Darksiders, one of my all-time favorite action-adventure series, is back after a pretty long hiatus. Fans have been waiting for a long time to play as the two remaining Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Fury and Strife. We’ll get to play as Fury in the upcoming Darksiders 3.
I got my hands on a Darksiders demo at Gamescom 2018, and now have a good sense of the combat, platforming, and story of Darksiders 3, and it’s protagonist Fury.
In the previous games, War is blamed for ushering the apocalypse and the death of the human race, and Death makes his way to the tree of life to restore humanity and acquit his brother from these false charges.
It’s during those events that The Charred Council sends Fury to the ravaged Earth to find and capture the seven deadly sins.
Much like her brother War, Fury has a partner Watcher – a spirit who guides her during missions but also takes a key role in fleshing out her character by acting as the deuteragonist in the game. During the demo, Fury and her Watcher talk about the fate of the world, while often teasing each other. It would be intriguing to see how the relationship develops in the full game.
Fury is similar to her brother War in more than one way though. The combat was much more similar to the that of the first Darksiders. Fury’s whip feels powerful and strikes heavy blows on enemies. There’s weight behind every hit, and they land with force. You’re not just slashing at them as you did as Death in Darksiders 2. While you can perform dodges and jumps, Fury is surprisingly bulky, which once again makes her more like War than Death.
The demo quickly takes us through a few tutorial battles and to a platforming section. Platforming has always been an essential part of the Darksiders series, and Darksiders 3 is no different – Fury can jump and climb, but she can also use her whip to grapple and swing from pipes.
Finally, we make our way into an abandoned building where we find the first of the seven deadly sins – Envy, who also makes for the short demo’s final boss.
Envy, who looks part bird and part hag, isn’t here to play nice. She launches shockwaves at us, crashes through the floor and flies up high, making the boss battle a mixture of platforming and dodging.
We finally beat Envy and capture her within an amulet. According to the Watcher, Fury will have to battle and catch all seven deadly sins for the Charred Council, but we still don’t know why she’s doing it in the first place.
Once the battle is over, so does the demo ends. While it was short, it taught us a lot about Fury and how she fits into the apocalypse. The gameplay feels good, and I’m even more excited for the game’s release than I was before.
Darksiders 3 will release on November 27 on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
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