Do NOT learn the wrong lesson from this, THQ Nordic!

[Arcane Azmadi]

So Darksiders III is out and it's getting a critical paddling. While opinions are mixed and quite a lot of people like it, a lot of critics hate it, a lot of players hate it (54% positive on Steam is NOT good), and the general consensus seems to be that it's a disappointment compared to what people were expecting.

Well excrement occurs. The important thing now is to make sure THQ Nordic does NOT take the wrong thing away from this debacle, that wrong lesson being: "nobody actually wanted this, there's no profit in linear single-player action adventure games, we need to make more open world 'live services' that can be used as vectors for microtransactions to make any money".

The fault here is not with the audience. The fault here is with YOU. It's not that we didn't want this game. The problem is that it isn't very good. Don't use YOUR blunders as an excuse to give up. It's not that you made a game nobody wanted, it's that you did it badly.

We saw this happen with the Overlord series. The first 2 Overlord games, like the first 2 Darksiders games, were modestly-successful niche properties, single player fantasy action RPGs, with a dedicated fanbase who clamoured for a third installment. So of course Codemasters produced the ABYSMAL "Overlord: Fellowship of Evil", a stripped down, isometric, multiplayer co-op, bastardised perversion of the series which was about as fun as stapling your todger to a tabletop and whaling on it with a claw hammer until it's six inches wide. Critics and players alike despised it, and the publishers/developers decided "welp, guess this series was never going to succeed anyway" and the franchise was killed deader than disco, leaving effectively no possibility for an Overlord III.

This is NOT what should happen to Darksiders.

OK, so Darksiders III is divisive at best. You dropped the original's Zelda-esque gameplay and the sequel's open world and loot collection in favour of a half-baked Souls-esque game where "enemies cheap-shotting you from offscreen" stands in for "serious, thoughtful challenge". You. Screwed. Up. But DON'T just throw up your hands and say "OK then screw it, no more Darksiders!" When you make a mistake, you should work to correct it, not just sweep it under the rug and pretend it never happened. As my father used to say, you put your head down, your bum up, and you get to work to make Darksiders IV the conclusion the series deserves! Introduce Strife, bring back War, Death and Fury, and make DSIV a proper apology for this game being a disappointment.

A great man once said that when you fall off your horse you get right back up, and you eat that horse!

Now, for both the people you disappointed with DSIII AND the people who like it and defend you for it, you eat that horse, THQ Nordic!

EDIT: So much for optimism. Screw you guys, I'm going home. LET 'em cancel the series then.

[Fulguro Geek YouTube]

The game is good but there is some bugs.
I have the resolution problem where everytime i start the game i have to reût my resolution setting. an one other that is way way mroe anoying everytime i fast travel with the save point i get a fatal error and the game close that is pretty bad my game had 4 fatal error in 2 hours

[Darkmuramasa]

Laughable UI with half implented keybaord and mouse controls that make no damn sense, enemies that (as said) cheap shot you because they lack proper timing and telegraphing attacks, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ dark souls like gameplay with terrible hit boxes and not a single Inv-frame on the dodge with enemies that even if you "arcane counter" them can just contiune their combo to blast you into oblivion.

Does not a good game make.

If I wanted a dark souls like game I'd go play the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Surge. They at least tried.
I've seen better main screens and UIs in hentai games.

[JARRICH]

I love the game :)

And I also hope they continue the series with a proper 4th installment

[SoulEchelon]

Originally posted by Darkmuramasa:

Laughable UI with half implented keybaord and mouse controls that make no damn sense, enemies that (as said) cheap shot you because they lack proper timing and telegraphing attacks, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ dark souls like gameplay with terrible hit boxes and not a single Inv-frame on the dodge with enemies that even if you "arcane counter" them can just contiune their combo to blast you into oblivion.

Does not a good game make.

If I wanted a dark souls like game I'd go play the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Surge. They at least tried.
I've seen better main screens and UIs in hentai games.

All of what you stated (other than the kb/mouse controls as I would never use kb/mouse with a game like this) is the literal direct opposite of my play time with this game.

The UI is fine. Not at all obtrusive and the menus are simple to navigate. The only obtrusive thing I can think of is when you get a new item or power and the screen is suddenly taken over by information about it. It can pop up at some pretty bad times, so I will agree on that one aspect about the UI.

