![]() As we know from Darksiders II’s events, Death is going on a personal journey to revive Humanity and clear War’s name (Darksiders II Ending Explained link). The Council informs Fury that her brother Strife is currently overseeing another task of utmost importance, while Death is missing. Scenes like Lust and Gluttony tempting Fury with power and pleasure, respectively, might lack subtlety, but they land on an archetypal level.Darksiders III begins with Fury being summoned by the Charred Council after her brother War was arrested for supposedly unleashing the Apocalypse prematurely (Darksiders Ending Explained link). By the end she’s changed, questioning her role in an amorphous conflict on a cruel universal stage. At the beginning of the game, she’s a single-minded violence machine barking at everything that moves. Fury is as brutal and ridiculous as her brothers War and Death were in the previous games, but she also has a genuine arc, simple as it might be. Fortunately what it lacks in polish, it more than makes up for with heart and a compulsively playable world. So Darksiders is no Slayer or Dark Souls, all technical chops and pristine execution. Add in load times when the game has trouble keeping up with the action (sometimes it just stops for a few seconds), and it can sometimes feel like a hassle to get to Darksiders III’s creamy center. The lack of a map is exacerbated by hidden paths essential to discovering the next boss that are sometimes too cleverly concealed. A series of save points that double as a shop and fast travel system is more easily available than Souls’ bonfires (yet another feature helping make Darksiders III more forgiving and inviting), but even those markers are awkwardly arranged by name in a menu rather than laid out graphically. There’s no map to review when you’re neck deep in the game, and it’s easy to forget how or even that you need to get back to some places once you’ve earned new abilities like wall-jumping or a bonafide spider-ball right out of Metroid. Darksiders III aims to be David Lee Roth Souls, and save for some irksome performance issues, it hits that target.Īt the same time, Darksiders III continues the tradition of not being able to execute at the same level as its inspirations. Philistine.” The moment works because most of the 20 or so hours of the game, which moves across lava-covered catacombs and demon spider-infested subway systems plays it straight just like truly classic metal. When you’ve finished off Avarice and imprisoned him in a giant, glowing green skull, Fury says, “Who needs a museum when you carry a collection like this?” The Watcher responds: “Ugh. Fortunately for all the badass posturing, the game recognizes its inherent silliness. Like all great vintage heavy metal in the tradition of Slayer, Darksiders III is fueled by full fat theatrics, outsized Catholic iconography, and ridiculous pyrotechnics that make it very hard to take seriously. Gunfire Games’ sequel is, to put it lightly, metal as fuck. ![]() The whole thing is simultaneously absurd and self-serious, gaudy but aesthetically consistent, a little frustrating but also a hell of a lot of fun. ![]() This one is Avarice, who lives in a post-apocalyptic museum where she’s surrounded by heaps of gold and statues and traffic lights and all the flotsam left by a human race barely hanging on during the Miltonian equivalent of World War II. Its world, its point of view, its flair for the dramatic is all perfectly boiled down in Fury’s moment of reflection right before she has to lash a monster repeatedly with a whip made of fire. This scene tells you absolutely everything you need to know about Darksiders III. And just as the Watcher is about to respond, a hoarder that looks like a Juggalo cosplaying as the trash lady from Labyrinththrows a bathtub at Fury’s face. They’re on a mission to recapture the Seven Deadly Sins, physical manifestations of Old Testament Yahweh’s big universal No-Nos. ![]() “You’re talking about art? Now? Here?” Fury - horseman of the apocalypse, whip enthusiast, and ornery lead of Darksiders III - asks, incredulous that her companion the Watcher is admiring mankind’s ruined creative output after the end of the world. ![]()
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