We’re big fans of the Darksiders franchise here at Nintendo Life. These games can steal their core mechanics throughout the store and don’t try to hide the fact in the process, but they are pure comfort food; comfortable, familiar, decidedly old-fashioned in the way they conduct their business, and for the most part a lot of easy-to-start fun.
First published in fairly average reviews in 2018, Darksiders III sees the series brought back to its basics, removing much of the flaws introduced in Part 2 for a much more streamlined and basic affair. You’ll fight with all kinds of demonic beasts, solve a bunch of pretty straightforward puzzles, take on bosses, and engage in light platforming action – there are absolutely no surprises in store here. It’s the very epitome of a safe and simple adventure that is exactly what fans of the series will likely expect, a light action adventure with plenty of character in the form of its sassy cast of riders. and demons.
Unfortunately, when it comes to this Switch port, any easy playing comfort you hoped to get from this particular adventure is compromised by some pretty consistent and frustrating technical issues. Yes, the graphics have taken a big hit, as expected, in an effort to keep things running smoothly, but lingering frame rate issues remain. Painfully long load times occur after each death, there are frequent full pauses during the action, and everything from struggles around levels to fights against beasts becomes a chore as a result.
But let’s go back a bit and move on to the bad things, right? Darksiders III puts you in the steely skin of Fury, one of the last Nephilim – and a little cranky – as she sets out to take down the Seven Deadly Sins in exchange for the promise of a position as leader of the Horsemen. . Things start out pretty quickly here with a boss battle in the first five minutes against Envy, and over the next thirteen hours or so you’re funneled through the rest of the Sins pretty quickly as you make your way through. through towns and swamps. , festering pools, bonelands, lowlands and more.
As you pass through skeletons, sycophants, sloth bugs, and spiders, you’ll earn orbs that can be used to level up, buy blacksmith gear, or collect a few shards from the Vulgrim store. Everything is very simple, Fury only has three branches to inject points into – health, strength and arcane – and the different shards in the game allow you to gain health and courage, maximize your fury gauge or put yourself in temporarily in frenzy mode for a short time. increases the damage experienced. Simple.
Fury begins with a whip as her only weapon but, as she gathers the hollows of defeated enemies, she will have access to the flaming Chains of Scorn, an electric spear, a force move that allows her to detonate obstacles in her path and a nice ice stasis attack. This is pretty much everything you would expect to find in a Darksiders game and the more powers you have at your disposal, the more fun the combat, puzzles, and platforming become. Or at least it would do if the aforementioned technical glitches weren’t there to spoil the pain.
During the first few hours, frame rate issues are not shame, there aren’t a ton of enemies onscreen at once and the game pretty much does. However, once you reach the Bonelands – around four hours later – things start to fall apart. With more enemies present at all times, the frame rate really starts to drop and that affects the flow of the action quite badly. Fury’s dodge move, a fundamental part of combat that sees you counter with a furious retaliation if timed correctly, becomes a nightmare to achieve, swarms of enemies surround you as the game stutters and struggles to keep up. and, in all fairness, the whole thing is getting a bit of a mess. We even had a boss fight, against Avarice, which totally pissed us off, our huge foe completely crippled in the middle of the arena as we were hammering him to death. Not ideal.
The platform, which often involves fairly precise jumps and a few swings with your whip, also suffers, and we consistently failed to navigate through gaps and chasms due to the slower frame rate and feel. that we were trying to walk and jump. in the mud. Death comes with loading times that can last for nearly a minute and sprinting into later levels often sees the game come to a complete halt, throw a loading bar, and sit there until it hits. succeeds in catching up with your antics. In short, it’s not a good port, it doesn’t feel good to play – it’s worse in laptop than docked – and, for the price, we just don’t see how someone who has access to other ways to play this game would choose to go with this lower Switch version.
Beyond Switch-specific technical issues, Darksiders III also has a number of shortcomings. As much as it is a game generally pleasant to discover, as this third entry sprinkles a little too much the basics of the franchise for our tastes. Even with a full set of abilities unlocked and ready to rock, the combat here is repetitive and rather messy. Locking onto enemies is painful, and the camera often works against you to mask incoming attacks. The platform can also be frustrating at times – we absolutely are to hate those buggy, callous platform creatures – and overall, the whole effort feels like a step back from the tighter action, exploration, and puzzling found in its predecessors. Even the story, which is usually a climax, feels tired this time around and Fury makes him a pretty one-note protagonist.
Overall then, Darksiders III on Switch is a bad version of a decidedly average entry in the series. If you absolutely must have it and can deal with its technical shortcomings, you will at least be rewarded with all previously released DLC for your troubles. However, we recommend, if possible, to ignore that particular port and grab it on another platform.
Conclusion
Darksiders III on Switch is a bad port of a decidedly average entry into the series. Constant technical issues make fighting and platforming more frustrating than fun, long load times follow each death, and the further you go, the worse these issues seem to get. It’s a shame because we’re big fans of the series in general, but if you have other ways to play this one, we recommend that you ditch this goofy version.