To aid you in doing this, you can jump in and play any level you've beaten on any difficulty as many times as you like.
However, the real genius to this system is that, as you continue to pummel enemies out in the game, the cores you've plugged in that correspond to the enemies you're killing continue to upgrade through several levels, boosting their stats as they go.Ĭreature Cores add a considerable amount of replayability for folk who want to max out their skill tree you'll need to fight bosses multiple times, for example, if you want to see their core's effectiveness maxed out. It's a massively satisfying and addictive way of refining your characters and there are a load of different cores that give you all sorts of perks and little upgrades to health, dodge effectiveness and special ability power that you can plug in and swap out at your leisure. In order to set a major orange core, for example, you'll need to set enough minor cores to run your energy to the orange core's bespoke node in order to bring it online. Cores can then be slotted into a branching set of nodes and each one plugged in will awaken the empty nodes around it. These cores come in two colours: purple being minor cores and orange the major variety that you'll only grab off bosses and mini-bosses.
As you play through the campaign and defeat various types of enemy for the first time, you'll pick up lots of Creature Cores. If all of this wasn't enough, there are also a bunch of new combos to unlock at Dis's shop to add to your already swollen array of skills and then, the real star of the show in terms of upgrading in Darksider Genesis – and the thing that gives it legs way beyond your initial playthrough – is its delightful Creature Cores skill system. We haven't even mentioned the fact you can trot around more open areas of levels on your trusty death steed by having them materialise/de-materialise with a quick push of the shoulder buttons. We love how Strife has a ton of different ammo types for his gun and how hammering your attack constantly sets you up with a temporarily overpowered version of that attack on a gauge. We love how you can finish enemies off when you've dealt them a certain amount of damage by moving in and pressing A, and that finishing them like this deals AoE damage to surrounding foes so you can start moving from one to another, chaining these finishers together as your chosen protagonist mouths off. There's just so much going on with the combat here, lots of tiny little details and touches. Strife, on the other hand, is much more effective at range, keeping big enemies at bay with his guns and then nipping in nimbly to sort out smaller problems with his curved daggers. War, with his comically huge sword, is very much the up-close and personal type, dodging at close quarters and smashing enemies to pieces with his raw power "you are ended!" he'll cry as he tears the arms and legs off some hapless imp or horned nasty. On the battlefield, both play satisfyingly differently. Let's be clear, this isn't a comedy classic by any stretch of the imagination, but the writing is generally amusing enough and by the end, we had grown quite fond of the strained relations between our two leading horsemen.ĭifferences between the two don't just come down to opinions or worldly outlooks either. However, there's plenty of fun to be had with the pairing of the stoic War and wise-cracking Strife. It's a pretty simple setup that throws you straight into the action with a story that never boils down to much more than getting sent on a bunch of errands that slowly bring you closer to revealing the big L's location.
He's been upsetting the natural balance of things, you see, granting his demonic hell pals all sorts of powers and generally being a big red nuisance, and it's now up to your mismatched duo to take these bad-boys down with a little help from returning series stalwarts Samael and Vulcrim. At first glance, it may seem far removed from the third-person romps that make up the rest of the franchise, but, rest assured, once you jump in and find your rhythm this is very much the Darksiders of old a non-stop kill-a-thon with plenty of secrets, puzzles, platforming and upgrades to keep you busy over its roughly fifteen-hour running time.Ī prequel to the 2010 original, the story here sees you take control of returning favourite War and newcomer Strife as they set out at the behest of the Charred Council to have a stern word in Lucifer's ear. Darksiders Genesis continues the series' penchant for switching up its central gameplay style and influences, this time settling on a Diablo-esque camera angle for its hack-and-slash antics.