Darksiders 4is officially coming, and it’s finally bringing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse together. Ever sinceDarksiderswas released back in 2010, each game has only featured one Nephilim Rider, highlighting their individual adventures in fighting the forces of Hell and Heaven to stop the Endwar. After a long 15-year wait,Darksiders 4will make all the Horsemen playable in both single-player and co-op modes.
According to theofficial Steam page,Darksiders 4will continue where the originalDarksidersgameleft off. This means that it will be a true sequel after War was accused and imprisoned for prematurely triggering the Endwar. In the end, the Hellguard leader, Uriel, summoned Death, Fury, and Strife to aid War in taking down Lilith and the Charred Council to save humankind. With the Four Horsemen now playable, this sets an interesting precedent forDarksiders 4’s plot and gameplay.
Darksiders 4’s Four Horsemen Brings a Variety of Personalities and Fighting Styles
Darksiders 4gives players the opportunity to play as a legendary Horseman of their choice, experiencing each of their diverse fighting styles and abilities. It’s still unknown how choosing one Horseman over the other would potentially affect what players see in the story, and whether the three other characters would help out in an NPC party system. At the same time, this also opens up a lot of cool combat possibilities when players engage in co-op mode. Considering thepopularity of co-op open-world games,Darksiders 4could bring a fresh new experience that longtime and new fans will appreciate.
As mentioned, what setsDarksiders' Four Horsemenapart from each other is that they have different combat styles and abilities. War is similar to a brawler or barbarian because of his bulky body, and the fact that he primarily uses a large two-handed blade called Chaoseater. Death, who is considered the most powerful among the siblings, is an agile fighter whose signature weapon is a scythe. Fury is considered as the mage of the group because she incorporates a lot of magic into her blade whip and other melee attacks. Lastly, Strife is primarily a long-range character wielding two revolvers named Mercy and Redemption. All of them have secondary weapons as well that can be combined with their signature arms to help make them well-rounded fighters, and can also be used to solve map puzzles.
Chaoseater (two-handed blade)
Strife
Mercy and Redemption (revolvers)
IfDarksiders 4adopted a party system in single-player mode, it would mean bringing along all the Horsemen even when players are only controlling one of them. This would emphasize howDarksiders 4will feature the Four Horsemen as a group, as opposed to the individual spotlights in previous games. So, it would only make sense to maximize all the characters in the story instead of adding separate segments for each of them. Plus, this mechanic could make navigating the game’s open-world map a bit easier. Apart from enemy counters and boss battles, someDarksidersgames have Metroidvania-like puzzles, especially when players need to access secret areas.
On the other hand, ifDarksiders 4provides entirely different experiences depending on who fans decide to play as in their single-player campaign, it could make the game more replayable if they want to see each Horseman’s POV. It would be similar to howScarlet Nexusapproached its storytelling: players could choose between two protagonists to see how their respective missions unfolded and how their paths eventually converge. While this could be an interesting approach that will give fans more content to enjoy, it might defeat the purpose of highlighting the Horsemen’s teamwork to take down Lilith and the Charred Council.
Darksiders 4doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s definitely worth the 15-year wait if it delivers onexciting gameplay with the Four Horsemen, especially its multiplayer aspect. If there’s one thing that the series has succeeded in doing over the years, it’s giving each Horseman enough space for their stories to be told, which hopefully pays off greatly in the fourth game’s story.
