The time for the world to end has come. Or has it? In Darksiders, the forces of heaven and hell are unleashed, and a battle of apocalyptic proportions begins on Earth. In the midst of the fight enters War, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, whose duty is to punish all evildoers, be they angels, demons or humans. Through a series of events, War discovers that the apocalypse was not meant to happen so soon and that he is blamed for causing it. Thus begins War’s quest to prove his innocence and take down the legions of hell; it’s all in a day’s work for one of the four horsemen.

As the player in Darksiders, you control War as he is sent back to Earth to fight 100 years after the apocalypse. The Destroyer, leader of all hell’s armies, has dominance over the planet, and all humankind is gone. You enlist the aid of a few demons who have fallen from the Destroyer’s favor, and they work to help you get to the Black Tower, where lies the source of the Destroyer’s power. You will find yourself journeying through broken buildings, frozen wastes, lush greenery and even a vast desert formed from the ashes of the dead. The environments look excellent, with everything from lighting to textures blending very nicely. I would go so far as to stop and just look around at the scenery when I came to a new area.

Darksiders could be defined as a hack-and-slash game. The bulk of the game lies in combat. You acquire three main weapons eventually and multiple attacks for each, which can be upgraded or bought from the demon merchant Vulgrim. All of these attacks can be chained together in elaborate, flashy and devastating combos. This means that the fighting is always fresh and far more difficult. Who wouldn’t love to romp through a post-apocalyptic planet, battling hell spawn along the way? Darksiders ensures that this is plenty of fun. The AI is top-notch, meaning that brains are just as important as brawn in a fight.

Speaking of fighting, this game is rated M for a reason. The amount of blood and gore are intense, providing very satisfying kills. After a tough enemy has been beaten enough, an icon will appear over its head, allowing you to execute a fancy finishing move, often involving more blood than ever. Decapitations, disembowelments, beheadings and the like are commonplace as War brutally reminds his foes who is on top of the superhuman food chain.

However, Darksiders offers more than just intense combat action. Following the grand tradition of adventure games, there are many puzzles along the way, items to be acquired, dungeons to be navigated, bosses to be battled and plenty of story to unravel. The puzzles are innovative, testing a variety of War’s abilities and the player’s intelligence. I found myself stumped more than once trying to solve elaborate challenges in the game. These range from pushing blocks into place, triggering switches and crossing lava pits to avoiding dangerous environmental features and even stopping time.

Each of the dungeons in Darksiders has an item stored down in its depths, and upon acquiring it, you will be able to access new areas in the dungeon. This item will be the key to future puzzles as well as to beating the boss. Also, the item will allow you to get to new areas outside of the dungeon. Suffice to say that the items are creative, having multiple uses, often aiding in combat as well as puzzles. The dungeon system works much like other games, where you find chests with keys or a map to the dungeon. Darksiders treads very familiar territory here but keeps things interesting anyway.

Any seasoned gamer will see this game pull elements from plenty of other tried and true paradigms. Due to this, the game does lose some of the dramatic momentum that it builds at the story’s start. The plot devolves into a lot of fighting and a lot of puzzles without much to spice things up. However, both the combat and puzzles are pulled off to perfection, meaning that as the gamer, you become immersed in whatever Darksiders throws at you. It may not exhibit any revolutionary gaming techniques, but it is a great adventure nonetheless.

Despite the lull in the action, Darksiders hardly goes out with a whimper. It goes out with an earth-shattering bang. Being wary of giving away all of the plot, I will simply say that I was very pleased with the ending, an ending that wrapped up loose ends and left others hanging, making a satisfying close to the story with some intrigue left behind.

Think the game’s over after the final movie scene has faded? Not at all. There are many secret artifacts to collect, worth much to Vulgrim and well worth your while to return to him. There are enhancements for your weapons and other secrets as well that the game will test your endurance to find. Granted, Darksiders doesn’t have much replay value, but the “Apocalyptic” difficulty definitely kicks things into high gear, and the game provides some achievements for Apocalyptic only, so there is some motive to play the game again. Besides, who wouldn’t love to see the world end twice?

On the whole, I loved this game. The brutal fighting, intelligent puzzles, dazzling environments, beautiful custcenes and solid controls made a very well-packaged adventure. I would highly recommend Darksiders to any gamer in the mood for an original story and any fan of fantasy and mythology. Darksiders retails at $60, a tad expensive as most Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gamers know, but it’s well worth the extra cash in my opinion. If in doubt, rent it at a local store or wait and get it used.