Darksiders III Personal Review
A Note from the Author
Darksiders series was one of my favorite game series, their Zelda-type puzzles, DMC-type combat, epic fantasy buildings, all of these are so attractive to me. I remember THQ shut down soon after Darksiders II was released, I thought maybe I would miss Darksiders series forever.
In 2017, I heard Darksiders III was announced, I was so glad. But when Darksiders III published in 2018 I found this isn’t the game I wanted. I read many reviews about it, I saw so many disappointing comments. So, I didn’t buy and play it at that time.
In 2025, that was a long time, I finally decided to finish all Darksiders series and write reviews for them. So, I played it, and I found it’s not a bad game. This game is not like a typical Darksiders, but it’s a decent Souls-like game. And I think its 3D Metroidvania world design is awesome.
1. Introduction
Darksiders III is a third-person hack and slash game like Dark Souls, and blended with 3D Metroidvania. You play as a female warrior called Fury, who use a whip and four types elemental weapons to fight against undead and demon creatures.
Unlike Darksiders I and II, Darksiders series’ typical mechanics are removed from Darksiders III. The Devil May Cry like combat system, Zelda like dungeon explore and puzzles, horseback riding, semi open-world, all of them have disappeared from Darksiders III. Darksiders III use the typical Dark Souls mechanics instead of the old Darksiders mechanics.
2. Gameplay Mechanics
Typical Souls-Like gameplay
All Darksiders series’ classical mechanics have been removed from Darksiders III, but Gunfire Games bring us many new mechanics that come from Dark Souls.
If you are fan of Dark Souls like me, you will find that there are so many things same as Dark Souls. You play as a female warrior, use a chain whip as your main weapon and four types of elemental weapons to fight against monsters, undead, demon and fallen angel.
The main weapon chain whip is the most useful weapon in this game, it offers quick attacks with good range and moderate damage and it can do wide-range attack, so I usually use the main weapon during my play time.
If I want to use other elemental weapons for my secondary weapon, I need to switch forms to one of the four elements (Fire, Lightning, Force, Ice). When I equip elemental hollows, my secondary weapon will transform to the elemental weapon that fit my current element form.
Every elemental weapon match to one element: Dual-Knives (Fire), Spear (Lightning), Warhammer (Force), Broadsword (Ice).
If you beat DLC bosses, you can unlock the variety of the elemental weapons, like Dual-Knives to Dual Claws, Spear to Polearm, Warhammer to Battle Axe, Broadsword to Scythes. These varieties of the elemental weapons attack patterns are same as its original weapon, the combos are same too, so I did not spend time to use them.
Every weapon has its own combos, charged attack and special attack (use mana). There are two ways to use weapons: the combos using button X are all main weapon attack (deal Physical Damage), and the combos using button Y are all secondary weapon attack (some combos may deal Arcane Damage),I can hold Y to perform a charged attack (deal Arcane Damage).
Some elemental magic attacks are effective against several enemies that fear one of four elements, but most of enemies in this game do not fear any element.
Darksiders series’ typical transform gameplay is also included in this game. Every time you hit enemy you will get some chaos power, when the chaos power is full, you can transform to a demon form in a short time. You can do high damage and become invincible during the demon form; it can reduce the combat difficulty.
The combat rhythm very like Dark Souls but more quickly. The enemies have high attack damage, and they will attack you like a crazy dog when they see you. But your attack damage and speed are also high, so you can defeat most of the enemies quickly.
The combat experience is like Dark Souls mix with Bayonetta. The damage of enemies and me are all high, so I need to avoid getting hit as best I can, and I must attack the enemy in the right time and do not try to make combos if the enemy may attack me.
But unlike Dark Souls, I move and attack more quickly. If my combos did not stop by the enemy’s attack, I can make a high-speed combo to kill most of enemies and did not get hurt.
I cannot parry the enemy’s attack but I can dodge enemy easily, and if I dodge right before an enemy hits me, I will trigger a “perfect dodge” and launch a counter-attack (it can deal huge arcane damage).
The usage of souls in this game is same as Dark Souls. I can earn souls from kill enemies or use some items, and then I can use souls to buy items and upgrades from the merchant (he always appears in the Vulgrim Plinth).
I can also feed souls to the merchant to get level up and after I level up, I will get attribute point, and use attribute to level up 3 types of character stats: Health, Strength (Physical Damage), Arcane (Arcane Damage).
If I die, I will respawn on the Vulgrim Plinth and lose all souls, and all the enemies (except the bosses and some special enemies) also respawn, just like Dark Souls. But unlike Dark Souls, if I rest at the Vulgrim Plinth without dying, the enemies will not respawn.
The death penalty in this game is only losing souls that you bring, and if you go to the area where you died again, you will see a flying ghost that bring the souls you lost appear in the area you died, if you hit it, you will get the souls you lost. Even though you die again before you get the souls you lost, the flying ghost will not disappear.
