Getting back into the franchise

[DaveMcDamage]

Hi everyone, 

 

In the sales on at the moment I managed to snag Darksiders Warmaster edition as well as Darksiders 2 Deathinitive edition for less than a tenner. Currently going through the first game and despite it having some real trophy slogs, the updated visuals and superb story are still so good to get into. So obviously I will then move onto D2. I saw the deluxe version of D3 on the store and when I went back the next day they had removed it and its back up to £89.00 for that version. 

 

But Genesis is also on sale so I nabbed that. Now I know its a prequel, but should I wait to play it after D3 in case it has any references or what have you, or can it actually be played at any point as it may have no baring on the main Darksiders story?

 

PS was Darksiders 3 any good? I know the series is underrated but on release I heard sketchy things about the combat mechanics and whatnot. Does it stand up just as good as the first two game and it was only the none fans slagging it?

[RedRodriguez87]

Looks like you made your choice, but to anyone else, I would just play them in the order they were released, as new story elements are always added.

[proud2bNs]

I don't know where you live and what the prices in your country are, but I could grab Darksiders 1,2,3 & Genesis on Amazon for 15-20 bucks each right now. Even cheaper if you'd consider used copies. You'd have to buy the DLCs for D3 separately, but the season pass is on sale in Germany ATM for 5 bucks.

 

Regarding you question: I played all Darksiders games in order and I'd say that knowledge of the Darksiders 1 story is a must. I played Genesis in co-op with a friend who never played any Darksiders game and he stopped following the story after 5 minutes, because he didn't know what happened in the first game. The other entries in the series mostly don't reference each other, don't advance the story time-wise and could potentially be interchanged how you wish. 

[Arcesius]

On 2/5/2022 at 11:43 PM, DaveMcDamage said:

But Genesis is also on sale so I nabbed that. Now I know its a prequel, but should I wait to play it after D3 in case it has any references or what have you, or can it actually be played at any point as it may have no baring on the main Darksiders story?

 

Unless you have a coop partner, I wouldn't play Darksiders Genesis at all (and even then, there are better coop games out there...). But yes, it makes references to other Darksiders games, so I would not play it as the first game even if it is technically a prequel. 

 

On 2/5/2022 at 11:43 PM, DaveMcDamage said:

PS was Darksiders 3 any good? I know the series is underrated but on release I heard sketchy things about the combat mechanics and whatnot. Does it stand up just as good as the first two game and it was only the none fans slagging it?

 

I don't agree that the Darksiders series is underrated ? It's a very well known, broadly liked franchise. 

 

Anyways, I played the first and second game back on the X360 and loved them. I played Darksiders III at launch on playstation and while I liked the game, it was a true technical mess. Freezes, lag, floating objects,... you get the point. The game is a lot of fun, but I couldn't tell you if they fixed the techical issues. And I'm not one to complain about small bugs, but DS III did not launch in a good state... 

 

About the combat.. what did you hear? I actually enjoyed the combat in III more than in the previous games. It's less "button mashing" but has you think a bit instead. 

[Zephrese]

1 hour ago, Arcesius said:

It's a very well known, broadly liked franchise.

Don't know if I'd go as far as to say that personally, although I do still love the games regardless.

 

I enjoyed Darksiders III more than the second game despite the former's large amount of technical flaws. It felt more in line with the first game, at least to me, which I liked.

Was never as big of a fan of Darksiders II as most of the fanbase is, as it's a bit too bloated and drags on too long for my taste. Still a good game in of itself, though.

Edited February 9, 2022 by Zephrese

[DaveMcDamage]

6 hours ago, Zephrese said:

Don't know if I'd go as far as to say that personally, although I do still love the games regardless.

 

I enjoyed Darksiders III more than the second game despite the former's large amount of technical flaws. It felt more in line with the first game, at least to me, which I liked.

Was never as big of a fan of Darksiders II as most of the fanbase is, as it's a bit too bloated and drags on too long for my taste. Still a good game in of itself, though.

Yeah I feel the same about Darksiders 2. Even some of the devs in the Darksiders documentary mentioned they wish they had done a game similar to the linear driven maps of the first games and I agree. D2 feels like it has bursts of awesome moments and then its dampened again by another 6 hours of filler then rince and repeat. From when I played it originally I remember once you get past the land of the dead the game flow gets better. 

[dieselmanchild]

As always I feel like the best way to play the series would be in the order of release. But the interesting thing about the Darksiders series is that every game in the series is so different and you could really jump in at any point and enjoy the games.

 

Darksiders 1 is reminiscent of that PS3 era of hack n slash games with the Zelda like exploration, dungeons, and puzzles.

 

Darksiders 2 went for an open world feel and introduced some RPG mechanics. As such, it’s also significantly more grindy than DS1, especially those collectibles.

 

Darksiders 3 aimed for more of a Soulslike experience. It seemed to garner mixed reviews but personally I quite enjoyed it, and they later added the legacy combat option for people who prefer the original combat.

