'Darksiders 3' Release Date: How to get prepared for the return of the four horsemen

After the surprise announcement of Darksiders 3 on Tuesday, you might be asking yourself: What on Earth is Darksiders? Why should I be excited for the new one?

Thanks to the video game industry's love of re-releasing and remastering everything, it's easier than you might think to get prepared for Darksiders 3's release date. 

Darksiders 3 Release Date: War never changes, but it does solve puzzles

Originally released in 2010 for PS3 and Xbox 360, Darksiders is the ultimate product of its time. It's a grab bag of concepts from The Legend of Zelda, God of War and even Portal, some of the most popular franchises of that console generation. To top it all off, it has a pretty cheesy 1990s comic book art style.

You play as War, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. After the apocalyptic war between angels and demons is prematurely unleashed on Earth and blamed on War, he has to return to the ruined planet a century later to defeat the Destroyer and clear his name. 

Darksiders was unique because it had simplified God of War combat and Zelda-like puzzle solving in a series of distinctive dungeons. Different items would help you in combat and puzzle solving, while also opening up new areas in the world to explore. One such item can open orange and blue portals that you have to use to solve puzzles in one dungeon. No, really, the gun from Portal is in this game.

The story in Darksiders was fairly typical angels-and-demons fare, but it had one of the best cliffhanger endings you'll ever see. Thankfully, if you want to play Darksiders, you won't have to dig out any old hardware. The questionably named Warmastered Edition of game is $20 on PS4 and Xbox One. It comes with enhanced visuals, too.

Darksiders 3 Release Date: Death, taxes and loot grinding

Surely the sequel to Darksiders would satisfyingly follow up the first game's tantalizing ending, right? Unfortunately, 2012's Darksiders 2 actually runs parallel to the first game and follows a different set of characters. Most notably, you play as Death, one of War's fellow horsemen of the apocalypse. 

Darksiders 2 beefed up the hack-and-slash combat of the first game with a leveling system and a skill tree. Adding to the stat-obsessed RPG fun was a Diablo-style loot system, which meant enemies and chests frequently dropped color-coded weapons and armor with different stat bonuses. While Death obviously prefers scythes, there were tons of different weapon types to try out.

Don't worry, the Zelda part of Darksiders 2 is more than intact. The overworld areas are larger than before, with plenty of side activities to pursue if you're down to explore. Dungeons feature plenty of item-based puzzle solving, including the return of the first game's portal gun. Darksiders 2 was a bigger, beefier game than its predecessor in almost every way.

But still, don't go into it expecting a fulfilling conclusion to the ending of Darksiders. This sequel has almost nothing to do with the first game until the very end, which once again left us hanging back in 2012. Still, it's well worth playing if you enjoyed the first game. An enhanced version of Darksiders 2 called Deathinitive Edition is on PS4 and Xbox One for $30. You'll have plenty of time to get through both games before Darksiders 3 comes out in 2018.

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