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Name: Darksiders

"When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a huge sword."

War, the second Horseman of the Apocalypse, summoned by the Christian God himself in the book of the New Testament to wreak havoc upon the Earth. Revelation Chapter 6 3:4

In case you're thinking you all missed something on the morning news, then, don't worry, the world hasn't really gone to hell and the Apocalypse didn't happen this morning while you were having your cornflakes; we're referring to the new game from first time game developers Vigil Games and veteran publishers THQ, Darksiders.

The game starts on modern day Earth, the TV news is awash with details on meteors crashing to Earth and the citizens in a panic watching the screens in awe; pretty soon the same citizens are fleeing for their lives as the meteors come crashing down around them, except a quick reveal shows us the true nature of the meteors, they are in fact Angels and Demons crashing to Earth. Death is summoned and awakens amongst a fierce battle between Heaven and Hell, he battles his way through the chaos as the fight rages between good and evil, innocent humans fleeing and dying in their wake. Eventually he comes across a general of the Heavens army, Abaddon, where he finds out that his brothers, the other three Horsemen, have not yet been summoned to Earth and the final Seal has not been broken. Before Death can make sense of what is happening around him or why he has been summoned a demon rises up and kills Abaddon, War takes on the demon himself but has been severely weakened and eventually loses the fight. He is sent before the Charred Council who oversees the battle between Hell and Heaven and have decreed when the final battle should take place, and that time is not now. The Council blames War for the transgression and sentences him to death; War counters the ruling with an offer to find out who was truly responsible for kick starting the final battle and The Council agree, but under some strict guidelines, he must be stripped of all his powers and be his actions will be scrutinised by The Watcher, a keeper of The Council who has the power to kill War should he deviate from his mission. War returns to Earth to find it destroyed, all that remains of the human race are zombie like creatures and Demons roaming the Earth still fighting with the Angels that dominate the sky. War must find his way to a place known as The Black Tower, it is in this place that he will discover the true engineer of the early Apocalypse and who destroyed the human race.

It's here that the game begins properly, you roam the Earth given directions from various creatures you meet along the way, the first such creature is a Demon named Vulgrim who offers to help for an offering of souls as way of payment, such souls are acquired either from slaying your enemies or some can be found in treasure chests located across the game map. Souls come in three guises, blue ones are used for currency, green ones give you back your health and yellow ones add to your magic meter which grants you access to special abilities. You will in fact come across Vulgrim many times as he's the one who'll supply you with better weapons and upgrades to your various pieces of equipment as you progress through the game. The heart and soul of the game is a hack and slash affair, that much is evident from the start, you've a whacking great sword you tote around with you called Chaoseater and pressing the attack button will have Death swinging it round dealing destruction to all those who come into contact with it. Once you've weakened your enemy then you've got the option of a quick kill, this is signified by an icon appearing above their ahead, pressing the quick kill button while in close proximity to your enemy will see it dispatched with extreme prejudice. You can also lock onto a specific target using a shoulder button, this will enable Death to dispatch a particular enemy and concentrate his attacks, targets can be switched and the camera angle changes to enable the best view for the fight. Littered around some areas are grenades that can be picked up and thrown, picking them up and throwing them onto scenery can cause new paths to open, or, you can take out a demon with one, your choice. This isn't random and although the grenades have a short fuse you can quickly pick a target and throw the grenade in that direction. There's also another type of grenade which must be exposed to fire by some means before it will explode, this is lit using one of the weapons found in the game, a projectile weapon known as a Crossblade once this has been found you can throw it at an enemy, or enemies, the targeting system allows you to select more than one target, once the weapon is thrown then it will attack them in that order, if the weapon is charged by holding down the throw button then it will inflict more damage at the last point of impact, returning to you like a boomerang once it has powered down. Attacks can also be blocked, countered or just avoided altogether, this is all performed by the same button and can be quite intuitive once mastered, to block an attack it's just a case of standing still and holding down the button, to counter it you must press the button just before the offending blow makes contact and to dodge it completely you hold the button and select a direction to move. Death can take advantage of his environments in a more platform based way, he can jump, shimmy along ledges on walls, use zip lines or climb up certain types of walls.