It feels strange to confess that Darksiders might be one of my top ten favorite games of all time.

Keep in mind that I don’t have an actual ordered list in my possession or in mind. I have games that I consider to be foundational and games that I consider favorites, but I’ve never really bothered to sit down and create an official top ten. It just seems a bit absurd since the list will no doubt change as I get older. For example, ten years ago I might have put BioShock on that list. Enough time now has passed that I’m not so certain of its place. In fact, the only reason it’s a consideration at all is the prestige.

When it released, BioShock was a major touchstone of how AAA games could deliver a more literary story. It was the first time many players got to experience a meta-narrative in particular, the game acting as commentary to its own limitation of player freedom. Those familiar with System Shock may have found it “simplified” and lacking a “proper inventory”, but for console players like myself it was a major shift forward in Western games narrative.

Darksiders, on the other hand, was labeled as derivative. The choice description from the press was “a Zelda for grown-ups”. Taking the puzzling dungeon design of Nintendo’s Hyrule-spelunking adventure franchise and pairing it with the simplified combos of God of War and Devil May Cry, Vigil Games released a product that seemed to get a lot of heat for its lack of originality.

Despite all this, Darksiders is most assuredly one of my favorite games of all time.

I owe an awful lot to my existential crisis of last year. Though many of the emotional wounds rent into my soul have failed to properly recover, the conceit of being some supremely knowledgeable game design enthusiast has flown freely to the wind. I am free of such pretentious delusions, which grants me the freedom to simply enjoy things.

While being critical is one such thing I enjoy, I no longer have expectations of myself or the things I prefer. I like what I like, and no matter how objective I try to be there are just some things I like because they appeal to me. At best I can only find a point of origin in my childhood that would explain when I began enjoying certain things. If you were to ask me why I found such enjoyment in, say, Godzilla films, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. I just liked reptilian beasts and monstrous robots. Liking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers may have had something to do with it, but I never found myself similarly captivated by Biker Mice From Mars or Street Sharks. They lacked the je nais se quoi.

Before I repeat myself too much, let me first note that I do understand plenty of the things I enjoy in Darksiders. The first and most important is the element of exploration and puzzle-solving key to progressing through the game as well as unlocking new enhancements and improvements. Within the world are several trinkets and treasures that will increase War’s health, boost his Wrath – a mana-like energy required for unleashing special abilities – and provide boons to his arsenal that increase damage, drain health with each strike, or other possible benefits in combat. There are few categories of things to find, yet each one serves a definitive purpose.

In the meantime, each dungeon contains a series of locked doors that the player must puzzle through. Just as in any Legend of Zelda game, these dungeons are meticulously designed to ensure the player knows where they’re supposed to go and has enough environmental clues and cues to suggest what tools the player needs to use, often before they even know what the problem with the chamber is. Nothing too mind-bending, but enough that the player isn’t just going from combat chamber to combat chamber.

Speaking of conflict and carnage, the combat requires a greater deal of reflect and response from the player than your average Zelda title. While it feels slower and more lumbering than some of my preferred action games, it is filled with tiny little tricks that encourage the player to do more than simply hack and slash. Smaller or flying enemies can be instantly killed with the correct proximity and timing. Secondary weapons like the scythe can control crowds while War is surrounded. A well-timed block results in a powerful counter-attack – one that secret boss Wicked K cannot be defeated without. On the easiest difficulty it may be enough to simply mash the square button, but if the player wishes to spend their souls on upgrades and movesets rather than endless supplies of restorative concoctions then they’ll need to discover the finer points of combat.

Die hard Devil May Cry and Bayonetta fans won’t find an insane list of combinations to use, but the system is more than just a button-mashing brawler.

So the player will be exploring the environment, thinking their way to navigate not just to the next chamber but to secret or hidden items, while also engaging in rather intense combat with demons of all sizes.

Even if Darksiders doesn’t accel at any one thing, it does everything so well that it feels like more than a complete package. It brings to mind the Penny Arcade comic strip intended to describe the joy of playing Mega Man 9. A return to childhood, though in this instance less literally. What has returned is the same sense of unthinking joy found when playing old Super Nintendo games as a child, shrugging off the game’s flaws because so much felt right.

A Trick of Retrospective

If there is any “shame” to be found, it would be in the response to the over-the-top story and art style. Joe Madureira’s art style has been accused of being “busy” and juvenile, but it nevertheless appeals to my own aesthetic sensibilities. When I look at a character like War, even if so many skulls and demon faces weren’t my style, his proportions resemble a character style I had failed to achieve. Massive hands and feet that don’t look goofy in a bulked up body that lacks the same cry of machismo found in Gears of War. Yes, he’s ridiculous looking, but he’s got a sense of style.

At most I can imagine that this game’s art appeals to me for the same reasons heavy metal, fantasy, and anime do. Mix up some Lord of the Rings and Dragonlance with a dash of Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, and Iron Maiden before dipping it all in the animated sensibilities of Record of Lodoss War and Vision of Escaflowne, and you got yourself Darksiders.

Sure, it takes itself seriously, but only so far. If Darksiders is anything, it is that youthful exuberance whose creative energy is founded upon the single question of “wouldn’t it be awesome if…?” It has no conceited delusions of grandeur. It doesn’t seek to be the Citizen Kane of video games. It doesn’t want to completely flip the industry on its head with some phenomenal innovations. It wants to have fun, and if the documentary is anything to go by, these guys had a lot of fun making it.

I’m glad to say that the former developers of Vigil Games – now Gunfire Games and Airship Syndicate – were right. All that stuff was awesome, and I was glad to return to it all for a weekend. I’m currently several hours into Darksiders II to prepare for the third game in November, but I can certainly say I look forward to taking another dip into Darksiders when the urge strikes me. Why?

Because wouldn’t it be awesome if I beat it on Apocalyptic difficulty?