Darksiders Genesis announced, taking the series in a new direction

Well, this isn’t exactly what I was expecting, nor hoping for, from the next entry in the Darksiders series – especially for the next major playable character – but I’m going to try and keep an open mind.

The next Darksiders game, entitled ‘Genesis’, has been announced alongside the release of a gameplay and cinematic trailer.

As expected, following on from playing as War, Death and Fury in the first three games, it’s Strife’s time to shine. But not as expected, instead of a third person action RPG, this time around we’re taking on the hordes of demons in a top-down shooter.

“Darksiders Genesis kicks off a completely fresh direction for the Darksiders franchise, including a new gameplay style, the introduction of STRIFE – the fourth and final horseman – and so much more”.

Those being the words of Co-creator Joe Madureira – and he’s not wrong.

Though, to put aside the cynicism for a moment, judging from the trailer the action at least is looking fairly entertaining, and there’s no real reason to suggest that Darksiders can’t work in a genre like this. In fact, it brings thoughts of Torchlight and Diablo to mind, and with the promise of puzzle-solving and “epic boss battles”, I’m sure the spirit of the series will remain the same.

I’ll leave you to watch the trailer and make a judgment yourself – it’s clearly already mixed at the moment and I think that comes, not from the notion that this is an inherently bad direction, but that fans don’t want to see a downscale of the series – something that the words “top-down” often suggest. But again, in actuality what can be seen in the trailer, although brief, doesn’t look too bad, so hopefully they’ll make the best of this.

The game will be playable at E3 for those lucky enough to be attending (in THQ Nordic booth #823) and is being developed for Xbox One, PC, PS4 and Nintendo Switch. We’ll be sure to cover more info as it comes.