Staff – November 6, 2018 at 6:44 AM
You were War. Then, you were Death. And now, finally, six years later, you get to be Fury.
Darksiders III, published by THQ Nordic, continues the series’ tradition of letting players inhabit one of the Four Horsemen of apocalyptic fame. Fury is their most badass yet, a battlemage with a magical whip and fiery, red hair.
Reinhard Pollice, business and product development director at THQ Nordic, explained that they designed Fury to be a magic user who could still hold her own in the explosive melee combat for which the series is known. “We wanted her to look the part, so we reached out to Joe Mad [aka comics artist and game developer Joe Madureira] to re-envision her look,” Pollice said.
The result is a person who Pollice described as “hungry, egocentric, and full of drive” — and definitely sports the armor and intensity to show it. Her character was designed to have a unique edge while still feeling familiar to fans of the Darksiders series. “If you see her next to War, you'll notice subtle similarities between their armor, such as the shapes, placement and faces,” Pollice said. “It makes them feel more like siblings and like their armor was forged by the same individual.”
Fury’s main weapon is a hilt called Scorn that produces magical manifestations of other weapons (a whip, a hammer, etc.). “Fury’s combat is less about high pace action but instead focusing on impactful strikes at the right time,” Pollice said. “The consequence is that the combat is way more tactical than, for example, Death in Darksiders II, which was totally hack-and-slash.”
The most exciting feature of Fury’s gameplay, however, is the addition of her Hollow Forms, magical transformations that grant her new weapons and traversal abilities. The Lord of the Hollows, an enigmatic entity who Fury meets early in the game, grants her the ability to transform — though his motivations for doing so are a mystery at first. “Fury is at first unsure how to handle his presence as well as his gifts,” Pollice explained. “Along her journey she'll learn more about his goals and intentions.”
Players will need to learn how to think on the fly and apply Fury’s Hollows to different situations. Her Flame Hollow, for instance, allows her to traverse lava and perform an extended jump, while her Force Hollow allows her to scale walls and ceilings.
Fury promises to change up the pace and reinvigorate Darksiders’ gameplay. Her ever-changing weaponry, precision-based combat, and creative means of platforming might just make her Darksiders’ most memorable Horsewoman yet.
Darksiders III will be released for PC on November 27, 2018.