The health recovery mechanics are same as Dark Souls but a little difference, if I lose health, I can use a health recovery item called “Nephilim’s Respite” (like the Estus Flask in Dark Souls) to heal myself.
The Nephilim’s Respite has several use charges same as Estus Flask, but unlike Dark Souls, I don’t need to refill the use limit by the campfire. Every time I kill any enemy I will a chance to get a green soul.
The green soul will refill my Nephilim’s Respite’s use limit, and the drop rate for green soul is high, so I usually fill full the Nephilim’s Respite’s use during my play time.
The boss fight in this game is like Dark Souls too, but it is a pity that there are only 8 main bosses (include one tutorial boss) and 7 side bosses, and there are several elite enemies as mini-boss in the early dungeons.
In my opinion, the Souls-like part in this game is not bad, and if you compare it with other Souls-like games I think it is good. This game has good combat experience, its hit feedback and haptic response is good too, every time I hit enemy, I feel cool.
Interconnection Dungeon World and 3D Metroidvania Explore
This game has an awesome 3D Metroidvania World. The game’s world is based on a modern city ruin where mixes many fantasy elements.
There are several zones (one of them is outside zone, the others are dungeons), every zone has its own theme and 5–7 sub-zones, and every sub-zone has many areas. I cannot count how many areas in these sub-zones.
The game’s map is like an interconnected hub. There are many paths and hidden paths appear in many areas. Most of paths like a shortcut that lead you from one area to the other area of the same sub-zone.
These shortcuts make you do not need to across many areas to the area where you want to. Some paths are blocked by the barriers that you need to use the right elemental weapon to break them.
The hidden paths are many in this game. They appear in the blind spot that you will skip them easily. They maybe are a vent behind a cave or a broken ceiling that you can jump to another zone.
These hidden paths are shortcuts too, but they are not just normally shortcut that bring you form one area to the other area of the same sub-zone, they can lead you from one sub-zone to another sub-zone of the same zone, some of them even can lead you from one zone to another zone.
There also have many areas especially some important areas where need you to use some elemental power to reach them, every time you beat an important boss, you will unlock a new element, and you can use the new elemental power to reach the areas where you cannot go to before. So, this part is a typical Metroidvania gameplay but in a big 3D world.
In some areas of some dungeons, there a few puzzles that need you to use your elemental power to solve, if you solve these puzzles, you may unlock a new path or get some treasures. But the puzzles’ number is the least of Darksiders series, it just like a palate cleanser between combat and explore.
But unlike other Metroidvania games, this game does not have a map menu. I often get lost during exploration, it forces me to remember the whole map in my memory.
So, if you don’t play through it in one go, the interruption can be punishing — you’ll have to re-orient yourself and regain your sense of direction when you return.
I know it’s the typical game design for Souls-like game but I don’t like it, but Dark Souls don’t have some many paths and areas where need to use some magic powers to reach, and I don’t need to revisit old areas and use new power to unlock some puzzles to get some unique chests in Dark Souls.
So, lack of an in-game map is not fit for Darksiders series, it’s luckily the map menu and treasure map is back in Darksiders: Genesis.
3. Progression and Upgrade
Character Customization
Every time I level up, I will get attribute point, I can use attribute point to choose one of the character stats: Health, Strength (Physical Damage), Arcane (Arcane Damage) to level up.
This game doesn’t have any skill point and skill tree, so I can’t make my own build like other ARPG game, and I think this game is like a pure action game more than a ARPG game.
Weapon and Armor Upgrade
You will get a variety of weapon upgrade materials (called “XX of Adamantine”) during your dungeon explore.
These materials appear somewhere of every zone as you explore reward, if you beat some elite enemies or mini-bosses you will get them too, you also can buy them from the merchant after you defeated some important bosses.
These weapon upgrade materials have 5 tiers, every tier match to several weapon levels (like +1 to +3), you can use them to upgrade one of your weapons’ levels by the blacksmith.
The weapon’s levels are from 0 to +13, the higher weapon level need to use more high numbers of high tier materials to upgrade, when you first play this game, you can only upgrade your weapon to level +10, the tier 5 materials will unlock in New Game+ mode.
There are several armors in this game, each armor brings a unique buff, when you first play this game, you can only get a few armors and you cannot upgrade any armor, but you can get new armors and armor upgrade materials in in New Game+ mode.
Enchantment and its Upgrade
The weapon enchantments (first appear in Darksiders 1) have returned to this game and they are more useful than the enchantments in Darksiders 1.
There are 15 enchantments（12 in main game and 3 in DLC）in these games, each enchantment brings two types of passive buff (like one buff add your weapon damage and the other one add your max health), each weapon can slot one of enchantments.
