I absolutely love heavy metal and was totally into the world and story. The gameplay just wasn't that good.I don't even know what niche this would appeal to. Fans of awkwardly-controlled, shallow RTS's? My worry with Halverson's review is that he gave it more than 10 out of 10 and said something along the lines of it being his favourite 3d game ever.

It doesn't mean that since he liked Brutal Legend, I won't like Darksiders, but there's a good chance what is a 10+ game for him could be like a 7 or 8 for me.

Well Darksiders is getting pretty good reviews anyway so...

Yeah, there was also some kind of embargo on reviews though....nothing below 8 was allowed to be published before a certain date(today maybe?).

Yeah, I am sceptical, but I want this game to be good. I can't afford it this month anyway. Mass Effect 2 gets priority over everything at the start of this year.

Yup! Same here. I have postponed both this and Bayonetta till later. Mass Effect 2 is the only game I am getting in Jan.

It's not solely an RTS, but a large portion of it is. All the major battles are RTS battles, and the multiplayer is an RTS as well. On top of that, all of the side missions were horribly repetitive. I honestly don't know why they didn't try for a more Zelda-like structure to the game. I have no doubt in my mind that it would have been a much better game were it just a Metal version of Zelda.

I'm probably going to buy Darksiders. It's getting good reviews, and I completely dig the art style. And since it's essentially a Zelda game, I probably won't be disappointed.

So I played it for about and hour yesterday and this is my early impressions.

The Bad:

There is at least in the begining some input lag in attacks and jump animations.
There is a lot of tearing early in the game but it considerably got better further in the game(A patch its being made so fear not =)

The awesome:

The presentation of the game its very awesome I must say,in this point I find it similar to Bayonetta because it uses a lot of glowing colors and I love that.
The combat you may find it somewhat a little simple but to my surprise I like it a lot and there is a very good hit detection an feedback in the attacks and when you get used to it you start to pull some awesome moves,it clicked with me very quicklyand I was pulling this type of move taht I really like,I make a dash towards an enemy and imediatly after I make this move whereI launch the enemy in the air and do some strikes up there in fact Im dashing like crazy and find that its an awesome mechanic,the blocking I find it awesome too and it works.

The voice acting its spot on,War is a badass and Mark Hamill as the Watcher takes the cake as the best,music its awesome too.

I will give some more impressions tomorrow if I find the time to play you know because of a little other game I have and take my time

I don't notice any input lag with regards to attacks and jumps, but the screan tearing is just dreadful. I usually don't care about screen tearing, and up until a few months ago, I didn't even really know what it was, but it's actually bad to the point of being distracting in this game I find. Are they really making a patch for it?Yeah. I was a bit disappointed at first because it was soooo simple, but I find if I look at it as more of a Zelda game than a GoW game, it helps bring the combat into perspective. Also, the dash is awesome, especially when you upgrade it to be able to attack with it as well.I'm loving all of the voice acting except War. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's bad by any means, it's just...forgettable. Like there's nothing that really stands out about it. The Watcher is awesome, but my favourite voice so far has got to be Vulgim's. Even when scrolling through the items in his "shop," he makes little comments every now and then...and there's this subtly to his voice that's just so fucking cool.

My main concern for the game.

Colorful I am okay with that since I prefer Japanese flashy stuff!

Hit detection is something that is VEY important in games like this, and if you say its very good, I will take your word for it. But I did notice in the videos that the attack doesnt make the medium sized enemies react to it...at all. And I HATE that...in any game (yes even NG games).
Its like you are hitting thin air without any progress is being made. They SOMETIMES react but that is if they dont decide to do their animation or they stop their own movement, being whatever.

Well I hope you are right man.

As for me, I am buying it tomorrow.

PS. I dont think I have ever seen a BLOCK in this game from the videos, good to know its in there.

What I like about War its like he seems emotionless towards everything kinda like he doesnt care about either kindom he just wants to kill the people how trick him.

I havent had the chance of hear Vulgrim very much,I have only meet him and now Im collecting the souls for the Horn

EDIT:

@Sath:

Yeah its there,I didnt knew it was a block button at first because I never read bout it in the forums but its there,as for the hit detection angels and minor enemies react very well I must say,if you hit them when they are bout to hit you it interrupts the attack as it should be and especially the angels make some animations and you feel because of the feedback that you are making some damage =)

Ah...sounds good enough!

You remember when I said how the combat was awesome in the combo video...I still stick by that, very nice.

But it will be a bit tedious to play it enough to rank your sword and magic attacks again once you completed it.

It should be a standard in the genre by now to have NEW GAME+ or some sort of a arena mode with everything maxed out and full, that is where replayvalue is for this genre.

I agree.

I have had some of the input lag, its annoying when you go to jump and end up running off the edge of something to your death.

No problems with tearing here, I'm really liking it at the moment, the puzzle bits remind me of tomb raiders in a good way ..:)

I think its apparent if you are used to play games like Ninja Gaiden or DMC,Bayonetta that the input in those games its nearly instant,but I think its only in the begining in the apocalypse because after I didnt feel it.

Hopefully!

