4/5 ★ – WightnNerdy's review of Darksiders III.

Darksiders III focuses more on a combat-heavy Dark Souls and Metroid-style structure that feels pretty different than the action-adventure, Legend of Zelda-like formula that made the first two games in the series so successful. Since I really liked both the original Darksiders I was personally hesitant that Gunfire games would go in such a different direction. But Darksiders III is a really fun game, and I'm actually glad the team decided to sway in this direction rather than simply ticking the same formulaic boxes. Darksiders III’s main structure is very similar to that of Dark Souls where levels twist and turn in cool ways, shortcuts will unlock easier paths to traverse the environments, large, cinematic, difficult boss fights will give you fits, and every enemy is a serious threat. I wouldn't say the difficulty of the combat is on the same level as a From Software game, but it's definitely the hardest game in the series thus far. The Metroid-inspired layered level design is incredibly well-crafted, and is the best part of the game. There's a few points in particular where you can see various paths in the distance, sometimes being areas that you've either already been to, or will eventually traverse—one staple of this type of game. The plot involves Fury, one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, coming to earth in order to find all of the Seven Deadly Sins. Each of the Sins are somewhere in the game world, and you have to traverse the various themed sections in order to the find them. You will also find various abilities called Hollows that will unlock sections of the map that were previously unreachable, which made the game feel like a 3D off-shoot of a classic Metroid or Castlevania game. I had a blast exploring Darksiders III’s world, and the difficult Dark Souls-like combat never really got in the way of the clever level design. It’s definitely a far better game than people give it credit for.