Darksiders was something of an anomaly when it first appeared on the scene in 2010. Set amidst the ruins of the apocalypse, the game handed players the reigns of War, first of the biblical four horsemen, and charged them with discovering the culprit behind the premature triggering of Armageddon, a crime for which the rider of the red horse had been falsely accused. The sequel, released in 2012, followed a parallel story involving Death and his quest to clear his brother's name. Both games offered a mish-mash of mechanics taken from other franchises, including dungeon-crawling similar to that of The Legend of Zelda, and hack-and-slash combat in the same vein as God of War. Despite being labeled as 'derivative' by many, the series nevertheless garnered numerous positive reviews, and sold relatively well on multiple platforms. Sadly though, the release of Darksiders ii came out in the midst of increasingly serious financial troubles for THQ, which owned the games' creators, Vigil Studios. Eventually, the former declared bankruptcy, resulting in the dissolution of the latter as various IPs were sold off willy-nilly to any who would buy. For a long time, it seemed as though fans of the Darksiders franchise were doomed to become adherents of a forgotten, incomplete series. Lovers of the series dark tone and heavy-metal art style (myself among them) prayed to the new owners at Nordic Games to finish the work begun by Vigil Studios, and make sure that it wasn't all for nothing. And then, on May 2nd...their prayers were answered. All drama aside, this has been a long time coming. Ever since Nordic Games (now THQNordic as you can clearly see) acquired the Darksiders IP in the frantic fire sale that followed the collapse of the original THQ, they've expressed interest in possibly continuing the series, but have always been vague as to how and when they might consider it. In 2015 however, they released the remastered Darksiders II: Deathfinitive Edition, which was followed closely by the Darksiders: Warmastered Edition the following year. Anyone who is familiar with this kind of thing could've spotted the signals from miles away (though I'm not ashamed to say I wasn't among them). The special editions were essentially the equivalent of Nordic putting their toes in the water to see if fans were still hot for the idea of a Darksiders III. Clearly they must've gotten a good enough reception, because here we are! As for the exact details of this new entry, we don't really have much to go on beyond the trailer. It would seem that like Darksiders II, Darksiders III takes place parallel to the story of the original, with Fury, (standing in for Pestilence as rider of the black horse, because 'Pestilence' simply isn't metal enough for the Darksiders universe) riding out to hunt down the Seven Deadly Sins, who have been released by the breaking of the apocalyptic seals. While you can seldom trust anything you see in a cinematic trailer, it also seems that gameplay might be very agility-oriented, like with Death in the second game, where rather than blocking, you were forced to dodge your enemies. I must say I am highly interested as to how this will all tie together, and I deeply hope that it does well enough to warrant a fourth game starring the remaining horseman, Strife, chiefly because I want a payoff to the huge horsemen versus everyone battle implied to be on the horizon by the end of the first game. I'm not saying I'm not interested in Fury's story; I just hope it's good.
Anywho, Darksiders III is set for release in 2018. I'll do my best to follow along as more information arises. Seriously, I haven't been this excited for a game in a long, long time, so if THQNordic and new creators Gunfire Games are listening, please, please, PLEASE, for the sake of all us fans who are overjoyed you decided to continue the series, I beg you, please...don't fuck this up.
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