Darksiders Genesis Review Summary

Fun cooperative gameplay: The game offers enjoyable cooperative gameplay, both locally and online, enhancing the overall experience.

Striking visual art style: The game features a unique and beautiful visual style, with players praising its artistic design, aesthetics, and overall presentation.

Variety in gameplay: The game offers a variety of gameplay mechanics, enemy types, and combat styles, contributing to high replayability.

Appeal to Darksiders fans: The game is well-received by fans of the Darksiders series, offering a fresh take with an isometric view and capturing the essence of the franchise.

Engaging puzzles: The game features a range of puzzles that are challenging and fun, adding a nice change of pace to the gameplay.

Game plagued by bugs: The game is reported to be full of bugs, with players experiencing various issues such as characters getting stuck, bugs with doors, and frequent freezes. These bugs are widespread and affect gameplay significantly.

Camera issues and annoyances: The camera system is a major source of frustration, with issues such as forced angles, inability to rotate the camera, and awkward fixed positions. These problems make gameplay uncomfortable and challenging.

Frustrating platforming sections: Players find the platforming sections frustrating due to camera issues, poor controls, and challenging design. The camera angles are counterintuitive and make platforming difficult, often requiring pixel-perfect precision.

Uninspired and short plot: The game's plot is described as standard and unremarkable, with a straightforward story that introduces new characters but fails to impress. The story is considered short and not very engaging.

Poor controls and movement: The controls are criticized for being difficult to use, with issues such as clunky combat, unclear parkour systems, and non-fluid movement. These problems make the game harder to play and enjoy.

Top-down and isometric perspective: The game features a top-down and isometric view, reminiscent of classic ARPGs. This perspective is central to both exploration and combat mechanics.

Character switching and progression: Players can switch between characters, each with unique abilities and progression paths. Character dynamics and upgrades are key to advancing in the game.

Hack and slash combat: The combat system is centered around hack and slash mechanics, with a focus on frantic and strategic gameplay. Players can use various weapons and abilities to engage in combat.

Puzzle-solving mechanics: Complex puzzles and environmental challenges are integrated into the gameplay. These puzzles often require cooperation and exploration to solve.

Character interactions and relationships: Interactions and dialogues between characters are a significant aspect of the game. These interactions help develop character relationships and story content.

Frequent game-breaking bugs: Players report a high number of bugs, including game-breaking and collision bugs, which significantly affect gameplay.

Connection and server issues: Players experience frequent disconnections, camera issues, and server problems, particularly in later chapters.

Character getting stuck on terrain: Characters frequently get stuck on various scenery elements and terrain, causing frustration and disrupting gameplay.

Controls and movement issues: There are reports of imprecise inputs, bad movement systems, and uncomfortable parrying on Steam Deck.

Minor technical issues: There are various minor technical issues reported, including texture stutters and action transition issues.

Excellent co-op experience: The game offers an excellent co-op mode, making it a great choice for fans of cooperative play and dungeon-crawlers. It is highly recommended for those who enjoy playing with friends.

Recommended for fans of the series: The game is highly recommended for those who enjoy the Darksiders series, its combat, story, and genre. It is particularly appealing to fans of the trilogy and action games.

Highly recommended game: The game comes with high recommendations from various reviewers. It is considered easily recommendable and highly enjoyable.

Worth buying on sale: Many reviews suggest that the game is worth purchasing, especially when it is on sale. This makes it a good option for budget-conscious gamers.

Accessible for newcomers: The game is noted for its accessible gameplay, making it a good entry point for newcomers to the Darksiders universe.

Community fair range: $5.00 - $15.00.

Game completion: 15.0h.

Story completion: 11.0h.

Endgame: 30.0h.

Darksiders Genesis is a game that is highly enjoyable, particularly in co-op mode, where players can switch between characters and experience different combat styles. The fun starts almost immediately in co-op, despite some initial friction from bugs and camera issues.

Friction: bugs; camera issues.

Unlock drivers: cooperative gameplay; switching between characters.

Solo Adventurer: Prefers playing alone, focusing on single-player content and personal progression. Motivation: Enjoyment of solo gameplay and story. Stance: sale.

Co-op Enthusiast: Prefers playing with a friend, emphasizing teamwork and cooperative strategies. Motivation: Enjoyment of cooperative gameplay and shared experiences. Stance: buy.

Critical Enjoyer: Enjoys the game but is highly critical of its shortcomings, often comparing it to other similar games. Motivation: Balanced enjoyment with a critical eye on flaws. Stance: deep sale.

Performance varies across hardware cohorts, with higher VRAM configurations experiencing minor issues while lower VRAM setups struggle more significantly.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: positive. Mostly good performance with occasional crashes, resolvable by switching to fullscreen.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: negative. Struggles with 4K graphics and audio issues.

Steam Deck: The analysis of user feedback for the Steam Deck experience of the game reveals several key issues. The most prominent problems are related to controls and keyboard gameplay, both of which have been described as confusing, strange, and uncomfortable. Additionally, users have reported various bugs that, while not severe, are frequent enough to be noticeable and annoying. The Steam Deck experience itself has been noted to have some friction, particularly with the small screen size making certain actions uncomfortable. Despite these issues, some users have found the game enjoyable and reminiscent of other titles in the series.

Linux and Proton: The game is playable on Linux with Proton 7.0-6, but may require some version switching. There are no major issues reported, and some users enjoy playing it on their Steam Deck.

Mixed input requirements: Players are frustrated by the need to use both mouse/keyboard and controller simultaneously to play the game effectively.

Game speed adjustment feature: The game offers a feature that allows players to slow down the game speed, which can be useful for various gameplay situations.