Enemy attacks are all telegraphed. I've been able to dodge and counter every single enemy I've come across. It's all about watching your enemy and learning those tells. Not every single monster is going to do the same exact attack. They all have different movesets that they do at different times. Learn them. Adapt. I've yet to die in this game (Though there have been very hairy moments)

I've yet to encounter a problem with hitboxes either.

Her dodge has invuln frames. You're either dodging too early or dodging too late.

Some of the larger enemies do have continuous combos. This is where you learn and adapt. Instead of rushing at every single enemy you come across, hang back and watch their attacks. Decide which attacks to dodge, and which attacks to counter.

With all the vids and information THQ has given about this game, you'd think people would know that the combat is harder than the last two darksiders games. Hate to say it, but either git gud or play Story mode. That's what it's there for.

[JARRICH]

Originally posted by SoulEchelon:

Originally posted by Darkmuramasa:

Laughable UI with half implented keybaord and mouse controls that make no damn sense, enemies that (as said) cheap shot you because they lack proper timing and telegraphing attacks, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ dark souls like gameplay with terrible hit boxes and not a single Inv-frame on the dodge with enemies that even if you "arcane counter" them can just contiune their combo to blast you into oblivion.

Does not a good game make.

If I wanted a dark souls like game I'd go play the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Surge. They at least tried.
I've seen better main screens and UIs in hentai games.

All of what you stated (other than the kb/mouse controls as I would never use kb/mouse with a game like this) is the literal direct opposite of my play time with this game.

The UI is fine. Not at all obtrusive and the menus are simple to navigate. The only obtrusive thing I can think of is when you get a new item or power and the screen is suddenly taken over by information about it. It can pop up at some pretty bad times, so I will agree on that one aspect about the UI.

Enemy attacks are all telegraphed. I've been able to dodge and counter every single enemy I've come across. It's all about watching your enemy and learning those tells. Not every single monster is going to do the same exact attack. They all have different movesets that they do at different times. Learn them. Adapt. I've yet to die in this game (Though there have been very hairy moments)

I've yet to encounter a problem with hitboxes either.

Her dodge has invuln frames. You're either dodging too early or dodging too late.

Some of the larger enemies do have continuous combos. This is where you learn and adapt. Instead of rushing at every single enemy you come across, hang back and watch their attacks. Decide which attacks to dodge, and which attacks to counter.

With all the vids and information THQ has given about this game, you'd think people would know that the combat is harder than the last two darksiders games. Hate to say it, but either git gud or play Story mode. That's what it's there for.

Exactly this, my experience as well. Game is super fun :D

[Lake333GLD]

Checkpoints must be fixed anyway! It is too hard!

[Lake333GLD]

Originally posted by ⎛⎝ Heresy ⎠⎞:

@SoulEchelon
I really dunno what people are on about in regards to the difficulty either.
Like people dying repeatedly on Envy etc on the easiest difficulty <.<...
The attacks are telegraphed, you just can't spam attack mindlessly.

I cannot beat her... 2 Hours of tries and unable to refund now...

[SoulEchelon]

Originally posted by ⎛⎝ Heresy ⎠⎞:

@SoulEchelon
I really dunno what people are on about in regards to the difficulty either.
Like people dying repeatedly on Envy etc on the easiest difficulty <.<...
The attacks are telegraphed, you just can't spam attack mindlessly.

I think it may be due to the other two Darksiders games being easier. While yeah - you couldn't just mindlessy smash the attack button in those games, there was enough of a buffer to where dying was a very rare occurence. But yeah, I don't know how people are having this much trouble either.

Originally posted by Lake333GLD:

Originally posted by ⎛⎝ Heresy ⎠⎞:

@SoulEchelon
I really dunno what people are on about in regards to the difficulty either.
Like people dying repeatedly on Envy etc on the easiest difficulty <.<...
The attacks are telegraphed, you just can't spam attack mindlessly.

I cannot beat her... 2 Hours of tries and unable to refund now...

I'm...gonna suggest you do Story Mode then. It should be easier, and will give you more breathing room to learn how to play.

