After THQ shut their doors, nobody thought that the 'Darksiders' series could continue. That is until THQ Nordic and Gunfire Games announced 'Darksiders III (2018)', a game set before 'Darksiders (2010)' and around the same time as 'Darksiders II (2012)'. It's a direct continuation of the series' story, featuring cameos from all four horsemen (including the previously unseen Strife), and will surely satisfy fans of the franchise. The game has been changed slightly to be more 'Souls-like', with a harder overall difficulty and an emphasis on timed dodging. For the most part, though, it's a hack-n-slash with a 'Metroidvania' structure. Its combat is satisfying once you've unlocked more than just the starting weapon, and learnt some actual combinations, and its exploration gets more and more fun as you're given different methods of traversing the environment. The traversal itself is sometimes slightly unresponsive, though. On 'Apocalyptic' difficulty (which I played), the game feels ever-so-slightly cheap because of its tight timing windows and occasional unresponsiveness. However, most of your deaths will be your own fault, which is the mark of good difficulty (no matter how hard it may be). The difficulty doesn't feel particularly balanced overall, though, with enemies starting hard-to-beat and staying that way. A few of the bosses will surely just wipe the floor with you, too, which leads to some frustrating and repetitive encounters. I'm not a fan of the decision to make all enemies respawn when you die and for all your 'souls' (the game's form of currency) to be lost, too. The souls can be picked up again by making it back to the spot where you died, but sometimes this glitches out and the game basically steals the stuff you've been working so hard to get. That's annoying, to say the least. Having enemies respawn incentivises you to just run through most areas, especially if you've already been through them once - or, maybe, more than once - and that doesn't feel particularly great. You need to be fighting enemies to gain souls so you can upgrade yourself, which can itself get tedious because you have to take your time with even the most basic of foes. A lot of enemies feel like they have too much health, lapping up your attacks even when you're highly upgraded. The game can feel a bit clunky in general. Of course, the gameplay is still fun despite its issues. The world design is interesting, the characters are engaging and the story, though bare-bones, does what it needs to in order to aptly motivate your journey. It's of a decent length, as well, and takes you to some well-designed, intriguing areas. In the end, even if it does feel a little economic throughout, the game is an entertaining experience. 7/10