The enchantments can be upgrade too, there are two types of enchantment upgrade materials in this game: angel materials and demon materials, these enchantments also have two paths to choose to upgrade: angel or demon?
The Angelic Path: Uses Angelic Artifacts to enhance the Angelic passive bonus.
The Demonic Path: Uses Demonic Artifacts to boost the Demonic passive bonus.
Each path has three levels, the higher level cost more materials, if you already upgraded a enchantment to level 3 by angel/demon path ,you can cost the opposite materials(if you upgrade by angel materials, use demon materials) and a unique upgrade material to upgrade this enchantment to level 4 and you will maximize both buffs, they are very strong and useful in this game.
4. Unique Flavor
Unlike most of Souls-like games that focus on combat, this game keeps Darksiders series’ unique flavor: dungeon explore, puzzles, angel and demon theme, ruins of modern city with fantasy elements, these things are the big difference between Darksiders III and other Souls-like games.
5. Storytelling and World-Building
Main Plot and Narrative Quality
The story of this game is the simplest of Darksiders series. You play as Fury; she is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
She gets a mission from the Charred Council: travel to the Earth and defeat the Seven Deadly Sins, and when she finishes all seven sins, she uncovers a scheme that the real reason of the Earth’s ruin was caused by the Charred Council fear the human beings.
The only shining gem of this story is about our protagonist “Fury,” at the beginning of the story Fury is like a spoiled brat, but every time she meets one of the Seven Deadly Sins, the Sins make her reflect on herself, at the end she becomes a better person.
In my opinion, the story is like a simple straight line, I just go from a dungeon to another dungeon, meet Bosses and listen to the short speech of the boss before fight, kill the boss, there are no more story.
Characterization Quality
There are only a few characters in this game: the demon merchant Vulgrim, the blacksmith Ulthane, the Lord of Hollows, and the Seven Deadly Sins.
Vulgrim, Ulthane all are the characters come from Darksiders I, but they just like Utility NPCs here, Vulgrim sell me something and help me level up, Ulthane help me upgrade my weapons and give me a mission to rescue human survivors.
The Lord of Hollows is the new character in Darksiders series and only appear in Darksiders III. In the story every time our protagonist “Fury” defeat one of the Seven Deadly Sins he will give a new hollow (unlock new elemental power) to her but don’t tell her why, right before the final boss fight, he tells Fury he was one of the Charred Council and the truth about ruins of human, you can choose fight with him or let him go.
It is shame that there is no more story about the Seven Deadly Sins, unlike Dark Souls or Elden Ring’s Bosses come with their own story. There is only a speech before boss fight to show us the boss’ personality, and there is not any item information describe the boss’ background story like Dark Souls.
World-Building Quality
The world-building is the worst part in this game compared to the whole Darksiders series. This game fails to meaningfully expand on the world-building of Darksiders series.
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The story is only happened in the Earth, and the game does not really flesh out the lore of Darksiders universe.
6. Visual Experience
Visual Art Style
One of Darksiders series’ features is its classic 90s American comic book style visual art, but this game isn’t like other games of the series.
When I first play this game, I can’t believe it’s a Darksiders game, I feel like I just play a typical generic Unreal Engine demo. It’s too real for a comic style game, only our protagonist and the NPCs look like a comic character.
The monsters and the buildings just like other games but not Darksiders, so I can’t describe this game’s visual art, it’s not real and not comic.
Visual Consistency
The main characters, the bosses, the weapons that we use in this game are all comic styles like the typical Darksiders game but more detail.
But the buildings, the enemies, the environment in this game just like other games that use UE4 engine.
It’s like two visually different games mix into one, only the void DLC’s enemies and buildings are like the old Darksiders games’ comic style.
Visual Details
This game’s environment and monsters’ models are simple, but the environment’s textures are full of details, so it made they look like real style.
And the opposite is the characters’ models are more complicated to show us the details of the clothing and equipment, but their textures are simple to make them like a comic character.
7. Controls and UI
Controls
Unlike Darksiders I and II’s control, Darksiders III change many things.
The Parkour part is removed, so I do not need to jump between pillars or run along with walls. Most of time I just press X or Y to combat with enemies and press RB to dodge the attacks.
The Combat controls is more like the most of Souls-like games: button X for normal attack, button Y for power attack or wide attack.
The combos list is simple for the not hardcore game players, the combos just like “XXX or YYY,” you do not need to remember any complicated combo set.
UI
The UI is minimalist, but clean is not bad for a Souls-like game.
The combat UI is simple and clean: health bar, wrath(mana) bar, chaos bar, the number of health recovery items, besides them this game only the direction UI and the Souls number.
The menu UI is simple and clean too, in my opinion, this game’s UI is the best of Darksiders series, the only thing that I do not like it is the lack of map menu.
