– The World –

While being significantly smaller in scale than Darksiders II, the world of Darksiders III feels as empty.
You can backtrack to find weapon enhancements and hidden loot or fight optional bosses, but none of it really adds anything significant to the gameplay experience.
Bar some exceptions the world itself looks very similar to the world of the first Darksiders game, hence feels uninspired and dull, not even managing to rekindle some of that Darksiders nostalgia, when throwing enemies and environments from previous entries at you.
At the same time I am glad, that Gunfire Games didn’t try to create an illusion of a vast world and stuck with a very linear approach of progression through the levels with allowing you to stray from the path here and there, but never far from it, maybe also, because they had nothing significant to add to it.
Also the absence of sidequests is really healthy for the game, making you focus on the main storyline, instead of running pointless errands or finding certain items in boring dungeons to gain irrelevant loot for it like in Darksiders II.
The few puzzles you encounter are not worth mentioning, because they are easy to see through and add no real value, challenge or fun to the experience, which often left me a bit clueless as of why Gunfire Games put puzzles in Darksiders III in the first place, when they tried to reinvent the identity of the franchise anyway.

– Visuals and Performance –

The game itself looks decent at best and is very inconsistent in the quality of it visuals, but never outstanding in any kind of way.
Despite its average looks, the game has multiple technical issues like frame drops, long loading times and tearing.
Also it freezes from time to time to load in necessary environment ahead of the player with textures still occasionally popping in out of nowhere, which is really sad to see in a modern game.
Only the very characteristic art direction of the game saves it here and there, leaning heavily towards the great work of Joe Madureira in the first 2 entries, but not quite coming close to it in my opinion.
Especially the regular mobs are forgettable, while most bosses have very fitting and nicely done designs.

– Controls –

The controls are tight and responsive, one of the few solid aspects of the gameplay in Darksiders III.
But it also has to be, considering that you get less invulnerability frames dodging on higher difficulties, when it is your primary defensive tool in Darksiders III, which leads us directly to the combat system.

– Combat –

The problem with the combat trying to take from Souls and Bayonetta is, that it does not have one major ingredient vital to Souls’ and Bayonetta’s combat system, precision.
In Darksiders you have huge, but also very inconsistent hitboxes all over the place with enemies jumping or sliding around, covering very wide areas with their attacks, which oftentimes just results in a mess trying to be as on point as the Souls or Bayonetta combat and that does not mesh well at all in battles against mobs.
The boss fights is where the combat system can shine, atleast in relation to the rest of the game, because it works inherently better in 1v1 scenarios than in combat against multiple enemies with its rather slow camera and the very stiff lock on system.
You have to study and learn the patterns of a boss to effectively combat it and all the main bosses have a very unique and diverse movepool making every boss fight different from the last one.
The huge letdown here is, that Gunfire Games decided to copy one of the worst design choices ever from Dark Souls 2 and 3 in my opinion, getting conditioned into dodging patterns by mobs, just for the bosses and mini-bosses to utilize that with a new rythm of attacking.
You get conditioned into dodging immediately, when fighting small mobs, but more powerful mobs or bosses always telegraph their attack, then delay it to bait your dodge, track your movement and then hit really hard.
I know it was a counter meassure in the Souls games to give players a challenge again, who mastered rolling and dodging in the first Dark Souls, but even then it just feels unnatural and tries to force a fake sense of difficulty onto the player, because conditioning someone just to break that conditioning again isn’t really a well done combat, it is really, really lazy design.
The additional weapons, the abilities they are connected with and weapon enhancements you can find during the game open up a more versatile way of combat and enable you to approach combat the way you want to and craft your own personal combat style, which would have been a nice addition, if the combat system itself wasn’t so flawed at its core.

– Writing –

But the game also has its upsides.
Darksiders III probably has the best written characters and dialogue in all three games, especially Fury and her Watcher have nice verbal exchanges and actual personalities with Fury also having a maybe a bit rushed, but nice character arc.
Though one must not overlook some really, really corny or even cringeworthy oneliners or dialogue lines, especially between bosses and Fury herself, when praising the overall characters and their interactions.
The voice acting itself is a bit lackluster as well.
Even the very same voice actors go from well done voice acting to completely overacting their lines, which sadly works well with the rest of the game being inconsistent in most other aspects too.
The story is alright, decently paced and has a really hype cliffhanger at the end, but is only able to deliver, when you know the first game, which isn’t a bad thing in my opinion, considering all Darksiders games work towards a final entry as teased in the first game.

Conclusion: Darksiders III is by no means mediocre in all aspects, it just has significant strengths compared to its predecessors like the characters and the writing, but it also has very striking weaknesses like inconsistent and questionable hitboxes, mob and world design, obsolete puzzles and infuriating (no pun intended) technical issues.
Oh well, let’s hope Strife delivers in Darksiders IV, he atleast looks damn cool…kind of like Beelzemon…copycats…again…

The game is a AAA title, but all in all It is just a descent console port.
The moment I saw the lock system and that the fighting depends heavily on that I knew that this game is Not made for the PC market in mind. You have to lock yourself to a enemy and use a key to switch between them… come on… I have a mouse and I do not need that ****.

I found the game harder, which is kind of cool at some point, but rater unfitting with the older ones.

I do not recommend buying it even on sale.

Darksiders 3 is definitely a game from the Darksiders universe. In short, the game has big shoes to feel and it does an OK job doing it but it left me wanting more. Darksiders 3 does seem a bit lacking when compared to its series brethren, at least for those who come in with high expectations. However, the game would have benefited from more risk-taking in areas where it chose to play it safe. Nevertheless, Fury’s story is one worth looking in too, especially for fans who are anxious to see how the next chapter of the four horsemen unfurls although the story can be uninspired at times. Combat and exploration deliver good, old-school fun and the levels are brimming with secrets although there is a lack of the feeling of exploration and wonder that the first two titles had nailed down. However, the story turns out rather shallow and most of the collectibles and upgrades are not nearly as motivating as in the first Darksiders game.