Well Ron its more into the game and he said that there is no input lag whatsoever so it must be,once you are in the real game no the begining its all good.

Developer promises a patch for the tearing issues in the 360 version of the game
http://www.vg247.com/2010/01/07/darksiders-vigil-t...

:)

Alimo bringing the awesome news and woth that patch this game becomes Vigil's Masterpiece because that was only my only gripe with the game its perfect in the other areas as far as Im concerned.

Not getting hyped up like crazy, but still being very very interested, really pays off.

Now, I LOVE this game.
Just like I said all along, artstyle, music, combat, atmosphere and voice acting is amazing, definitely one of my type of styles I like to see from westerns (hence why I prefer it more than japanese ones).

The pacing is great, enough platforming, enough puzzles and enough combat, reminds me of NG1 how they mixed those well and had a nice pacing to it.

So far I have gotten quite few awesome Chaoeater moves, bought the scythe with its awesome charge move 360 (awesome visuals for it BTW), just got the windmill shuriken.

I am very happy to say that the combat, is more or so fluid and impactful than God of War for me. Each attack has a nice impact a powerful "umph" behind it. They did it right with the tight and responsive controls, nice sounds and the weight the weapons and character, very happy.
One thing I like is how close the combat is to say NGS2 were you got 3 weapons to use at all times.
Its pretty cool to use the sword and quickly with a press of a button change to another weapon, which is the scythe and windmill shuriken, each weapon having its own buttons is a nice touch and using them anytime is great.

To be honest, I would notice a slight screentearing if I see one, I did not see...at all.

I dont mind that War has the "WoW NPC" look or Arthas voice...do you blame Vigil for loving how Arthas sounds like and a nice look from WoW? I dont blame them, I LOVE LOVE LOVE it.
Everytime War is about to say something, I expect something badass to come from him, and so far, fantastic.

And Mark Hamill...well, its Mark, breathtaking perfomance as any other of the main characters.
And I love ther story and the dialogues in the game, just fantastic IMO...for such a genre anyways.

But yeah, I havent gotten alot of enchancements or items, but a bit.

I played for probably 5 hours, and now I am stuck at some puzzle solving with a moving bridge, so I took a break from it considering I couldnt find a way to solve it.

I agree with Raptor, this can or is becoming Vigil's first awesome game and I will add them to my favorite list for sure right up there with NG, and I hope throughout the whole game, it keeps getting more and more awesome, if so, then yay, worthy to get for any action/adventure fan.

I love the combat, its easy, but also has a depth a bit once combining combos and all.
I would LOVE to see some sort of an arena mode, the game had a objective were you had various tasks in a room with various enemies, you had to do like 4-5 of these rooms, each with different tasks. Now if Vigil was smart enough, they would make such a room as a seperate mode and I would not trade this game at all and would stay and I would play it when I want, just like NG games.

Now one thing I kind of dont like or get annoyed by it from time to time is when there are sub bosses, the tougher enemies.
I tried every combo I would think of, they do not react or get flunged back to my attacks, doesnt make any sense. The only way to get hits in is if you know when their animations are done then you have to quickly dash in hit them like crazy and quickly dash out.

But the dash is something I like during the combat, tons of dashes and attacks and more dashes, very cool.

Anyways, so far I am liking the game ALOT, from production content and the experience I am having.

PS. I hate it when they add review scores/quotes on game covers, its stupid and incredibly ugly.

I will post a bit more impressions later on when I get further into the game.

SATHHHHHHHH!!!

I told you my friend this game its something special doesnt it?

I love it too,it really payed off beem wating some years for it.

Also awesome impressions!

Well ever since the CG meteor video my eye was on this, but the combat was what I was worried about, but it took quite some time until that awesome combat video showed up on youtube, then I was hooked to it!

One thing I forgot to say hen it comes to atmosphere and art is that it seriously reminds me of Hellgate London!
The enemy design and the whole vibe of hell and demons showing up on earth. It does actually make me wish for a proper male human body with a cool armor and weapons and go crazy, would be awesome.
If you look at some of the artwork from Hellgate London you can see Darksiders having some inpseration from it which is great.

Anyways, what strikes me is the artstyle. Even if it is colorful here and there, it still has a dark vibe to the whole thing.
I like the places were there has some hellish locations like destroyed ruins and some cooll divine statues...etc.

I did want to keep the swords that you draw from the statues though, sure you can keep them and fight with them but then you have to put them back to another statue to proceed.

But it is indeed a special game.

Now I have to go back to the damn moving bridge, I cant figure out how to do it, hopefully youtube has it.

Okay someone in youtube made the puzzle, I had no idea who came up with it, but awesome finally.

Trailer http://www.gametrailers.com/video/accolades-traile...

These guys know their job, definitely my type. Great orchestra trailer music for such a game with such a setting.

I LOVE the combat in this, its fast and has a incredible punch when attacking.
God these guys needs to add various arena levels in a seperate mode were hordes of various enemies shows up, I would totally buy it.

I do like it that some times these shows up in the game though, kind of like Ninja Gaiden 2 with its Trial of Rod or whatever it is called, very awesome.