OK let me start by saying I wasn't caught up in the hype surrounding this. I had some games to trade and it was either this or Bayonetta, with the trade value I got I decided to go for both. I've played the Bayonetta demo and know that i'll like it. But this was a bit of a stab in the dark and with the no questions 7 day return policy at GAME, I thought why not.

It's been described as a cross between Zelda and Devil May Cry/Ninja Gaiden. I like Zelda and i've played the latest incarnations of Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, and if it's a choice of playing either Devil May Cry/Ninja Gaiden again or standing whilst the entire roster of WAXLAN take a running kick at my genitalia i'd still pick the latter. Not that they're bad games as such but it's not so much as a difficulty curve it's more of a difficulty vertical. So I wasn't sold on the 2nd part of Darksiders description.

If you don't know basically you play War of the "4 Horsemen of the Apocolypse" and are called to cause havoc on earth in it's last days, however it's not actually the last days and you have to explain your actions to your superiors. You claim that you were called, they say you weren't so what do you do?? You have to clear your name. Yes it's a bit nonsical but lets face it, it was never going to be firmly rooted in reality!! The above isn't really a spoiler as it tells you this in the 1st 5 minutes of playing.

Gameplay is pretty fun you have an oversized sword and can link pretty impressive combo's (my personal best so far is 53) You hack and slash your way through the minions, whilst traversing you way to the "Dungeons". This includes special kills, when an enemies health is low enough a B highlights over them you can continue to kill as usual (which may take up to another 5-6 hits) but if you press B you can perform a special kill which kills instantly, yes it can be gratutious but also very satisfying. The difficulty curve is just about right, the only time I died I restarted in the warm knowing glow that the death was fully my fault and not because the game hated me and wanted to punish me for buying it.

There are 3 aspects to your personality Health, Wrath, Coin souls, which are released when you kill people. Health is explanatory, Wrath enables you to unless specials which are limited in the amount of times you can use before needing replenishing. Coins are the most frequest drops and can be used to upgrade your characters skill set and weaponary. The scythe throwing weapon is a particular favourite.

Puzzles are fairly simple move this block to here type puzzles so are never really taxing. I've read a lot of reports of screen tearing, i'm playing on a 50" Samsung Plasma and can honestly say I haven't seen any yet, or if I have it hasn't registered and hasn't ruined my playing. There are also collectibles not in a GTA/Crackdown kind of way as chests are generally shown on your map ALA Zelda it's up to you to figure out how to access.

The only gripes I have is the character is slow he moves though the maps very slow, but apparently you do eventually get a horse which should speed things up, the 2nd is it could get repetitive, i'm around 2.5 hrs in at the minute but am enjoying every minute.

I haven't wanted to go home to start playing a game since Batman : Arkham Asylum which I think is a good a thing I can say about this game.

Overall 8.5/9 out of 10

PS - wasn't such a quick review after all.

Nice review, pretty much my thoughts on the game as well, definitely enjoying this one, first hack n slash title I can really say that for.

Edit: Playing atm and I just thought I'd mention I'm getting a fair bit of screen tearing, nothing horrible but enough for me to notice and not like it. Playing on a 22" Viewsonic.