The Darksiders conundrum

Darksiders was originally developed By Vigil Games for the Xbox 360 and PS3. It was Published on those consoles January, 18, 2010 by THQ and ported later to pc on September 23 that same year. Darksiders was a game that was a jack of all trades but master of none. it had dungeon crawling and adventure style gameplay  similar to that of a Zelda, yet not as difficult. the battle gameplay had critics thinking God of War, though it was not quite as tight. It was for these similarities that it won over the hearts of some of it’s fans myself included.

But the thing is Darksiders is not just a clone of good mechanics or it’s following would not be what it is currently. The game attracts gamers with it’s style and gameplay and keeps them invested with the story, and this is not the deepest of plots like in heavy rain. No in fact the plot of the game was a bit shallow in regards to content. What it had going for it was it’s lore, the possibilities the plot carried. Darksiders story was focused on a character called War; one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. For those of you who may not have heard of them you can find more about them in the last book of the New testament of the Christian Bible.
War’s story starts with a strange twist with someone setting him up to take the fall as part of some great master plan that causes chaos between the angels and demons.  It is this plot of the unknown plan and the lore of the horsemen that drives the Darksiders Franchise.

The first Darksiders game primarily got positive review and great sales for a new IP. it got so much that’s the sequel had to be even bigger, better, more intense, and that it was. The second story featured War’s brother Death, on his epic quest to clear his brothers name by any means necessary. The amazing thing that started to become clear when i played the second game was the way in which Vigil personified the horsemen names into each character’s personality, physical features and play style. War was loud, violent, savage to some degree some might say. He controlled like a tank of a character, relying on his brute strength and overwhelming power to dispose of his foes, whereas his brother death is more of a silver tongued, swift, precise and deadly character. The differences between the horsemen, yet still feeling familiar in the ways that matter is what I believe will carry the Darksiders franchise forward and keep it relevant. I would even be so bold to say that if the Games were Exclusive to one of the three major console manufacturers they would be even bigger.

Sometime after Darksiders II was released THQ revealed that all was not good with the once huge publisher. In fact it got so bad that not to long after THQ filed for bankruptcy in December of 2012, and soon sold off a lot of it’s biggest IP’s in a liquidation auction. Names like Saint’s Row and Homefront were the first to go, followed by others like WWE. What was strange though was the Darksiders IP was not sold. I originally speculated some big publisher would swoop in and snatch this prime series, or even the likes of Nintendo who had just launched the Wii U that could use all the Class A exclusives it could get, however this was not the case and THQ retained the rights.

With the big surprise of this big IP not being sold at the auctions It was not to long till Gamers started to speculate on the future of the Darksiders Brand. There was no indication as to what may happen to it until word that Crytek  had rehired 35 ex-Vigil employees, including Vigil co-founder, David Adams. who is now the head of Crytek USA (a new studio started by Crytek located in Austin Texas).

Earlier this month Auctions were held for the sale of THQ’s last few assets, (DS) included. there is no word yet on the situation of (DS) as the auction is expected to be finalized in May (next month). though there is a lot of speculation as to who may have won the Bid for the IP. Some of which is due to David Adams tweet:

But even after all that we still don’t know yet who won the bid, and even if Crytek USA has gotten the IP Darksiders may not be over the hedge just yet. Crytek Has already expressed that they have no plans of doing a 3rd game for the IP, which if you ask me would be a damn waste.

With Darksiders on the Fence, and no official word till May. I’d like to ask have you played any of the entries in the series and if so leave a comment to share your thoughts of the Series

For those of you who have not played this great series by now, here is a Free Steam code for the first game in the Series. (only one use)
Darksiders – Steam code: M8T3K-J04P2-4CB3G
After Activating the code feel free to join out steam Group and say thank you. Link