Coming straight out of left field, THQ Nordic and Airship Syndicate today revealed Darksiders Genesis, a new entry in the apocalyptic action series featuring two siblings of the end times, Strife and War.
In case that feels like a super-fast turnaround following last year’s Darksiders III launch, that’s because Genesis is being billed as a spinoff that was in development behind the scenes by a totally different studio. In fact, the gameplay is totally different from the third-person brawling seen in the past three series entries, with Genesis shifting to an isometric top-down view with combat earning a lot of comparisons to the Diablo series.
IGN broke the story early this morning, complete with a first-look trailer boasting a brief cutscene and some fast shots of the game in action.
The first three Darksiders games could basically be described as “Zelda, but starring the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” The first two entries, starring War and Death respectively, earned a dedicated following, with last year’s Darksiders III garnering middling reviews and turning off quite a few series fans due to technical hiccups, repetitive gameplay, etc. THQ Nordic said at the time that it performed above their expectations, though, so it seemed like the series might get to continue.
Darksiders was always billed as having at least four parts, with a game giving each horseman an opportunity to shine. Strife, the gunslinger, is the only horseman missing from that equation at this point. And while it looks like he will be the main star of this cooperative dungeon crawler also featuring War, it’s not clear if this counts as his “official entry,” or if we can expect Darksiders IV somewhere down the line.
At the end of the trailer, we learn that Darksiders Genesis is set to release later this year for the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC and Google Stadia. If you like Diablo-style action games with platforming, puzzle solving, monster bashing and loot grabbing, it might be worth looking into.