Still reeling from the events on Eden, WAR and STRIFE have been given a new assignment - LUCIFER, the enigmatic and deceptive demon king, has been plotting to upset the Balance by granting power to master demons throughout Hell. What followed was a bloody battle on Eden where the Horsemen, obeying the will of the Council, annihilated the Nephilim. However, this power came at a tragic cost: the Horsemen were ordered to use their newfound strength to wipe out the rest of their kind. Carrying out their orders are THE HORSEMEN, Nephilim (powerful beings spawned from the unnatural union of angels and demons) who have pledged themselves to the Council and been granted immense power. Alone, each is deadly, but played together in co-op they compliment one another well.Description From the dawn of creation, THE COUNCIL has maintained the Balance across existence. War is the more devastating fighter of the two, and his abilities reflect his melee focus, imbuing his Chaoseater Greatsword with a variety of elemental flavours, whereas Strife mixes twin-stick shooting with fast and nimble knifework, caltraps and decoys. There’s more than a hint of Metroidvania about Darksiders: Genesis as you unlock new abilities and backtrack to reach secrets you couldn’t get to before, from Boatman Coins that act as a special currency to stone shards that eventually boost your health and spirit meters. The isometric viewpoint does nothing to temper the brutal combat as spell effects and explosions shake the screen, and the hunt for collectibles is as addictive as ever. The story is fine, providing enough of a framework to prop up all the baroque posturing and wise-cracking alongside lots and lots of demon-slaughter.Ī variety of detailed locales provide a solid backdrop for the action, mixing enough different visual styles together that your eyes will never get bored. War, surly star of the original Darksiders game, has been dispatched alongside his fast-talking brother Strife to uncover and stop the plans of Lucifer himself, who is preparing to launch a civil war in hell after the fall of Eden and the subsequent relocation of humanity to Earth. For those who don’t know, it tells the tale of the Horsemen War and Strife. Elsewhere, it’s the same game in every aspect. I’ve started off negatively, and I apologise if that isn’t what you wanted to hear, but I had to be honest right off the bat because it’s really the only complaint I have to level against the Switch version specifically.
I wear glasses all the time, and I found myself squinting now and then to pick out details in certain areas, which is a shame as it’s a seriously good-looking game on the whole. It won’t be a major issue for some, but for those who struggle with smaller text and “distant” cameras, it could prove to be a problem. Even the button prompts are difficult to read. When docked and displayed on a larger screen, the visuals are a little muddy, nowhere near as crisp or as clear as the other versions, but when played in handheld mode the sprites are so small that it can be genuinely difficult to follow the action. Where the Switch version struggles is the trade-off between playing docked and undocked. There are more stutters, particularly during the more intense fights, but it largely holds its own. That fidelity, quite expectedly, drops a little more in the Switch version but the handheld still maintains a respectable framerate for the most part.
It may not be the most graphically taxing game, but the PC version purrs like a cat, running at a silky 60 fps – a framerate sacrificed in the console versions in favour of (mostly) steady visual fidelity. If you’re one of the folk who’ve been waiting patiently for Darksiders Genesis to come to Nintendo Switch even more so than the other consoles, there’s a chance you’ve also been a little worried about it’s performance on the handheld. Darksiders Genesis was originally released on PC and Stadia in December 2019 and scored 9/10. Switch Re:port covers the Nintendo Switch port/version of a game newly released on the platform.