I’m very proud of myself. I began playing Darksiders last week, and finished it yesterday. I rarely finish games at all these days, nevermind in the span of a week. Being on vacation definitely helped me along, but I’m still pretty amazed. There’s still the little matter of finishing the game on “Apocalyptic” difficulty for those last two cheevos, but we’ll take that at a slower pace.
I’m pretty sure that since the game has been out for basically forever now, everything has already been said about Darksiders. I really don’t have much to add to the collective opinion that it’s a Legend of Zelda game with God of War combat sensibilities. Which is a good thing. I was dreadfully bored with God of War, but the combat system works well in a game with more interesting non-combat. The story takes itself way too seriously and is mostly uninteresting, but is a good enough reason to beat up a bunch of demons (and angels, occasionally) and trek through puzzle dungeons. Fortunately, said story was clearly never the point of the game and most cutscenes are skippable. Yay!
The one thing I did really like is that while most of the combat stuff is lifted wholesale from God of War, quicktime events are nonexistent. Yes, you get a little “B” pop-up to inform you when you can perform a finishing move, but that’s it. No stick twirling or button-matching to be found. Also, starting the game on hard with the super armor (a carry-over bonus from my completed file, I guess?) pretty much breaks the balance of the game. Not that I’m complaining. Having an advantage that lets me breeze through my second playthrough is always fun.
Also, I started Catherine yesterday afternoon, and proceeded to play it for seven hours straight. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed such a long gaming session since Twilight Princess. Not that it was my choice or anything. Catherine really hooked me. It was like a good book, where I just could not put it down, even though I tried. I’m pretty sure I’m on the cusp of finishing the story, but I know that I’ll be hitting this one again right away.
The game is mostly talkies and has plenty of cutscenes, but the story is so engrossing that I don’t mind at all. It’s not packed with silly fluff like Metal Gear Solid games. It’s a great tale about growing up, taking responsibility, and dealing with change. Or, perhaps, none of that if you play to the “bad” side. There’s a sort of morality meter there, which pings up and down as you make choices. The game asks you to choose the answer that applies best to you, rather than the one you think is correct. It’s not always easy to tell which answer will drive the meter which way, and so far I’ve been leaning only a little towards the side of “good.” The really cool thing is that if you’re connected to Live, it’ll show a pie graph of the answers other players chose on their first play. Not a real feature, per se, but a neat little widget no less.
Climbing up the block towers is getting considerably harder with each stage (duh), and apparently I’m not great at this kind of puzzle. I’m playing on Easy mode too, which makes it all the more embarrassing. But the boss levels are super fun! The puzzle difficulty is scaled down a bit, but you’ve always got a giant monster chomping at your heels, which keeps the tension high. I think they’re easily the best the game has to offer, though hopefully I get a bit better at the puzzle stages when I bump up to normal.