The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Irritatingly difficult but still a winner
WHILE Darksiders III feels like a breath of fresh air in an industry dominated by increasingly ‘artsy’ free-roam open worlds, its repetitive world feels a lot more linear than its ostensibly ‘open’ format would have you believe.
Darksiders III is essentially a collection of micro-worlds connected by tunnels and hallways. At the most fundamental level, it is essentially a game about running from room to room and killing just about everything in your way.
While the premise is fun and unique - you are cast as a Horseman of the Apocalypse tasked with intervening in a war between angels and demons on a ravaged earth - the context eventually becomes obscured by the twenty-or-so hours of frantic hacking and slashing in one of the most irritatingly difficult titles of the past ten years.
The cartoonish models and generic environments are almost immediately forgettable, but not necessarily unsightly.
That being said, where Darksiders III redeems itself somewhat is not in the aesthetic department, but in the combat itself.
This game is no ordinary hack’n’slash, with each enemy possessing of a distinct skill set, making pattern recognition one of the most vital aspects of a successful playthrough. Zombies, demons, skeletons and angels et. al all exhibit different behaviours, making engaging each fight in the same way certain suicide.
Unfortunately, aggressive level scaling makes progression feel ultimately pointless.
If no matter how powerful your character becomes, basic enemy types can still kill you with just a few hits, why then should we feel any reward in progress at all?
Where Darksiders III feels like a winner is in its supremely straightforward nature.
Despite how difficult the game often is, finally besting a boss that has grinded your game to a halt is a simultaneous surge of relief and adrenaline that is a delightful feeling not present in many games today.