I’ve been playing a lot of Darksiders the past couple of weeks taking a whirlwind tour through post-apocalyptic Earth as War, one of the four Horsemen.  Along the way I’ve killed many the demon, rode many the mile and amassed a collection of armaments and weapon enhancements to make Kratos proud.  I found the game to be one of the more enjoyable experiences I’ve had on my 360 in quite some time.

I must admit, given the great time I’ve had with the game, that I’m a bit surprised to see it ranking in the low 80’s on Metacritic.  Now, I know that Metacritic isn’t the best site to look at for such things having seen first hand how their internal translation system turns a C+ into a 58 thereby skewing a game’s perceived quality downward.  Still though even reading through the reviews the common criticisms seems to be that rather than come up with their own gaming mechanics, Vigil decided to instead lift mechanics of off popular gaming franchises, namely The Legend of Zelda, Portal and God of War.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Darksiders does just that, however I have to question whether or not knocking the game for it is a valid criticism.  I say this because we as game reviewers seem to be incredibly tolerant of this when it comes to sequels but incredibly intolerant when it comes to new IP’s.  Take Uncharted 2, for example.  Uncharted 2 is, hands down, the most thrilling experience I’ve ever had while playing video games but it is, at its core, just a refinement of the mechanics presented in the first game, which, by the way, were taken wholeheartedly from other games such as Gears of War and Tomb Raider.  It isn’t the mechanics though that make Uncharted 2 such a great game, although they certainly help, it’s the pacing, the voice acting, the incredible technical achievements that, when all bundled together, make the game so damn exciting.

While we’re on the subject of unoriginal games you don’t have to look much farther than Gears of War 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.  Both games are sequels, both games build upon, or refine mechanics created in earlier games and neither do much to move the franchise into new territory yet both are very highly rated.  It seems that we, as reviewers, are more than happy with more of the same if those same mechanics are presented in the franchises we expect to see them.

On this, I gotta call bullshit.

Now, if you want to argue that Darksiders didn’t implement the cribbed mechanics in a compelling way then I think that’s a valid criticism.  Personally, I wouldn’t agree with you, but that’s just my opinion and what works for me doesn’t work for everyone.  Slamming the game because it uses game mechanics that we’ve come to love in other games is patently ridiculous.  Nintendo fans the world over always complain about the long lengths of time between Zelda sequels.  Fans are similarly vocal about wanting a more mature, more violent take on the franchise, although I personally don’t think Zelda is the place for blood and guts.  When it comes to Portal, Valve develops sequels according to their own strange whims and who knows when a sequel for Portal will be coming, if one does at all.   So we want more Zelda and we want more Portal and here a game gives it to us, wrapped in its own style with its own world, story and characters and we’re supposed to say “no thank you” simply because it didn’t come from Nintendo or Valve?  Yeah, again, I gotta call bullshit.

The simple fact is that not all studios can come up with a new game mechanic that changes the world of gaming.  It’s simply not possible.  There has to be room in gaming for studios that can take existing mechanics and build compelling games around them.  Why we’re tolerant of first person shooters, a collection of mechanics that hasn’t changed in years, yet not so for something like Darksiders is not only stupid, but hypocritical.  It also can’t be terribly comforting to budding, young game designers to think that the only road to critical praise lies in either creating a completely new gaming mechanic or in getting work on an established sequel.

Now, I’m not saying that Darksiders is perfect, but I do think it’s better than that aggregated Metacritic score would lead you to believe.  It’s certainly better than Gears of War 2 a game that somehow managed to use the same mechanics as its forebear yet take a step backwards at the same time.  I love Zelda and while I don’t feel that it is the appropriate franchise for blood and guts, there are times that I want to play a game that combines the mechanics of Zelda and the visceral feel of a game like God of War.  Darksiders does just that and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

It’s easy, as a reviewer to fall into easy critical traps and I’m of the mind that knocking a game for using another game’s mechanics is one of those traps. If I go to a restaurant and order a bacon cheeseburger, I’m not upset that the chef took a beef patty, cooked it and then put cheese and bacon on it.  That’s what I wanted and while I may be happy to entertain some sort of alternate take on the sandwich, for the most part, I want what I ordered.  There has to be a place in gaming for bacon cheeseburgers where the only criticism is based on how good it tastes, the quality of the presentation and how well it fills you up.

Darksiders may not be incredibly original but it is one damn fine bacon cheeseburger.  For me, for right now, that’s more than enough.