we think that more could’ve been done in this area to really bring out the action more. Explosions and actual hits on the enemy didn’t really give off that truly godlike feel, and at times some of our stronger attacks felt weak due to the sound effects. Be that as it may, the overall experience overshadows those small instances, especially since most of your attention is placed on beating the living crap out of these ugly minions anyway.

Much of Darksiders III is all about exploration and looking for hidden locations if your eyes are locked in. It doesn’t feel as open-world as the team marketed it to be, but it definitely has a lot to discover, which is always a plus. The overall story is linear, so it will not take you very long to clear the game on normal difficulty; if you’re looking for a true challenge, then we encourage you to try the harder modes! There are quite a number of puzzles to solve along your journey, and while they’re not incredibly difficult by any means, they still require some thought in order to execute them correctly. Your whip does play a big role in this game and so, be sure to maximize its uses when the opportunity presents itself. We won’t go into crazy detail there because we want to avoid spoilers, but be sure to always crack that whip when you can.

One of the shining aspects of Darksiders III comes in its leveling and crafting system, which closely resemble your typical RPG layout. As you collect souls from enemies that you’ve slain along with items you collect around the map, they act as a currency that you can use to better develop Fury and her resources. As you progress through the game, enemies will grow even stronger to match your overall power as you level up, so be mindful of that as well. There were some growing pains that we happened to run into at times, and one defining one was ledge grabbing. For some reason, after double jumping or using your whip to swing over open pits, grabbing onto ledges didn’t feel consistent. Sometimes Fury would lock onto it and other times we would just fall and have to reclimb, which felt quite bothersome.

This was very apparent in the early phases of the game, most notably the first boss you face, which is Envy. In order to reach Envy, you need to use your whip to latch onto pipes and swing to the next ledge, but we’d fall off and have to restart, which only made that boss battle longer than we wanted it to be. All in all, there weren’t that many glaring issues other than the ones we mentioned earlier in the review, regarding framerate drops and the occasional texture mapping not loading in at times.

In the end, Darksiders III still provides what it offers in a good way, a hack and slash title that’s fun to pick up and play. There’s a lot to explore within the game and the boss battles are definitely the shining factor of the game, since they provide a good enough challenge to keep you coming back. Once you do clear the game, there really isn’t much else to do with the game, unless of course you want to grab all of the trophies and be the completionist. Outside of that, Darksiders III is a game that has its ups and downs, but in the end, the fun gameplay trumps those not so good areas and you just keep on slashing away!

Darksiders III is officially out now for PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One, so be sure to pick up your copy and enjoy all of the action! If you enjoyed our review, then be sure to drop us a message in the comments section, and of course share our review on social media! Be sure as well to catch us live on Twitch, where we play some of our favorite titles on stream for all of you to enjoy!

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