WAR NEVER CHANGES

DARKSIDERS GENESIS proves the series still has that invisible touch.

- Luke Kemp

There’s good reason to welcome the return of the horsemen of the apocalypse, and not only because of what’s on your social media feed. In the world of videogames, they star in a great series that didn’t deserve to pass like the wind with the somewhat lame third entry. And lo, Airship Syndicate did rise from the ashes of Vigil Games – who did once develop entries first and second – and thus it spake unto the industry, “Let’s do this”.

Darksiders has always bounced gleefully from one influence to the next. The first game borrowed heavily from Nintendo’s Zelda series, while the second – which starred a hilariously ripped version of Death – clearly took its wall-running cue from the Prince of Persia reboot. Then, the Gunfire Games developed Darksiders III decided to join the wearisomely long line of titles trying to copy Dark Souls. Given the history of the series, the move to an entirely different genre isn’t really as jarring as it might be.

Darksiders Genesis is an action RPG, with all the waves of enemies and grabbing of loot that you might expect. I’m slightly surprised, therefore, to find that it still immediately and consistently feels like Darksiders. It’s a prequel to the first game, which follows War and, for the first time, Strife. Notorious rascal Lucifer is up to something, and The Council has taken time out from changing the bin collection days without telling anybody to instruct these two lovable harbingers of doom to find out what it is.