Darksiders 3 was released back in 2018 and introduced us to Fury, a fast-paced and agile character that had no trouble at all defeating her enemies. Now, years later, it’s time for a Nintendo Switch version of the game. Is it worth it? Let’s find out!
Darksiders 3? Time for a recap!
Taken from my original review:
The story of Darksiders 3 takes place during the same era of the two previously released games. For those unfamiliar with the story, let me briefly explain it. The Apocalypse came too early, disturbing the balance between Earth, Heaven, and Hell. War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, got blamed for this in the first Darksiders. As War, you needed to clear your name during a quest involving tons of powerful enemies.
In the second Darksiders game, you took control over Death, War’s brother, and another Horseman. As Death, you felt sorry for War and felt the urge to help clear his name. Death had to save his brother and the entire human race while he was at it. Darksiders 2 offered an interesting look at the second and perhaps most deadly Horseman.
In Darksiders 3, it’s time for Fury to take the lead, as the third Horseman. What’s interesting is the fact that Fury isn’t a man at all, but she’s a force to be reckoned with. Right from the start, she’ll introduce herself as a badass warrior who isn’t afraid to make her hands dirty. The story itself is told in a typical Darksiders fashion, meaning you’ll see a lot of epic scenes narrated by someone who’s way too serious. The story has its strong moments but it all revolves around the Seven Deadly Sins who came to Earth as devastating monsters. It’s Fury’s task to track down those monsters and bring them down one by one. It’s a typical Darksiders story and I’m sure fans of the franchise will enjoy every second of it, although it’s not the most groundbreaking story out there.
Fury is a lot different from the other two protagonists. She’s a lot faster and uses an extendable weapon that looks extremely similar to the weapon of Ivy in the SoulCalibur franchise. Although it’s an amazing weapon that allows Fury to unleash both close and long-range attacks in mere seconds. Besides that, she can also use it as an improvised grappling hook during one of the many platform segments. The weapon itself isn’t the biggest innovation for this new warrior, her speed is.
Compared to War and Death, Fury moves a lot faster. That also means she’s the most flexible character in the franchise yet. Her speed is crucial in combat since Fury can’t really defend herself against heavy attacks. In order to survive, you’ll need to dodge the attacks at the right time. Not that easy at first but once you get the hang out of it, it comes close to rhythm games. There’s something about the combat that I really appreciated. It’s not as modern as games like God of War, instead, the combat feels like something from another generation and that’s exactly what I like it this much. Darksiders 3 doesn’t want to impress with overcomplicated combat, it wants you to enjoy killing as many enemies as possible without ever having to worry about the buttons. For me personally, this works. I like the straightforward combat and if you manage to keep your momentum, combat can easily take you to some kind of trance while playing.
Having old-school combat in your game isn’t a bad thing but combining it with old-school platform segments isn’t that good. As much as I liked the combat, I disliked the platform segments. Fury is really flexible and fast but she didn’t always respond correctly to my input, resulting in her falling down a couple of times without I ever intending to do that. It’s a shame that the semi-open world and its platform segments aren’t better than they are now. The world feels too uninspired and the generic platform segments can’t save it from mediocrity, a shame really since there’s a lot of potential in the world of Darksiders.
The Nintendo Switch version
The game itself remained the same on Nintendo Switch and comes packed with some extra content, bringing the total to over twenty hours of gameplay. If you’re buying this game on the Switch, you’re buying a rather rich adventure that will bring you hours of entertainment. As far as the port itself goes, it’s a decent port. I tested it on my Nintendo Switch Lite and although I encountered some technical hiccups, the game is perfectly playable and enjoyable in handheld mode. The graphics are pretty impressive for a Switch game and I love the fact that the team managed to keep up with the level of details of the original. Just like the original release, however, the game does still suffer from a bit too many issues. Again, it’s nothing game-breaking but those technical hiccups do take you out of the immersion for a couple of seconds, which is a shame, to be honest.
That being said, it’s great that Nintendo fans finally can get their hands on the third Darksiders entry and when it comes to the gameplay itself, this is certainly worth buying. Controlling Fury in handheld mode is as intuitive as it should be and before you know it, you’ll be slashing demons like you never did something else. It’s certainly a worthy addition to the Nintendo Switch library and brings another great action game to the hybrid console. I can’t wait to see how this looks like on the upcoming OLED model since I’m pretty sure that model will handle the darker tone of the game even better.
Conclusion:
The Nintendo Switch version of Darksiders III offers a solid port that sadly still suffers from some technical issues, although never game-breaking. That being said, this still is a great action-adventure that’s filled with hours of fun. Thanks to the added DLC, you’ll be enjoying this title for the next coming weeks. If you’re a fan of the franchise, this is certainly worth buying, especially now that you can carry it around everywhere you want to go.
