E3 2009: THQ Big Sword Bonanza

Yesterday, I discovered THQ fancy one killing weapon over all: big ol' swords. The two games I checked out Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and Darksiders: Wrath of War both feature characters who lug around unrealistically large weapons. Practical? Nope. Cool? You bet.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine was definitely the cooler of the two. This new action-role-playing game is (obviously) based on the Warhammer nerd toys, which is really awesome if you know anything about 'em. Sadly, I don't, but that didn't keep me from enjoying watching hulked-up space marines bash the brains out of hundreds of orcs.

It was kinda hard to really judge the game because we only got to see a trailer with sprinkles of gameplay, but what I saw definitely looked like it had potential. The coolest part seems to be the customization of your orc-killer. My favorite character class? The dude with the -- get this -- chainsaw sword. Sure, it'd probably be better to add a gun to that thing (hey, it works for Marcus Fenix), but we can't forget out lesson of the day: big swords are cool.

Darksiders: Wrath of War also features a ton of massive sword slicing. But that's not what I liked most about this action-adventure masher. Instead, I dug the ability to hoof around kicking ass on a black demon horse. The rest of the game has a God of War-like feel, which is either good or bad depending on how sick you are of fighting giant enemies over and over. At this point, my sickness level feels like a sore throat, so unless the proposed Zelda-like adventure elements make this game standout, I might opt to let God of War 3 cure me.

(9)

Chris Cosmo Ross

June 04, 2009

I know absolute nothing about either game, but both seem cool. Chainsaw sword? Crazy.

Toby Davis

You just made me want Darksiders: Wrath of War even more.

Christos Reid

"Nerd toys"? Really? I feel pigeonholed. That and the concept of a painted wargaming minature being called a toy is a little surreal. I'm excited to see the game itself, though maybe through the eyes of both someone new to the franchise and a major enthusiast, as chainswords have been around for us "nerds" for around twenty years or more.

Rob Savillo

June 05, 2009

If big swords and Zelda-like elements are what you're after (with a dash of Metroid, to boot!), you should check out Demon's Souls. I hear that Atlus has a booth set up for the North American release of the game coming this fall.

@Rob - Oh yes that game looks awesome, but the thing that really got me for DarkSiders was the Flame Horse. Since a western Ghost Rider rode a flaming horse. Also in one of the things I have read they mentioned about scowering every crack for great stuff.

Toby -- the idea of playing War, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, is enough for me to be interested in Darksiders!

This makes me wonder if this one does great do they do three more one for each of the other horsemen.

I'm not sure the other horsemen would all make for compelling game play... what would Famine do? Starve enemies to death? Conquest and Death could work, but Famine kind of puts a wench in the whole thing.

I am pretty sure with a little imagination one could tweak he to be an elegant horsemen that would starve the people to death. Sure they would put a weapon in her hand like a nice long staf with dual blades on each end. There would be something someone could think of.