Thought I'd bump this with my review of Darksiders 3
I love Fury's personality. They nailed it. Weapon play is satisfying, from the basic whip to the other Hollow forms/weapons. Combos are especially enjoyable once you get the move sets down. The leveling system is soulsborne-ish - you turn in souls (resources) to gain a stat point that you can assign to HP, physical damage, or arcane damage. Pretty straightforward, and I think it works perfectly fine for the game. I never felt like the lack of a skill tree was in any way a detriment or a key missing element.
Some light puzzling is present - nothing overly complicated, but enjoyable. There's also bits of metroidvania - unlocking new areas/secrets as you gain additional powers. Progression-wise the game is relatively linear, though a map would have been much nicer to help navigate the world. The compass isn't terrible, but there were a few times where I had no clue where to go.
I really enjoyed the take on the Seven Deadly Sins - my favorite by far was Lust. The interpretation was interesting, and the boss's visuals and fight style seemed to be a perfect fit to their personality. There is 1 boss that has a couple of insta-death moves if you are not careful. I think insta-death mechanics are cheesy because they completely punish 1 small mistake.
The story was a little confusing, but being a fan of Darksiders 1/2, I saw the parallels to those games and how DS3 fits in with them.
My biggest complaint about the game is the soulsborne-style high-enemy-damage, low-character-hp setup. While Fury might not have the armor of War or Death....you're Fury, you want to attack stuff. I think this setup rewards passive play too much, and isn't really fitting for the character. I was playing on "challenging", and it was relatively easy to die in 2-3 hits from some of the heavier enemies, especially if you hit a "mob" of 4 baddies (1 heavy + 3 mediums). A well-timed dodge might save you from one attack, only to be nailed by other incoming ones from other enemies. If you aren't a fan of soulsborne style damage systems, definitely pick a lower difficulty. Challenging did live up to its name. I'll give it that, though. I shudder to think of the higher difficulties where dodging is more difficult, damage is even higher, and enemies have more HP. No thanks
Items are very handy, but I think the selection system should be setup more like DS1 - there are a bunch of different buffs to use, but having to cycle through 8 items in combat is a pain. A quickslot setup would make this a lot easier I think. Items also increase in cost from the store every time you buy one. I think this makes them relatively meaningless throughout the game as you won't have much currency early game to afford them, and then the cost goes up rapidly as you use them through the game. I think a slightly higher, but constant, price would balance things out reasonably well. Items have a cooldown, so it's not like you can spam buffs all day.
Overall, Darksiders 3 is definitely a good game. Not perfect, but thoroughly enjoyable for anyone wanting a fun 3rd person action game with light RPG elements, fun combat, interesting lore, and great art. Just err on the easy side of the difficulty scale unless you're a soulsborne fan, in which case, have fun
torturing yourself
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