62.5 hours played
Written 1 month and 2 days ago
This is really a great game, personally I'd give it a 8.9/10. Such a pity it didn't take off back then. I hope the new THQ team can carry forward the strengths of this installment while addressing the flaws that severely impact the gameplay experience in the upcoming Darksiders 4, ultimately achieving great success.
STRENGTHS:
- The action moves and its visual and sound effects are quite amazing. As an ARPG, it is no less impressive in this aspect even compared to those famous ACT games.
- The map structure is very elaborate.
- The puzzles are very ingenious.
- The music is incredibly atmospheric.
WEAKNESSES:
- Several critical bugs remain unfixed to this day ：（
(1) Enabling damage number display frequently causes crashes, especially when values are large.
(2) The interaction button for the big blue spheres has a chance of failing to register, then you can't move it, can't solve the puzzle and get stuck.
(3) Audio may suddenly cut out.
- The puzzle designs are undoubtedly brilliant, but they are severely imbalanced compared to combat (the duration of puzzles far exceeds that of combat). In my opinion, this kind of design should only be used in side quests. Implementing it in the main storyline would cause many ARPG/ACT players who prefer fast-paced combat to abandon the game altogether. I believe this is also the core reason why this meticulously crafted game failed to achieve the same level of success as Darksiders1.
If some of the overly complex and lengthy puzzles in the main story were moved to side quests while offering better rewards, the player experience would improve significantly.
- No Chinese translation of PC edition.
- The inability to maintain target lock with a single button press is neither user-friendly nor necessary from a gameplay perspective (this game doesn't have directional variations like Devil May Cry that rely on locking). During boss fights, players are often forced to hold down the lock-on button continuously, which is an unreasonable control scheme. The system should allow free toggle locking like other mainstream ARPGs—fortunately, this was improved in Darksiders3, hope it carries over to the fourth.
Additionally, the controller button mapping has significant room for optimization. Ideally, players should be able to fully rebind controls. Taking controllers as an example, assigning target lock to clicking the right stick (R3) is generally more logical than other buttons, since the combat system doesn't rely on lock-dependent moves. Since locking isn't frequently used, it shouldn't occupy prime button real estate that could be reserved for more common actions like skill activation or item usage.
If the game implemented single-press persistent locking (bound to R3), players could map all primary items and skills to combinations of LT/RT, LB/RB, and ABXY simultaneously. This would eliminate the need for cumbersome radial menus—not only making gameplay smoother and more satisfying, but also freeing up the former radial menu button for other quick actions.
- The teleportation points in large areas are too few and imprecise. For example, whether you choose to teleport to the blacksmith or the shaman, you end up directly in the training ground of the Three Stones Sanctuary instead of in front of these NPCs. Even worse, you cannot teleport directly to new large areas—you must first go to the World Tree as a transfer point, which is an entirely unnecessary design.
- The character cannot sprint quickly, and although horseback riding is available in the wild, continuous rapid galloping is restricted to a very limited number of uses. This results in an excessive amount of tedious travel time. Considering the game's exceptionally vast map design, I believe this is undoubtedly a significant design flaw.
- The map is exceptionally large yet lacks sub-regional collection progress tracking, making it extremely confusing and difficult to complete collection-based tasks or identify missing items.
- Rare treasure chests lack a pity system, and a significant portion of them—despite requiring considerable effort to obtain—ultimately yield rewards no different from common chests. A more reasonable approach would be to guarantee at least one high-tier equipment drop from rare chests.
- The limitation of equipping only one Talisman is overly conservative. Looking at the most successful ARPGs like Dishonored, Elden Ring, and Black Myth: Wukong, it's clear that if a game features Talisman-like equipment, it's far more reasonable to allow characters to equip three to five simultaneously (gradually unlocking up to three in the first playthrough, then adding one additional slot in subsequent playthroughs). Otherwise, designing so many Talismans feels wasteful—constantly switching a single one is cumbersome, disrupts gameplay fluidity, and eliminates the potential for synergistic effects through multiple combinations.
- Although there is a training ground, it lacks button prompts. I hope Darksiders4 will feature a proper training area where players can choose any certain move to practice, with the system providing real-time feedback on whether the input was successful—especially for those moves requiring precise timing. If the input fails, the NPC(or system text) should immediately indicate whether it was too fast or too slow. This would significantly improve the player experience. In fact, many players finish the game without mastering numerous moves. I only learned about them by watching skilled players' video guides, precisely because the game's move list and training ground are far too rudimentary.
