Got the game yesterday and played a couple of hours into the night. Characters and environments look gorgeous, but I agree that the controls seem a little awkward. Getting used to them though
Kudos to all the polycounters that worked on this game!
Loving this game even more the more i play it. Also, saw on kotaku a patch will soon be released to fix the screen tearing which was one of my biggest gripes.
I'm loving this one, its more than I dared hope for. I mean, my expectations were that I'd get great stylized fantasy art ( check ) and some enjoyable button mashing combat ( check) but the combat is actually deeper, there is strategy and difficulty curves that are satisfying.
The worlds are quite large and stylish, the weapon augmentation is satisfying, the monstrous characters have a dark side of Legend feel to them, most notably Samael. Its just cool fun, my fav character so far has been Ulthane, well hes a Scottish sounding ogre, its a no brainer that I would like him.
Lots of cool tomb raider / indy style puzzle elements also keep a good balance between combat, exploration, puzzle solving and grinding up through your abilities.
I'd recommend this to anyone. Oh and if someone has gotten past the worm shortly after receiving ruin, pls let me know how you did that, I'm locked here atm and cant get past it.
Keep riding away from him and whenever his head pops above ground shoot him in the mouth, and rb charge outta the way if he gets too close. should only have to do it 3x i think, and not nearly as hard as the next "chosen".
-although that first sand worm is just practice for the real one...
I couldnt get my gun to work, or my shuriken, I've noticed sometimes reloading after reboot gets rid of those glitches, had them a couple times in Tiamats Cathedral also, where I would grab one of those sword keys and it would disappear, or I fell through the floor.
hmmm, can't say i've had that happen. i'm playing on 360 and the only thing close to a glitch i've had is losing your chaos form when the camera cuts to new bad guys entering an area (even when you've just transformed). i wonder if installing it to the console would help?
The first 1.5 hours, I was really trying to find out where all this 'zelda' gameplay is that they kept talking about in the previews before it came out. I was actually a bit bummed that it felt mostly like a mash-mash-mash God Of War game at first.
Once you get about halfway into Tiamat's castle, it really comes out. Minibosses, locked doors, chests with keys, a freakin' boomerang.. It's fantastic. The layout of the dungeon is very much like a zelda game with all the backtracking, opening new sections with keys (swords). Good stuff, this is definitely my favorite game in a long,long time.
I'm really hoping I discover a charge spin-attack soon
I couldnt get my gun to work, or my shuriken, I've noticed sometimes reloading after reboot gets rid of those glitches, had them a couple times in Tiamats Cathedral also, where I would grab one of those sword keys and it would disappear, or I fell through the floor.
Thanks for the tip though
Thank you so much for bringing that up. I couldn't remember what it was I needed to tell about when I went into the office. I had that happen where my "key" sword disappear on me. I remembered something going wrong on my play thru for the Twilight Cathedral and that was it. Now I can inform and maybe that's something that is fixable in a patch.
It is definitely staying in my 360 until I'm done with the play thru.
Ok I've spent some time with this game and after some serious consideration, I've come to the following conclusion.
IT IS FUCKING AWESOME.
I'm glad to see someone from Vigil posting here because I really wanna say that you've done such an incredible job and it genuinely is a great game.
I only heard about it close to release, and I liked the look of it. I got concerned after reading some of the (unfair) slightly negative reviews but after picking it up last Friday and playing, I was blown away.
I desperately wanted to get it on PS3 since my 360 stack of games still dwarfs my PS3 collection and I'm always hoping for that to change, but currently I've only got the exclusives on PS3, anything multi platform is on my 360. I think I'm glad I did though, the colours look a lot better, and I don't get the loading some people have moaned about on PS3.
The visuals are incredible, there aren't many games where I find myself just stopping mid-play and staring in detail at each little bit of the game world... this is one of them, at this rate it's gonna take me about a year to finish it.
I love the gameplay. I've never been into the whole DMC / God of War style action games but straight away, I was really enjoying this.
So once again, awesome awesome work and you should all be very proud.
And most importantly, thank you for giving us such a fantastic game!
