On January 5, 2010, we were introduced to the hack and slash, action-adventure game Darksiders. While it’s often difficult for a new franchise to get noticed, especially one that debuted in a year that featured heavy hitters like Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, and Red Dead Redemption, Darksiders was able to steal just enough of that spotlight to become a beloved franchise itself. It seems hard to believe that it has been ten years since the first of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, War, rode Ruin (his horse) into our hearts and imaginations. Today we take a look and celebrate Darksiders on its ten year anniversary.
The Four Horsemen of Darksiders: War, Death, Fury, and Strife are part of an ancient and nearly extinct race produced from the union of an angel and a demon, known as the Nephilim. In Darksiders, you play as War who has been framed by Abaddon and wrongly imprisoned having been accused of prematurely starting the apocalypse. After being incarcerated for one hundred years, the Charred Council gives War a chance to redeem himself and restore balance on earth. The Charred Council binds War to The Watcher (voiced by Mark Hamill), a mean spirited demon who not only keeps War in line but also acts as a guide to help him on his journey.
Initially, I think some people dismissed Darksiders as a God Of War clone. Not that there’s anything wrong with that label, but in reality, Darksiders is so much more. With its steep character progression and near open-world environment, Darksiders is the perfect amalgamation of several games including God Of War, Devil May Cry, Diablo, Zelda, and even a little bit of Portal fused together to make one of the most intriguing and exciting games of the past ten years. As you hack your way through the lengthy campaign chock full of intricate puzzles with a Metroidvania twist, it’s not difficult to see why the game was critically and commercially successful and has gone on to set the stage for three more games in the series.
Darksiders was always meant to be a four-part series with each of the Four Horsemen getting their own game. That seemed unlikely as developer Vigil Games which was owned by THQ was shut down when THQ went bankrupt shortly after Darksiders 2 released in 2012. This made the future of Darksiders look bleak and fans wondered if we would ever see another game in the series. Fortunately, Nordic Games stepped in and acquired the rights to the Darksiders franchise. Several of Vigil’s employees, including co-founder David Adams, formed Gunfire Games and were given the go-ahead to start development on Darksiders 3 which finally released in 2019.
There would be a gap of six years between Darksiders 2 and Darksiders 3 but within this time, the first two games were remastered for PS4, X1, and PC and later made their way to the Nintendo Switch in 2019. The remaster of War’s story came out in 2016 and was known as Darksiders: The Warmastered Edition and proved that the game stood the test of time and more importantly that there was a demand for more Darksiders.
In 2018 not only did we finally see the release of Darksiders 3, but we also got a surprise pre-E3 announcement revealing Darksiders Genesis, a spinoff and prequel to the main series. Darksiders Genesis is an isometric dungeon crawler similar to Diablo and Torchlight. For the first time ever in Darksiders’ history, you can control two Horsemen in one game including Strife, the fourth and final horseman. Bringing ten years of Darksiders full circle, the second playable Rider is none other than the guy who started it all, War. Had War’s story not been a success, it’s likely that Darksiders would have ended up less than a one-hit-wonder, much like that other God Of War clone, Dante’s Inferno (which also arrived early in 2010). Instead, it paved the way for a lasting franchise that I hope generates many more games to come. Cheers War, here’s to ten more years of Darksiders games.
***If you haven’t played Darksiders you can get the Warmastered Edition as well as Darksiders 2 the Deathinitive Edition free on PC over at the Epic Games store until January 9th.***