 

Darksiders Genesis really went off the rails and reinvented itself as an isometric Diablo style dungeon crawler/looter game. It’s the only one in the series I haven’t played yet, but I bought it recently and I’m looking forward to playing it! I don’t think it has co-op though which really sucks, because that style of game is totally built for the co-op experience. 

[JaneAusten69]

I'm a huge fan of the series and have been living vicariously through your post on these games over the past few days haha

 

Order of release is usually best.  However, DSIII and Genesis were worked on around the same time by separate teams.  There really isn't anything I can remember that would be spoilery between the two.  Mostly, Genesis has direct references to DSI and some Easter eggs from DSII.

 

I think I'm probably in the minority on this, but I loved DSIII.  Definitely had some 'souls' influence.  Found it to be really fun and a good amount of challenge without being too hard.  The DLCs really suck though incase you're going for the 100%.  They weren't hard from what I remember, just boring.

[ASMODAIOS344]

As a fanboy of the series i will give you my absolute not biased opinion of course ?. You will play in the release order so DS1, DS2&dlc, DS3&dlc and then Genesis. The game has many references and some scenes or words will have a different weight if you play it after the other games. If you care about the internal chronological order of the series:

 

1)Darksiders prequel comics some pages(each page depict a different event and it's place change in the timeline)

 

2)Darksiders Genesis

 

3) Darksiders The Abomination Vault/ Novel

 

4)Darksiders Death Door/ Comic

 

5) Darksiders 1 Prologue

 

6)Darksiders 3/ 10 years after the prologue of DS1

 

7)Darksiders 2

 

8)Darksiders 1 main part, epilogue/ 100 human years after the prologue

12 hours ago, proud2bNs said:

I don't know where you live and what the prices in your country are, but I could grab Darksiders 1,2,3 & Genesis on Amazon for 15-20 bucks each right now. Even cheaper if you'd consider used copies. You'd have to buy the DLCs for D3 separately, but the season pass is on sale in Germany ATM for 5 bucks.

 

Regarding you question: I played all Darksiders games in order and I'd say that knowledge of the Darksiders 1 story is a must. I played Genesis in co-op with a friend who never played any Darksiders game and he stopped following the story after 5 minutes, because he didn't know what happened in the first game. The other entries in the series mostly don't reference each other, don't advance the story time-wise and could potentially be interchanged how you wish. 

 

Every entry advance the plot, the structure of Darksiders storyline is like a big chess game that play in the background. From one move you watch in a scene two more are make behind the certain.

[JaneAusten69]

34 minutes ago, ASMODAIOS344 said:

As a fanboy of the series i will give you my absolute not biased opinion of course . You will play in the release order so DS1, DS2&dlc, DS3&dlc and then Genesis. The game has many references and some scenes or words will have a different weight if you play it after the other games. If you care about the internal chronological order of the series:

 

1)Darksiders prequel comics some pages(each page depict a different event and it's place change in the timeline)

 

2)Darksiders Genesis

 

3) Darksiders The Abomination Vault/ Novel

 

4)Darksiders Death Door/ Comic

 

5) Darksiders 1 Prologue

 

6)Darksiders 3/ 10 years after the prologue of DS1

 

7)Darksiders 2

 

8)Darksiders 1 main part, epilogue/ 100 human years after the prologue

 

Every entry advance the plot, the structure of Darksiders storyline is like a big chess game that play in the background. From one move you watch in a scene two more are make behind the certain.

Great post!

 

Curious, how would you rank the games from best to worst?

[Arcesius]

13 hours ago, dieselmanchild said:

Darksiders Genesis really went off the rails and reinvented itself as an isometric Diablo style dungeon crawler/looter game. It’s the only one in the series I haven’t played yet, but I bought it recently and I’m looking forward to playing it! I don’t think it has co-op though which really sucks, because that style of game is totally built for the co-op experience. 

 

Oh, it does have coop. I played it entirely in online coop with a friend, no issues whatsoever. 

 

However, I see it being often described as "Diablo-like", and it is anythign but. The only thing this game and Diablo have in common is the isometric perspective. Dungeon layouts are fixed, items and gear locations are fixed. No loot drops from enemies besides health refills and such. 

[dieselmanchild]

8 hours ago, Arcesius said:

 

Oh, it does have coop. I played it entirely in online coop with a friend, no issues whatsoever. 

 

However, I see it being often described as "Diablo-like", and it is anythign but. The only thing this game and Diablo have in common is the isometric perspective. Dungeon layouts are fixed, items and gear locations are fixed. No loot drops from enemies besides health refills and such. 

I think the Diablo comparisons come from the fact it looks very similar at first glance with the isometric camera view and the way the action plays out on screen. It’s clearly inspired by those kinds of games. I’m thrilled to hear it has co-op though! For some reason I was under the impression it did not. Looking forward to playing it soon. 

[proud2bNs]

22 hours ago, ASMODAIOS344 said:

 

Every entry advance the plot, the structure of Darksiders storyline is like a big chess game that play in the background. From one move you watch in a scene two more are make behind the certain.