Mad Kudos to all the Vigil folk that worked on Darksiders, I'm playing through it now and loving it. The character art is all just grandma slappingly awesome, and I love that it's slightly cartoonish in terms of proportion and color. It satisfies that deep desire I have to be able to crush my foes by flinging automobiles at them and shred them with improbably long air-borne flaming, exploding sword combos....and not be some Japanese fashion designers idea of what is "badass"
I have a friend who hates Joe Madureira's style. Sure it's over the top...but isn't that kinda the point? The funny thing is other wise I totally respect him as an artist. He's a better painter than me for sure. When it comes to aesthetics though I think we just have different perspectives. I suppose the larger question here is, when an artist friend whom you consider to be at least technically more advanced than you dislikes some core aesthetic that you love...what to do with that? I'm inclined to just say fuck it and recognize that we like what we like for different reasons. Anyone else ever been really excited about some art work and you show it to a respected artist friend and get a totally flat or even negative response?
For what its worth, we gave Bayonette 10 minutes at work before shutting it off (a room of 15 of us or so). Dark Siders gets a lot better after the first hour or so.
I tried the bayonetta demo a few days ago... I dont see what so great about it. I find everything about it confusing and weird. Not fun at all to be honest. and I usually like these types of action games.
I just picked this game up yesterday after watching a friend play it for a little bit. I was mostly impressed with the characters. They are very well done!! From the designs, all the way to the final in game version, you guys did an amazing job.
Unfortunately, I do not feel the same can be said about the environments. Those to me are a real let down and just dont feel up to the same standard as the characters. The environments feel really vacant and sparse for the most part. There is too much wasted space to roam around and the level design is not very interesting or engaging. When playing through the levels in Darksiders I was reminded of games like Zelda on the 64 or even Metroid where just the design of the levels and terrain were all very well thought out and visually interesting. Here in Darksiders there are a lot of wide open, flat arena like spaces and different sections feel stitched together. Its hard to explain, but it doesnt seem to flow just right.
The level design and environments aside, I felt that the story really needed work. Not in the fact that it wasnt thought out enough or had enough depth to it, but just that theres too much thrown at you at once and I was left rather puzzled as to whats going on and what is my characters purpose. Some great games that do a really good job at slowly easing the player in while keeping the plot and pupose simple early on are metal gear solid, turok 2, ocarina of time, chrono trigger, chrono cross and bioshock to name a few. They all start off very simply and slowly add more layers to the story.
Im not saying the game is bad, but it is far from great. It really had a lot of potential I feel, which is a shame that it was not capitalized on. The main reason for me to keep playing this game right now is to see all the badass art and great character models. I hope Im not too late to join the discussion but I really wanted to add my 2 cents.
i really want to play this game. Played teh demo at PAX and it seemed really fun. didn't get more than 10 mins of play time but it seemed really cool. Just need to find some extra time to play it and some extra money to afford it. :P
The level design and environments aside, I felt that the story really needed work. Not in the fact that it wasnt thought out enough or had enough depth to it, but just that theres too much thrown at you at once and I was left rather puzzled as to whats going on and what is my characters purpose. Some great games that do a really good job at slowly easing the player in while keeping the plot and pupose simple early on are metal gear solid, turok 2, ocarina of time, chrono trigger, chrono cross and bioshock to name a few. They all start off very simply and slowly add more layers to the story.
I finished it twice up to now, and I really liked that there is so much thrown at you. That way you're as confused as War and it helps you (or at least me...) to identify yourself with him. At the and I was really happy dealing with that one annoying thing (I hope that was not too spoilerish...it is inevitable anyways...) and seeing these three fireballs coming down...
I already ran into the worst fuckin bug with the worm boss. Dont even want to go into it, but he was invincible (yes i knocked off his mask) and i played him for ages not knowing it until i killed myself and found out, yes, it was a bug.
Now i'm stuck on Silitha. I've watched videos of poeple with less health plus constantly taking damage beat her in 4 minutes. I battle her taking damage rarely for ages (insane patience). and i mean for ages! and she wont go down. Same techniques as everybody else.. Same everything except i don't think i have any special air attacks.
Only thing i can think of is that i didn't upgrade any of my aerial attacks and so i'm too weak to do anything to her - and theres no vulgrum around and no way out. I just run around in circles killing tiny spiders getting health and blue souls looking for a frickin bone. I WISH i could just go back and upgrade things. but i can't!! i can't find anywhere to upgrade anything. Yay.
Any suggestions here? my hands are killing me from all this.
I JUST beat her last night, was a total pain. My first attempt was a lot like yours, it seemed like I was doing nothing - died and gave up. Fired it up a few hours later, did the same thing (hookshot to the face - aerial attack) and eventually beat her. After a while, not sure how long it took, she'll go to the ceiling and that's where you finish the job. That being said, I maxed out my aerial moves a while ago as they're probably my most common moves
Wow, i just beat her super fast. Doing the same stuff. So i can only imagine that was like 4 or 5 of the same bug in a row? I really dont think i did anything different! Now i'm just confused. I put her into the second phase in like 4 attacks. Before it would take ages and i would usually have to use the Demon power just to get anything done.