[Sinistar_Aries]

The complaint I heard of previous games was they were a bit too easy. I have them but haven't gotten to sit down with them. Read a lot and watched many different people play the games over the years ( .. yeah.. I'm quite interested in them ).

I guess nobody or very, very few people actually paid attention to when they talked about this game and showed off quite a bit of it to know exactly what it was going to be like before being able to purchase.

This seems to be their attempt at answering the criticisms of the previous games being too easy and wanting more challenge... so now that there's challenge ( and they looked to Souls games and probably others for ideas of how that would work yet fit the character they wanted to star in it ), the people that liked how easy the games were are pissed off.

You really can't please everyone. They tried something different, there was likely going to be a split in fanbase.

This game was almost not made when they were bought out and many other issues that tend to happen in the industry. I'm still glad they got it out there. Each game they were trying different things with and it was obvious from their backgrounds they didn't know all that much about making games but had ideas of what they wanted to do.

Each game has something different about it so I see it as them always trying new things to see what works, what doesn't, and just how to make them in general and learn from them.

I look forward to adding this one to my collection.

[p41n10001]

They already have learnt a lesson the hard way. 6K peak players. Absolute failure. Forget about a sequel. DSIII has killed and buried the series.

[SoulEchelon]

Originally posted by Dani3po:

They already have learnt a lesson the hard way. 6K peak players. Absolute failure. Forget about a sequel. DSIII has killed and buried the series.

Darksiders 1's all time peak on Steam is 2,890 players.

Darksiders 2's all time peak on Steam is 2,903 players.

I believe you are incorrect with your assumptions.

[LoboFH]

Originally posted by Lake333GLD:

Checkpoints must be fixed anyway! It is too hard!

Stop calling them checkpoints!

They are not checkpoints, they work like the Dark Souls bonfires and they serve the same purpose ... death matters!

So please, stop trying to get watered down games, I am really pleased with this game, playing on Hard and God, some bosses are still crushing me.

About the mixed reviews by press ... journalists usually are terrible players, they fail, they blame the game insted themselves. The same happened with Overkill's The Walking Dead, a great game, bashed by the incompetent press boys.

[p41n10001]

Originally posted by SoulEchelon:

Originally posted by Dani3po:

They already have learnt a lesson the hard way. 6K peak players. Absolute failure. Forget about a sequel. DSIII has killed and buried the series.

Darksiders 1's all time peak on Steam is 2,890 players.

Darksiders 2's all time peak on Steam is 2,903 players.

I believe you are incorrect with your assumptions.

Yes, games released seven years ago. Now that numbers are a disaster. The last Tomb Raider, which is considered a failure, has 37K peak players.

[SoulEchelon]

Originally posted by Dani3po:

Originally posted by SoulEchelon:

Darksiders 1's all time peak on Steam is 2,890 players.

Darksiders 2's all time peak on Steam is 2,903 players.

I believe you are incorrect with your assumptions.

Yes, games released seven years ago. Now that numbers are a disaster. The last Tomb Raider, which is considered a failure, has 37K peak players.

Hm. Well for one, those are ALL TIME PEAKS. doesn't matter when they were released. You wanted to use peak player count. So I did too. Just using your own rules there, bub.

Now, as for the rest...well.

Tomb Raider:

- Huge fanbase.
- Gigantic publisher.
- Prolific name known throughout the world.
- has had games spanning literal decades; since even the first Playstation.
- Huge ad campaigns.

Darksiders:

- Small fanbase.
- Well known but comparatively small publisher.
- Said publisher went belly up, now the franchise is owned by an even SMALLER publisher.
- Most recent game developed by an even SMALLER developer.
- Name is not well known.
- has only three games under its name; all having low sales figures (compared to bigger named games that is)
- Not even enough money for a full on ad campaign.

You're comparing a watermelon to a blueberry.

[Phat Phyuck]

Making this game a souls like seems like a huge mistake because so many companies have done it by this point. I would have much prefered something more similar to DS1 as i loved the Zelda like system. Even DS2 was also great with it's looting system and different weapons but i feel like DS2 was rushed during the last 2 acts. I have yet to buy DS3 because after hearing it was "souls like" i just diddn't feel like dropping $80 CDN on it. After playing all the Dark Souls games and Bloodborne i am just sick of that game type and was hoping for something somewhat similar to the last 2 games.