--The Charred Council, Darksiders III
Each Darksiders game thus far has its own aesthetic identity or gameplay style. The first is an excellent mixture of God of War and Legend of Zelda with partially-Christian lore, the second is more of an RPG, complete with dialogue options and loot, and the third seems heavily influenced by Dark Souls (then there is Genesis, a top-down co-op game). Darksiders III is a departure from the less strategic and more frenetic style of combat in the previous entries. Careful dodges and timely strikes are key to consistently surviving even encounters with many non-boss enemies. The movements and fighting are still faster-paced than those of Dark Souls, so there is no pesky stamina bar to artificially increase the difficulty of dodging or fleeing. There are other differences that make Darksiders III less punishing than Dark Souls and thus more accessible to general players. Overall, the game is a unique and competent addition to the series--or at least the current versions of the game have less glitches than the original release. As the gameplay evolves, the clever ways of portraying the Seven Deadly Sins as literal demonic beings and the eschatological backdrop also work in its favor as a continuation of the series' themes.
Production Values
With regard to the colors and smoothness of the animations, the graphics are a major success, with Fury, her Watcher, and the Seven Deadly Sins being a graphical success. It is the periodic slowdown and sudden crashing of the game that gets in the way. One of the two times the game actually crashed on me was while repeatedly fighting (and getting killed by) the demon Sloth. Since there were more enemies onscreen than ever before in this part, the likely reason is just that the game had to run more all at once. The second time, the crash was sudden and not because there were more than 7-14 enemy units. The graphics themselves are fine; the game just has trouble running everything from time to time. Unlike the colors and environments, the soundtrack is largely repetitive in this case, as only a single core track tends go repeat throughout the time Fury travels the world outside of boss fights and story moments. Darksiders III reportedly had a much smaller budget than the previous two games and almost never got made, though, so perhaps this is to blame for that. Fury's voice actress and the dialogue between her character, the Seven Deadly Sins, and the Watcher assigned to her all still reflect the high quality of voice acting and writing the series usually has.
Gameplay
This is probably the most consistently difficult of the Darksiders games by far. The camera and controls are similar, but the combat is more oriented towards slowly whittling away the health of enemies, especially the larger ones, as you make precise dodges and then land a hit or two before having to evade a blow that could remove a large amount of health from Fury. The boss battles might have to be retried at least two to three times before avoiding their attacks becomes a smoother affair! A new "Hollows" system also allows Fury to quickly switch between different elemental configurations, like flame or storm Hollows, that have their own secondary weapon and jump-related feature. The returning character Ulthane can use various collectible items to upgrade the effectiveness of the weapons and arcane attacks associated with each Hollow.
These optional upgrades and the upgrades tied to the souls system in the game--yes, like in Dark Souls, enemies drop souls that are left where Fury dies--make the fights easier, but rarely easy to the point of not needing to actively dodge and be precise with attacks. Thankfully, the souls do not disappear upon dying a second time before you can collect them, and they even can contain health refills too. This is so very helpful when repeatedly dying in a boss fight: the souls will await your return. As tough as the boss battles can be, like with the bosses or even lesser enemy fights of Metroid Dread or Dark Souls, the enemies in Darksiders III can become far more easy after reflection and experience help you adjust to the repeated patterns of whatever enemy is being faced.
Combat is not all there is to the game, though. Opening shortcuts, discovering items like additional health refill slots and souls, and beating optional mini-bosses are all there to accomplish if you so desire. There are also humans scattered around the world that can be teleported to Ulthane, the Maker introduced in the first Darksiders, who will give you a special item and enhance its effects as you send various numbers of humans to his safe haven. It is in the best interest of players to explore the ravaged landscapes of Earth and rescue humans, as this will allow access to greater abilities that make surviving enemies much easier. Just traveling around killing enemies can even give a large number of souls if enough of the open world is traversed.
Story
Some spoilers are below.
Fury, the most emotionally volatile of the Four Horsemen, finds herself summoned by the Charred Council to deal with the Seven Deadly Sins (personified as demons) as they rampage through Earth. As angels and demons clash, the Seven Deadly Sins have little to no opposition from anyone else. Fury's brother War has already started his century of confinement after being framed for starting the Endwar before the Seventh Seal was officially broken, and he insists that something has gone wrong with the universe before she hears the same from others again and again. The quest to destroy the Sins also puts her in closer proximity to the humans she merely assumes have less value than herself simply because they lack her power.
Intellectual Content
From the opening cutscene to the end of the game, Darksiders III maintains the series tradition of exploring theological and broader philosophical ideas. The "Riddle of Sorrows" spoken of in the opening cinematic directly brings up the "problem" of evil, going so far as to ask if sin is divine if it is a part of the Creator's world. It is outright stupid that the creators of the game have actually insisted that there is no God in the world of Darksiders [1], when the Creator is even here spoken of in divine terms after two other games presented it as a true deity (if the Creator in Darksiders is really not God, then the game's own lore designers did an exceptionally fucking terrible job with conveying this through the worldbuilding and with conceiving this idea in particular)! Of course, the very idea of sin being divinely supported or intended is philosophically incoherent. An amoral deity leaves no room for evil because there is no such thing as good, and a morally good deity is the only possible standard for actual moral obligations, without which nothing is good or evil, only preferred or not preferred.
There are other substantial or unusual theological/philosophical aspects of this third installment, including how the Seven Deadly Sins themselves are presented. Lust is not the stereotypical sexualized female, for instance. Lust is a fully armored demon who tempts Fury with a lust for recognition and respect as a leader, not with a sexual encounter with an attractive female or male being. While the Biblical use of the word lust to refer to covering someone else's spouse (which is neither the same as experiencing/enjoying sexual attraction towards them nor sexually desiring an unmarried or unegaged person, as many Christians and non-Christians fail to understand) has become one of the dominant uses of the word, lust actually could refer to an illicit desire for anything, a selfish desire to have what one does not deserve or what rightfully belongs to someone else.
Conclusion
Darksiders III is perfectly consistent with the lore and character development of the Horsemen throughout the series in spite of the controversy around it. Ironically, War fought to clear his name of the slanderous charges that he started a war prematurely, and Death fought to bring humanity back to life; now Fury realizes that blind rage is not the rational or just way to live. While the combat is different here, the protagonist's development as a character, as well as the broader lore and themes, perfectly mirrors the norms of the franchise's main installments. Darksiders III is not a betrayal of anything the series has made its core. It might be more difficult in some ways, but make it to the end of Fury's chapter in the grand apocalyptic story, and you will have seen (whether it is accepted or not) how it reflects the subgenre experimentation each main Darksiders game has and further builds the creative lore of this universe.
Content:
1. Violence: Gore is nowhere to be found, but attacks with whip-like blades and other weapons are an integral part of the experience.
2. Profanity: The rare profanity includes words like "bastards."
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