Leveling Down

It may not look it, but Darksiders is a lot like Zelda

Last Saturday night I didn’t feel like getting pwned by 2nd graders in Modern Warfare 2 so I decided to give the Darksiders demo a whirl. I started at around 1130 PM, and didn’t manage to finish until 2! Turns out Darksiders had a lot more demo than I had bargained for. Was it worth it? Hit the jump to find out!

The selection committee for March Madness, aka me, made a huge oversight selecting the field of 32. For some inexplicable reason, I forgot to include a Zelda game in the field! But Darksiders just reminded me how much of an influence the Legend of Zelda has had on video games throughout the years.

Darksiders is essentially a darker version (pardon the pun) of the Legend of Zelda. I’m not talking an homage, or even an allusion. Darksiders is what I think might happen if Nintendo ever let anyone else use the Zelda license. I guess it’s not EXACTLY the same, since instead of being a pointy eared green-clad boy, you are one of the four horseman of the apocalypse trying to restore order to a post-apocalyptic world by killing angels and demons and stuff like that. But seriously, other than that, it’s Zelda! Don’t believe me? Let’s run down the facts.

1. The protagonist is running through dungeons filled with tricks and traps
OK, get this. You are running through a dungeon (well, in the demo it’s a castle). There are puzzles to solve. When you unlock secret doors, the game makes a special sound (although it’s not as cool as the Zelda sound). You traverse the castle looking for keys, which help you to unlock doors, and of course you fight tons of enemies on the way. Even the combos feel pretty similar. Anyway, that’s for starters.

2. You have an annoying sidekick who somehow hides in your body until you hit a button.
Instead of it being Navi, or whoever, it’s some sort of demon thing or something? Anyway, you can call on this friend character to give you tips or whatever, although it’s usually pretty repetitive banter. What’s next?

3. You have a boomerang. The boomerang can select multiple targets. The boomerang can transfer fire between a lit torch and light an empty torch.
Uhhh….sound familiar? When I got the boomerang, I was like, wow, this is kinda Zelda-ish. When I USED the boomerang, I was like, this IS Zelda’s boomerang. The only difference that I can see is that the boomerang in Darksiders is four sided, like a shuriken. Way to keep it original guys!

4. The boss’ location in the dungeon is indicated with a skull. You can find a map to reveal the entire layout. You need a special key to get to the boss.
The hits just keep on coming. I don’t think the Darksiders guys are even trying to hide the fact that they are copying Zelda.

5. You are tasked with recovering the Triforce.
No, not really. But it might as well be in there!

Final Thoughts
OK, so Darksiders is very Zelda-ish. Is that a bad thing, though? Zelda is one of the greatest franchises of all time. If you’re going to copy a game blow for blow, why shouldn’t it be Zelda? Furthermore, the graphics are excellent and the gameplay is pretty solid. I’m not sure what the story is like, but it’s probably your standard epic angels vs. demons type stuff. All in all, I came out of the demo with a positive impression, and this is definitely a game I might consider picking up when it’s cheaper (which might be now). It doesn’t seem like a game that will blow me away, but it also doesn’t seem like it would disappoint me either. A B-version of Zelda? Not too shabby.

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