I agree. But no later entry in the series plays out AFTER the ending of DS1. That's what I meant by saying they "don't advance the story time-wise"

[DaveMcDamage]

I just snagged the Darksiders 3 DLC which is currently on sale. The whole thing was on sale for £13.99 the other day but then they took the offer off after about 2 days. Never mind though. 

 

Cheers for all the feedback guys. 

 

I always wondered in what would have made the stories of the Darksider horsemen more suitable, Have War set the story, but then have the other have entirely different stories as they wouldn't know what he was up to, right up until War breaks the seals. It could also then give good reason to each game in the series being so different from one another and then eventually all meet up for Darksiders 4. I don't think Strife needs a whole game to himself, but I could be wrong on that. I am on most things  

 

But a 4th game would be interesting. Give War and Fury the hack and slash sections, Death the puzzle elements and perhaps Strife's sections could be FPS. 

 

Currently on Darksiders 2 and have just reached the City of the Dead. Not having much luck in the way of loot pick ups though. Is the loot and stuff of Genesis very awesome or is it just bog standard upgrades?

[ASMODAIOS344]

On 9/2/2022 at 10:36 PM, JaneAusten69 said:

Great post!

 

Curious, how would you rank the games from best to worst?

 

Tough question ?, they only comparison i can make is i terns of gameplay and that is the tough part, as each game has a different gameplay formula each suited for each Rider.

 

Without to get in details i put them in that order*:

 

1. Darksiders 2
2. Darksiders 3
3. Darksiders 1
4. Darksiders Genesis

 

1* Maybe Genesis position will change when i played it personally( i still haven't open the collector edition damn you backlog ?

 

2* Darksiders 3 is weird case for me as i don't like Souls game but for some strange reason i like the way Gunfire Games used some of those mechanisms in 3

 

 

On 10/2/2022 at 10:34 PM, DaveMcDamage said:

I just snagged the Darksiders 3 DLC which is currently on sale. The whole thing was on sale for £13.99 the other day but then they took the offer off after about 2 days. Never mind though. 

 

Cheers for all the feedback guys. 

 

I always wondered in what would have made the stories of the Darksider horsemen more suitable, Have War set the story, but then have the other have entirely different stories as they wouldn't know what he was up to, right up until War breaks the seals. It could also then give good reason to each game in the series being so different from one another and then eventually all meet up for Darksiders 4. I don't think Strife needs a whole game to himself, but I could be wrong on that. I am on most things  

 

But a 4th game would be interesting. Give War and Fury the hack and slash sections, Death the puzzle elements and perhaps Strife's sections could be FPS. 

 

Currently on Darksiders 2 and have just reached the City of the Dead. Not having much luck in the way of loot pick ups though. Is the loot and stuff of Genesis very awesome or is it just bog standard upgrades?

 

Genesis use a system based on your character total power. A combination of skills (both active& passive) and creatures core which also give active& passive effects depending on which position you put them. Along with above both War and Strife have their own abilities and tools that either gain from story progression,found in special chests or bought from our humble merchant.

Edited February 11, 2022 by ASMODAIOS344

[JaneAusten69]

On 2/11/2022 at 1:40 PM, ASMODAIOS344 said:

 

Tough question , they only comparison i can make is i terns of gameplay and that is the tough part, as each game has a different gameplay formula each suited for each Rider.

 

Without to get in details i put them in that order*:

 

1. Darksiders 2
2. Darksiders 3
3. Darksiders 1
4. Darksiders Genesis

 

1* Maybe Genesis position will change when i played it personally( i still haven't open the collector edition damn you backlog ?

 

2* Darksiders 3 is weird case for me as i don't like Souls game but for some strange reason i like the way Gunfire Games used some of those mechanisms in 3

 

 

 

Genesis use a system based on your character total power. A combination of skills (both active& passive) and creatures core which also give active& passive effects depending on which position you put them. Along with above both War and Strife have their own abilities and tools that either gain from story progression,found in special chests or bought from our humble merchant.

Yeah I feel the same way about souls games but still liking DSIII.

I'd probably go mostly in the same order, but switching DSI and DSIII for second and third respectively.  I have played Genesis and would put it last, but still really liked it.

[DaveMcDamage]

Gutted. The other week when these games were on sales, Darksiders 3 was on sale for £13.99 for the deluxe version. They took it down two days later which was weird. Anyway in the dlc sales they sold the D3 season pass for £4.99 or something so I got it. Todays sales as D3 deluxe edition at £13.99 again. Not getting it though as those are some dirty sales tactics from those guys. I'll either wait for the big standard version to drop right down, get a cheap disc or just leave well alone. All the reviews I have seen dance around how its a grindy, badly written, badly voiced and okaish combat but then pussy out of giving it a shit review and instead rate it on the previous games being great. 

 

And now the majority of reviews slam Genesis for just being a grindy crap fest. So the first game was great, the second improved on content but had next to no story and the next sequels are just pish. I'm starting wonder if the series is underrated or are the fans just overly generous due to how much potential there was from the end of the first game.