Darksiders III

[RCoon]

Darksiders III is a hack 'n' slash adventure RPG by Gunfire Games, published by THQ Nordic. It's the third in an ever-changing series of games that follows the four horsemen of the apocalypse during an end of the world event that has been incorrectly triggered by the first horseman War.

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[catulitechup]

Good review but lack of cpus and gpus tested

 

[RCoon]

Good review but lack of cpus and gpus tested

I'm neither rich nor in close proximity to anyone that has a pile of graphics cards to test. I'm a game reviewer first and foremost. I'll try and hand off my press account to the relevant people to do a full performance analysis. These reviews are for the game, not the tech.

 

[ne6togadno]

performance analysis are fine as they are. they give quite good impression how games run on mid range (by today's standards) commonly used gaming hardware.
with calc and relative performance charts from hardware reviews, one can easily extrapolate roughly what can be expected for game performance on any other hardware.
i'd like to see more words on "subjective" metrics of game performance like "smoothness" and un/availability of negative effects like "stutter", "lag" etc. as min/avg/max fps not always paint the full picture. but i am sure if there were any drawbacks in this section @RCoon wouldnt miss to mention em.

 

[bug]

Ouch, 1060 not even close to 60fps. This is going to hurt quite a bit.

 

[SIGSEGV]

Do I have to wait until 75% off? Oh no, after reading this reviews I really want to get this game instead of BF V.
Thanks for the review

 

[Upgrayedd]

88% CPU usage? wut

 

[swirl09]

Was this done on a laptop? I didnt see this mentioned in the review, only here when I came to the comments (*E: after looking at your system specs).

 

[toyo]

The performance section is worrying to say the least. Hopefully I'll be able to play @60 fps, although even that is quite low. Tolerable if the game is fun.

 

[Redwoodz]

Seems the writers may have been delving into Michael Moorcock's worlds of Chaos vs Law and the Eternal Champions. Good move, storylines have been really lacking for sometime. I will be purchasing this game.

 

[punani]

Great review, thanks! Might give it a go.

Loved the first game. Second one was a shitty console port bug-fest on PC so I didn't even bother..

 

[RCoon]

Was this done on a laptop? I didnt see this mentioned in the review, only here when I came to the comments (*E: after looking at your system specs).

Yep, an exceedingly large laptop that has zero portability whatsoever. The GPU is still a full fat desktop GPU and the processor still sits at a merry 3.8 Ghz in games so very little difference to a standard gaming PC.

88% CPU usage? wut

That was exactly my response. I had to run it multiple times to make sure something terrible wasn't going on. Now imagine trying to record gameplay at the same time.

 

[AMX85]

Look that Overhead baby D:

 

[jboydgolfer]

they killed Darksiders.

I never really got into DS2, but DS1 was a great game....ill never forget the first time i heard "War is Here!" it properly conveyed a sense of being a powerful angel/demon/end of world bad ass. Sadly, this "victorias secret" re-do is FAR from that feeling i had, and THQ lost the series. Wahmen for the sake of Wahmen is killing gaming. Im certainly not advocating that women cant be protagonists, but inserting them into a series (much like BattleFailed5 did) isnt a good way to go about it, and it leaves the fan base who played the previous titles noticing the forced "diversity", and leaves the game in some sort of mid area, of a nearly playable/fun game, but not quite. Pulling off a bad ass female protagonist is NOT easy , its not impossible, but it takes a lot of work, and dedication, it certainly cant be added in, like an afterthought, with the hopes of building off of the previous characters "rep". It was done right in Tombraider, because she wasnt a "Bad ass" in a "your gonna die now" sense, but rather in a "ill kill you to get what i want" Cut-throat sort of way....but when it comes to building a sense of power, and meanness, basing your main character off of a female isnt an easy task....atleast to pull it off successfully it isnt. Embracing Human traits, & diversities is a good thing, and we as a society need to move away from this "if he can do it, She can too" mentality. Males & females each have traits inherent to their Gender, that the other has no hope of excelling at....i know the truth is often frowned upon these days, but like it or not, its a reality.

4/10 IMO

 

[rtwjunkie]

Idk, why can’t one of the four horsemen be a woman? I don’t have a problem with female protagonists, especially badasses that are done properly. I’ve played quite a few that are, as well as watched and like quite a few movies of the same way of thinking.

That being said, I haven’t played this game yet, although it’s been on my GOG wishlist for quite some time, and cannot speak if they made a bad decision in this case.

