Editor’s note: As developers strive to push the medium’s story-telling abilities, Michael’s examination of Darksiders reassures me that not all new games do so at the expense of gameplay. –Rob

So many developers today strive to make games that don’t seem like games. The tendency now is to blur the line between traditional design and other entertainment mediums; this mostly stems from our misguided need to prove to the world that video games are a legitimate form of entertainment.

And then a completely overlooked dark horse that stands on four hooves comes out of virtually nowhere. Darksiders is a refreshing change of pace and the most honest game I’ve played in a long time.

Vigil Games’ latest borrows just about every one of its familiar ideas from other games -- most notably The Legend of Zelda and God of War -- blending each concept together into a startlingly unique homage of everything that’s good about gaming.

When you play Darksiders, you’ll have a difficult time becoming so lost in the world and fictional backdrop that you forget you’re playing a game. Normally, a lack of immersion can be a hindrance; however, since Darksiders constantly reminds players it’s a game, Vigil is free to make any design choice necessary to maintain pacing without ever having to worry about the player’s suspension of disbelief.

After five minutes and a few demons crushed with thrown cars, that disbelief is already lashed to the sky with tethers so thick that protagonist War couldn’t cut it down if he tried.

Old, familiar video game design staples line the very core of Darksiders’ gameplay. The use of red, arcane barriers that don’t shatter until War defeats every enemy in the room? Check. A quest to collect the hearts of four chosen demons -- each of whom can only be defeated with a magical item located conveniently in their own lairs -- just so War can unlock access to a black tower? Sure, why not? Scattered fragments of ancient, apocalyptic weapons and armor that sit spinning just out of reach in the environment, which are never sought after by the many flying demons and angels that inhabit the world? Who would expect anything else?

While most developers would try to explain these genre tropes with in-game logic -- and Darksiders does reach for a fictional explanation from time to time -- Vigil instead lets them largely speak for themselves. Each new illogical occurrence in the game world serves to further cement Darksiders’ status as a game.

The action-adventure never pretends to be a film by showering you with elaborate, overproduced, cinematic scenes. Neither does the game strive for some lofty level of significance that only the highest of brows could ever truly appreciate. And it certainly never appeals to our sense of realism by padding the experience with sequences to make us feel for War as a living, breathing entity.

Darksiders suffers no delusions about being a game, and the title is much stronger as a result.

This game had to happen, and it had to happen right now. With the industry in such an awkward growing phase, we need a reminder that sometimes it’s okay to craft an experience free of pretense and the worries of our collective self-image. Darksiders is a love letter to people who love games -- for all the borrowed material, hidden beneath its rough and rugged exterior lies a real sense of reverence for its predecessors.

Too many developers try to needlessly innovate, carelessly tossing out perfectly good babies with the tepid bathwater in which they stew. If Shadow Complex was a step in the right direction for the argument of iteration versus innovation, then Darksiders is a blinding leap forward and a prime example of how to make an honest game for today’s marketplace.