We’re in an age where any and everything old can just stage a comeback, often completely out of the blue. If you need an idea of how wide that net goes, it looks like the Darksiders franchise is returning to video games?
On Friday afternoon, THQ Nordic put out trailers for its slate of upcoming games. One featured a trio of unmoving stone creatures dubbed the Charred Council, whose eyes light up in flames and utter the word “Horseman.” Cut to black, followed by the tagline of: “Be prepared to ride again.” Is it a remake, or a whole new game? Unclear, but Remnant 2 developer Gunfire Games (which previously helmed Darksiders III) will head up the project, which currently has no release windows or expected consoles.
If you haven’t played Darksiders, it’s one of the stranger gaming franchises from the 2010s. Story-wise, the original 2010 game focused on War, the youngest of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. He accidentally triggered said apocalypse prematurely and was sent to a ruined Earth to redeem his name. Eventally, War learned the Council set him up as the fall guy, and the game ended with him calling on his siblings to take up arms against his bosses, plus the separate forces of Heaven and Hell.
You’d think the next game would focus on the Horsemen wrecking it up together, right? Well, future games never made good on that ending’s four-player promise. Darksiders II and III were parallel sequels respectively starring fellow Horsemen Death and Fury, while Strife co-starred with War in the 2020 prequel Darksiders: Genesis. Beyond that, the series was notably comic book-y as hell; Battle Chasers artist Joe Madureira co-directed and co-wrote the first two games and designed the characters. Each title has also switched genres; the first two games were influenced by God of War and Zelda, Metroidvanias and soulslikes inspired Darksiders 3, and Genesis was driven by top-down and Diablo.
Several old game franchises have resurfaced after a long time away, but none of them have failed to consistently deliver on its promises quite like Darksiders. If Gunfire and THQ want to bring it back from death, by all means—let’s just move the series forward and not string players along again, yeah?
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