 

[toyo]

they killed Darksiders.

I never really got into DS2, but DS1 was a great game....ill never forget the first time i heard "War is Here!" it properly conveyed a sense of being a powerful angel/demon/end of world bad ass. Sadly, this "victorias secret" re-do is FAR from that feeling i had, and THQ lost the series. Wahmen for the sake of Wahmen is killing gaming. Im certainly not advocating that women cant be protagonists, but inserting them into a series (much like BattleFailed5 did) isnt a good way to go about it, and it leaves the fan base who played the previous titles noticing the forced "diversity", and leaves the game in some sort of mid area, of a nearly playable/fun game, but not quite. Pulling off a bad ass female protagonist is NOT easy , its not impossible, but it takes a lot of work, and dedication, it certainly cant be added in, like an afterthought, with the hopes of building off of the previous characters "rep". It was done right in Tombraider, because she wasnt a "Bad ass" in a "your gonna die now" sense, but rather in a "ill kill you to get what i want" Cut-throat sort of way....but when it comes to building a sense of power, and meanness, basing your main character off of a female isnt an easy task....atleast to pull it off successfully it isnt. Embracing Human traits, & diversities is a good thing, and we as a society need to move away from this "if he can do it, She can too" mentality. Males & females each have traits inherent to their Gender, that the other has no hope of excelling at....i know the truth is often frowned upon these days, but like it or not, its a reality.

4/10 IMO

I don't have one thing against Fury, I don't think this is a case of social justice infecting gaming at all. She's just a typical female lead, she's angry, she's pretty shallow and superficial, but she's really not some female lead that was forcefully transplanted into the game.

But I wouldn't even give it a 4. I'd give it a 3. All because of the checkpoint structure and combat mechanics. If I wanted to play Dark Souls, which is a fine game, I'd play that. I wanted to play Darksiders though, a hack&slash lite action RPG. I don't want to collect lost souls, I don't want to be chain staggered by swarms of enemies, I don't want to be hit mid-dodge, I don't want a double jump that's shorter than a normal jump in other games, and I don't want a "mage" that doesn't have ranged abilities, shields etc., or relies on rare items to heal.

Oh, and I most definitely do NOT want to run through a whole level of respawned enemies if I die. That's just stupid and insane.

Other than the combat and core mechanics, I don't mind the story, the world, pretty much all is OK. Even the performance is OK on my PC. Actually is far better than what's described in the review for some reason. At 1080p all maxed I usually hover above 120 fps (with some area load stuttering). Even the cartoony style is fine by me.

Just the combat and mechanics are so bad, I can't believe they managed such a "feat".

 

[jboydgolfer]

why can’t one of the four horsemen be a woman?

ive not said that. I said they didnt do it right, as it was forced (IMO)

The first DS hinted at the upcoming DS2-3-&4 with the meteorites falling from the sky, and although no gender was mentioned, the pinkish/purple meteorite seemed to me like it was going to be a woman, and i had no issue with it. But, as i mentioned, making a female protagonist as badass as the War character from DS1 is NOT easy, it simply isnt. What you end up with is a character who is about as badass, as Michael Keaton was a "mom" in Mr Mom the movie, or as much a Grandmother figure, as Robin Williams was in Mrs. Doubtfire. Its not easy to pull off.

but she's really not some female lead that was forcefully transplanted into the game.

Not forced i suppose, but not needed either. DS is a hack n slash, badass game, & this release exudes many things, but "BadAss" is NOT one of them. Im not saying it CANT be done, just that this isnt it. I simply referenced BattleFailed5 Wahmen as a reference, i suppose it was a bit misleading in regards to my overall point.

in my opinion, a badass/tough/respectable female or male protagonist requires work, buildup, depth, and an established level of "respect" from its fan base/players. That list of requisites comes easier to a male character than a female character IMO in reference to this situation.

 

[W1zzard]

I'm more than half through the game and have to say I'm definitely enjoying myself. Levels design is great, character ability progression too, reminds me a lot of Metroid

 

[jboydgolfer]

I'm more than half through the game and have to say I'm definitely enjoying myself. Levels design is great, character ability progression too, reminds me a lot of Metroid

Nice. I certainly don't think my opinion is important in regards to how others enjoy a game, I am happy people enjoy it.

 

[ne6togadno]

@jboydgolfer did you played the game or you base your opinion on game reviews?