I tried hitting her with some ground attacks this time, but not too too many. Crazy to think theres that big of a difference!! i'm just glad its over.. shit. thats 2 bosses that i've spent more time than i'm willing to admit with out dying. yep. repeating the same thing over and over hardly taking any damage and delivering what looks like alot. *S H R U G*
Great game, visual polish is at 11, really enjoyed a whole lot about the art, if only more games were made like this. Also noticed like Kevin Johnstone, Samaels' Legend resemblance and I think my favourite character.
Almost at the end now, at least that's The Black Throne behind me, which was frustrating, god knows how many hours I spent in there with them bloody portals and blade switches.
Shame there doesn't seem to be a model viewer!
Really impressive for a new studio.
Samael's Legend resemblance was indeed a very noticeable and welcome addition to the game. It was a great ocular pleasure to play this game. The ending was also a great cliffhanger that has me thirsting for a sequel.
I have to say the constant comparisons the media made with this game and DMC/GodofWar rather frustrated the shit out of me when I hardly felt them to hold any merit, if anything it felt more like a much sought after Legacy of Kain/Zelda game more than any of the other games. Sure it undeniably has elements of all of them but I think Vigil did a damn good job of combining it all together to make something more.
Firestarter, indeed the Black Throne was probably the most challenging/intriguing and downright tedious part of the game, I felt like I could party after finally getting through it.
Hmmm, it keeps telling me my promo code is invalid. I signed up to get the email saying when the content would be revealed, but never got the email. Weird.
Replies
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/1/8/
I feel the same way man. This game is just firing on all cylinders for me and I love it! :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
Kudos to all the polycounters that worked on this game!
The worlds are quite large and stylish, the weapon augmentation is satisfying, the monstrous characters have a dark side of Legend feel to them, most notably Samael. Its just cool fun, my fav character so far has been Ulthane, well hes a Scottish sounding ogre, its a no brainer that I would like him.
Lots of cool tomb raider / indy style puzzle elements also keep a good balance between combat, exploration, puzzle solving and grinding up through your abilities.
I'd recommend this to anyone. Oh and if someone has gotten past the worm shortly after receiving ruin, pls let me know how you did that, I'm locked here atm and cant get past it.
-although that first sand worm is just practice for the real one...
Thanks for the tip though
Once you get about halfway into Tiamat's castle, it really comes out. Minibosses, locked doors, chests with keys, a freakin' boomerang.. It's fantastic. The layout of the dungeon is very much like a zelda game with all the backtracking, opening new sections with keys (swords). Good stuff, this is definitely my favorite game in a long,long time.
I'm really hoping I discover a charge spin-attack soon
Thank you so much for bringing that up. I couldn't remember what it was I needed to tell about when I went into the office. I had that happen where my "key" sword disappear on me. I remembered something going wrong on my play thru for the Twilight Cathedral and that was it. Now I can inform and maybe that's something that is fixable in a patch.
It is definitely staying in my 360 until I'm done with the play thru.
IT IS FUCKING AWESOME.
I'm glad to see someone from Vigil posting here because I really wanna say that you've done such an incredible job and it genuinely is a great game.
I only heard about it close to release, and I liked the look of it. I got concerned after reading some of the (unfair) slightly negative reviews but after picking it up last Friday and playing, I was blown away.
I desperately wanted to get it on PS3 since my 360 stack of games still dwarfs my PS3 collection and I'm always hoping for that to change, but currently I've only got the exclusives on PS3, anything multi platform is on my 360. I think I'm glad I did though, the colours look a lot better, and I don't get the loading some people have moaned about on PS3.
The visuals are incredible, there aren't many games where I find myself just stopping mid-play and staring in detail at each little bit of the game world... this is one of them, at this rate it's gonna take me about a year to finish it.
I love the gameplay. I've never been into the whole DMC / God of War style action games but straight away, I was really enjoying this.
So once again, awesome awesome work and you should all be very proud.
And most importantly, thank you for giving us such a fantastic game!
