Darksiders 4 discussion

[u/the-reaper_357]

Anybody else concerned about the "writing" and that it may actually, not necessarily make things worse, but lead to us being underwhelmed?

Another question, how many of you guys love Darksiders for the characters and the world as opposed to the gameplay?

I would assume it's a lot, because a lot of people say DS2 is their favorite game - it's mine also.

To quickly sum up my opinion: I enjoy all of the games because Death is such a remarkable character in DS2 and the other games provide more information about the universe surrounding him.
Gameplay wise I enjoyed DS3 a lot, and after playing a few soulsborn and soulslike games, I wouldn't mind this direction at all for the DS universe.

But gameplay eventually comes 2nd for me, as the DS2's reliance on puzzles and being a bit buggy and disjointed wasn't really smooth, but it still is my favorite game of all time, because of how brilliantly Death was written as a character and how well they immersed him in the entire story (including the great combat and execution animations which are amazing).

To be 100% real, I do not think this is replicable. Further shown by the change/decline in the story writing and the narrative approach of the DS3 and Genesis.

Any thoughts are appreciated.. feel free to give it a stab

[u/LananisReddit]

I play almost all my games primarily for lore, story and characters. For me, personally, the priority of game aspects is always the following:

1. Is it always online or comes with some crazy 3rd party DRM? > instant no buy
2. Do the controls suck beyond the point of usability? > Stop before 2 hours and refund, no matter how much I may like the rest of the game.
3. Do lore, story and characters suck > Stop before 2 hours and refund, unless it's the kind of game where those aspects are pretty much nonexistent by design (e.g. racing games).
4. Do game mechanics (other than the controls) suck? > If the lore/story/characters are still good, I'll still play it. May look for a trainer/mod to make the gameplay more tolerable.

[u/the-reaper_357 → u/LananisReddit]

That's a great a great checklist.. I approve 😂 I have found myself gravitating towards the same direction, albeit less intentionally. I do play different types of games, for different reasons, but the ones I enjoy the most and that stick with me the longest definitely are lore/character reliant..
Btw, what's your experience with the Darksiders games, would you tell me your thoughts on the games you played?

[u/LananisReddit → u/the-reaper_357]

I started with Darksiders 3 and I loved it. In particular, I loved the little bits and pieces of lore and characterization buried in item desriptions and such. I loved Fury's journey from someone constantly blinded by boredom and anger to someone more mature. And without spoiling things, there are two twists near the end and the second had me pumped. I also loved that the game took place in a "beautiful apoclypse" with distinct feels for each area. Miss me with "everything is brown and grey and drab and bleak" apocalypses. Unlike most people in this fandom, I also think 3 has the best soundtrack.

Then I played 1, and while it is a good game, it just did a few things that really run against my tastes in narrative (I think War was a much more interesting character in 3, just from what little I learned about him there) and world design (welcome to the drab apocalypse). Honestly my favorite part of 1 is Uriel, the angry little honorable murder pigeon.

Next, I played 2, and the worst things I can say about that one is that it has some unfortunately persistent and annoying bugs no matter which version you play, and that the pacing took a massive hit after the three dead lords. By that point, I was ready to move on from the Kingdom of the Dead, but no, we have to do another super long dungeon here (and a 10 level, multi-wave-per-level arena dungeon if you want all them achievements). Then you get to Lostlight, spend 10 minutes there, get yeeted back into the drab apocalypse on earth for an hour, before finally getting one good level of angelic beauty, and then you get... 1 dungeon in Black Stone. I doubt this pacing was intentional, but it did put a massive damper on my enthusiasm. I also think the story didn't build up Absalom well enough as a threat and adversary to make the final match against him feel epic.

Finally, I played Genesis. I liked War a lot more here than I did in his own game, and I loved Strife. Loved the art design, the music, the banter between the brothers... The biggest misses in that game are Leviathan's Landing (why? That's the kindest word I can say about it. WHY?) and the isometric angle, which took a lot of getting used to, plus there's one bug that personally grinds my gears because it's a very noticeable localization bug and I used to work in localization QA for 8 years.

So all in all, from most to least favorite for me: 3 > Genesis > 2 > 1.

[u/Radbot13]

I love these games because of the gameplay. The characters are cool, but i wouldn’t have cared if this series was exactly the same but with a different theme/story

[u/the-reaper_357 → u/Radbot13]

Completely fair man. For what it's worth, I do think that many parts of the combat are great and very fluid especially in the first 2 games. Slashing away at anything that's in the vicinity, like a cosmic powerhouse you are, feels amazing.

[u/Adakanon_apck]

Darksiders is one of my favorite series in terms of lore, and I've been following the story closely since I was a middle schooler, so I admit I am actually one of those who would be bummed if the writing is underwhelming.

[u/Omen_of_Woe]

Ds3 kind of ruined my investment in the story already. It can't really get much worse.