Highlights

  • Darksiders 3 combines the best elements of action-RPG combat and a streamlined approach to the Soulslike genre, offering a unique and enjoyable experience.
  • The combat in Darksiders 3 requires strategy and skill, with a focus on attacking, dodging, and parrying enemies. Fury's various weapons add variety but still rely on the same fundamental mechanics.
  • Darksiders 3 stands out among other Soulslikes by providing a clear path and linearity in exploration, similar to The Legend of Zelda. This approach offers a carefully curated experience that emphasizes methodical combat and engaging boss encounters.

The Darksiders series, for better or worse, continually shifts genre from entry to entry despite always keeping one foot firmly entrenched in being an action-RPG. The first game in the series is very much a hybrid between God of War and The Legend of Zelda, while Darksiders 2 decided to go all-in on its RPG mechanics and vast open world. After a lengthy hiatus, the series' return in 2018 with Darksiders 3 borrows from the template established by Dark Souls, but it does so with a greater focus on linearity and streamlining of the combat. The result is that Darksiders 3 is a unique outlier among both Soulslikes and the Darksiders franchise as a whole.

In the five years since Darksiders 3's release, developer Gunfire Games has gone on to showcase that it has a great talent for putting a unique spin on the Soulslike genre with both Remnant: From the Ashes and this year's excellent Remnant 2. Interestingly, neither one of those games is as streamlined as Darksiders 3 in how they approach their identity as Soulslikes, and playing Darksiders 3 now with the insight of knowing what Gunfire Games is capable of is still an enjoyable experience that shows the merit in its trimmed-down approach.

Time For Another Darksiders Game
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It's Time for Another Darksiders Game

The Darksiders series skillfully shifts between genres with each game to deliver an engaging connected tale, and it's high time fans got a new entry.

The Streamlined Approach Allows Darksiders 3's Combat to Shine

Just because Darksiders 3 opts for what could be described as a "streamlined" approach to the Soulslike genre doesn't mean that it's simply a hack-and-slash game akin to the original Darksiders. On the contrary, to approach Darksiders 3's combat by mindlessly rushing into encounters is a quick recipe for disaster. Fury behaves quite differently from her other playable Horsemen companions War and Death, and Darksiders 3 fully embraces the delicate back-and-forth of attacking, dodging, and parrying enemies. The biggest difference from Dark Souls, though, is that players only have to contend with one "build", so to speak.

Rather than allow players the same kind of freedom and flexibility in their buildcraft like Dark Souls or other prominent Soulslikes, Fury has various weapons that she can unlock. Each of these new armaments has their own combat style, but ultimately, players are still relying on the same fundamentals that the game introduces early on. As a result, Darksiders 3 is a great on-ramp for teaching the underlying basic mechanics of methodical Soulslike combat, even if it might lack some complexity and nuance at the cost of its streamlined approach.

Exploration is another area where Darksiders 3's unique approach to being a Soulslike shines, especially in its clearly defined path and linearity. Whereas some Soulslikes can present a conundrum when it comes to figuring out where to go next, Fury is carefully guided along the critical path in Darksiders 3, with plenty of opportunity for side quests and distractions along the way. The end result is something like the combination of the original Darksiders, where Darksiders 3 has a clear Legend of Zelda influence baked into its Soulslike gameplay.

In the years since Darksiders 3's release, fans of the series have gotten the excellent isometric ARPG Darksiders Genesis, while the Soulslike genre continues to grow at an impressive rate. Soulslikes are now a much more common ARPG subgenre than they were in 2018, and most games in the genre have attempted to go bigger and bigger with their design and mechanics rather than scale things back to the core fundamentals. If anything, Darksiders 3 shows the merit in giving players a carefully curated experience that focuses on the most important elements of a Soulslike – methodical combat, tense and engaging boss encounters, and a satisfying power creep contrasted with ever-increasing challenge.