I have a friend who hates Joe Madureira's style. Sure it's over the top...but isn't that kinda the point? The funny thing is other wise I totally respect him as an artist. He's a better painter than me for sure. When it comes to aesthetics though I think we just have different perspectives. I suppose the larger question here is, when an artist friend whom you consider to be at least technically more advanced than you dislikes some core aesthetic that you love...what to do with that? I'm inclined to just say fuck it and recognize that we like what we like for different reasons. Anyone else ever been really excited about some art work and you show it to a respected artist friend and get a totally flat or even negative response?
it also means Job Security Yay!
hope you can post some work when you get a chance Josh
Totally pumped...can't wait to play it (I think I'll buy the PS3 version). I'm a huge Joe Mad fan so this is really sweeeet!
I also checked out Paul Richards' site last night and was pleasantly surprised to see his Darksiders updates. Man, he's a machine, totally inspiring.
I tried the bayonetta demo a few days ago... I dont see what so great about it. I find everything about it confusing and weird. Not fun at all to be honest. and I usually like these types of action games.
awesome work Vigil guys :thumbup: :thumbup:
-- Josh, on his bosses page what the hell is that awesomely phenominal tentyacle guy and why does he hate you?!?
I'm just at the telporting part trying to free Azreal so i don't know if i get to meet it or not.
Unfortunately, I do not feel the same can be said about the environments. Those to me are a real let down and just dont feel up to the same standard as the characters. The environments feel really vacant and sparse for the most part. There is too much wasted space to roam around and the level design is not very interesting or engaging. When playing through the levels in Darksiders I was reminded of games like Zelda on the 64 or even Metroid where just the design of the levels and terrain were all very well thought out and visually interesting. Here in Darksiders there are a lot of wide open, flat arena like spaces and different sections feel stitched together. Its hard to explain, but it doesnt seem to flow just right.
The level design and environments aside, I felt that the story really needed work. Not in the fact that it wasnt thought out enough or had enough depth to it, but just that theres too much thrown at you at once and I was left rather puzzled as to whats going on and what is my characters purpose. Some great games that do a really good job at slowly easing the player in while keeping the plot and pupose simple early on are metal gear solid, turok 2, ocarina of time, chrono trigger, chrono cross and bioshock to name a few. They all start off very simply and slowly add more layers to the story.
Im not saying the game is bad, but it is far from great. It really had a lot of potential I feel, which is a shame that it was not capitalized on. The main reason for me to keep playing this game right now is to see all the badass art and great character models. I hope Im not too late to join the discussion but I really wanted to add my 2 cents.
I finished it twice up to now, and I really liked that there is so much thrown at you. That way you're as confused as War and it helps you (or at least me...) to identify yourself with him. At the and I was really happy dealing with that one annoying thing (I hope that was not too spoilerish...it is inevitable anyways...) and seeing these three fireballs coming down...
Now i'm stuck on Silitha. I've watched videos of poeple with less health plus constantly taking damage beat her in 4 minutes. I battle her taking damage rarely for ages (insane patience). and i mean for ages! and she wont go down. Same techniques as everybody else.. Same everything except i don't think i have any special air attacks.
Only thing i can think of is that i didn't upgrade any of my aerial attacks and so i'm too weak to do anything to her - and theres no vulgrum around and no way out. I just run around in circles killing tiny spiders getting health and blue souls looking for a frickin bone. I WISH i could just go back and upgrade things. but i can't!! i can't find anywhere to upgrade anything. Yay.
Any suggestions here? my hands are killing me from all this.
I tried hitting her with some ground attacks this time, but not too too many. Crazy to think theres that big of a difference!! i'm just glad its over.. shit. thats 2 bosses that i've spent more time than i'm willing to admit with out dying. yep. repeating the same thing over and over hardly taking any damage and delivering what looks like alot. *S H R U G*
Almost at the end now, at least that's The Black Throne behind me, which was frustrating, god knows how many hours I spent in there with them bloody portals and blade switches.
Shame there doesn't seem to be a model viewer!
Really impressive for a new studio.
When did you say Darksiders 2 is out?
I have to say the constant comparisons the media made with this game and DMC/GodofWar rather frustrated the shit out of me when I hardly felt them to hold any merit, if anything it felt more like a much sought after Legacy of Kain/Zelda game more than any of the other games. Sure it undeniably has elements of all of them but I think Vigil did a damn good job of combining it all together to make something more.
Firestarter, indeed the Black Throne was probably the most challenging/intriguing and downright tedious part of the game, I felt like I could party after finally getting through it.
http://community.darksiders.com/blog-post/mystery-code-revealed
Good til March 7th