8. Difficulty
Normal and Elite Enemies Combat Difficulty
In my early playthrough, I must be careful for every fight with normal enemy.
If I’m careless maybe I will die by a normal attack from a normal enemy (the enemies’ attack damage is high and they all want to make a combo on you), and the elite enemy’s attack damage is very high to me when my level is low, every elite enemy’s hit may take 30% health, and I will die in 10s.
But I can level up my health, my attack damage, upgrade my weapons’ damage, and the enemy’s health and damage are no change, so in the later stages I can finish most of enemies in 2–3s and do not get any damage.
The Boss Fight Difficulty
Unlike other Souls-like games, this game’s boss fight is easier than many elite enemies fight.
The boss’ attack patterns is simple and repetitive, their attack damage is high but you can dodge the attack easily, and they lack of wide range attack.
Explore and Puzzles Difficulty
The dungeon areas’ number is too many, and I use the word area because this game’s dungeon area is much bigger than the dungeon rooms in the other Darksiders.
Every area of dungeon is big and there are many monsters. There are at least 3 entrances where can lead you to other areas and hidden items in these areas.
You can freely choose the direction where you want to go, every direction you choose will you to a new area or a new entrance.
There only a compass UI led you to the location of the next main boss, if you don’t want to fight boss you don’t know which direction you should choose.
So, if you just want to beat the main boss, follow the arrow and you will meet them, it is easy.
But if you want to explore the rest of dungeons, you need to remember the whole dungeon map in your mind, I usually forget which direction that I have not go to and then I go to the area I have visited.
This game’s puzzles are easy, most of time I just use some elemental power to reach a new area and pull a switch.
9. Side Content
Side areas and bosses
If you only follow the arrow and fight the main boss, you may only visit about 30% — 40% areas of dungeons.
The side areas of dungeons have many collectibles (upgrade materials and enchantments) and 5 side-bosses, the side boss does not have story but if you beat them, you will get a unique upgrade material.
In my opinion, the game’s side content was a pleasant surprise, I played many action-adventure games that 80% in the main quest, these game’s side content just like a dessert, but this game’s side content like a main course.
Rescue Human Survivors
There are 20 human survivors hide in somewhere of dungeons waiting for you to rescue, if you rescue 5 of survivors, the blacksmith with you a unique item with strong buffs, and then every time you rescue 5 of survivors the blacksmith will upgrade the item.
The Crucible
(an arena challenge DLC)
The Crucible is an arena challenge, it’s one of Darksiders series’ iconic gameplay feature, you need to beat numerous enemies by many waves, each wave come with difference types and numbers of enemies.
Every time you finish 5 waves you can choose: leave to get rewards or continue for future more score, if you chose to continue but died before you finish 5 waves you will lose all your score.
Every time you finish 5 waves and chose to leave, you can exchange your score for some Crucible coins. You can use these coins to buy some item from the Crucible NPC, but most of these item you can get them from normal game progression.
Every time you finish 25 waves you will meet a new boss, if you beat it, you can unlock the next stage of the Crucible, and the Crucible NPC will unlock more item you can buy.
You can buy some unique equipment (like some armors) when you reach milestones within the Crucible.
The Void
(a dungeon exploration DLC)
The Void is a typical Darksiders’ dungeon come with puzzle rooms, hidden chests and boss fight, all things just like Darksiders I and II.
There are four areas in this dungeon, each area math one of the four elements (Fire, Lightning, Force, Ice). Every area come with several elemental puzzle rooms and elemental golem enemies. You need to use elemental powers to solve puzzles and then you can pass the paths or get some hidden chests.
Every area has a huge elemental golem for the area boss, all of them like copies of each other just the element is different. Every time you beat an area boss, you can get a variety of the elemental weapons and an elemental armor (like Flame Hollow Armor).
When you finish all four areas, you can fight the final boss the dungeon: a super golem with four elements, if you beat it, you can get Darksiders series’ iconic armor: the Abyssal Armor.
10. Conclusion and Score
Overall Impression
Darksiders III is a typical Souls-like game that mix with 3D Metroidvania explore.
Its combat is good and the explore content is full, but it does not feel like a Darksiders game. Its boss number is a bit low for a Souls-like game.
Darksiders series’ typical Zelda like puzzles and American comic book visual style are not in this game.
If you are a fan of Darksiders, you might feel disappointed, but you like souls-like game, it may be good for you.
Pros:
- Good combat experience, good hit feedback.
- 10+ hours dungeon explore content.
- Connected world, 3D Metroidvania.
Cons:
- Boss fight is too easy for a Souls-like game.
- Unlike the other Darksiders game.
- No map menu (It should be in a Darksiders game)
Target Audience:
Darksiders fans, fans of Souls-like game.
Rating:
- Gameplay: 7/10
- Story: 6/10
- Visuals: 6/10
- Controls: 7/10
- Overall: 6/10
