Following the genocide of the Nephilim, The Charred Council sends Strife and War on a new mission to destroy various demon masters who have pledged themselves to Lucifer, as The Dark Prince intends to upset the Balance Between Good and Evil. The Horsemen duo must hunt these masters down, while gathering new information about a conspiracy brewing that may jeopardize The Council, who have been left in charge of creation.
The game provides examples of:
- Bash Brothers: Strife and War may bicker over each other's personality and methods, but they work together well and care deeply for one another.
- Bittersweet Ending: On the one hand, most of Lucifer's co-conspirators have been killed. On the other hand, his plans to corrupt humanity through the Animus have succeeded, forcing War and Strife to kill all of the corrupted humans.
- Blood Knight: Tearing apart enemies with gusto seems to be a Nephilim trait.Strife: You... ever get tired... of slaughtering hordes and hordes of demons?
War: No.
Strife: Yeah, me neither! - Comically Missing the Point: Strife tries a "Knock Knock" Joke on War.Strife: Knock knock!
War: (grunts in frustration)
Strife: Ehem. You're supposed to say 'who's there?'.
War: Why would I give away my location? I would simply smash through the door and face my assailant. - Comically Small Bribe: Subverted, but For Laughs. When Strife and War have Mammon cornered, the demon desperately throws treasure at them in a desperate attempt at pleading for his life. Just as Strife declares that they cannot be bribed, he briefly pauses to admire what looks like a solid gold rocking horse, only to turn it down.Strife: We're the Council's enforcers. You really think you can buy us with this worthless— [Stops to admire rocking horse.] O-kay. You almost had me! [Strife shoots Mammon.]
- Constantly Curious: Strife. He encourages War to constantly question their orders and the situations they're in and to not just blindly follow the Council.
- Co-Op Multiplayer: Two players can take control of War and Strife through the story.
- Corrupt the Cutie: Lucifer's plan. He used demonic energies in order to create the Animus which will cause corruption among the humans. Strife and War were then forced to Kill the Cutie.
- Crapsack World: Eden is depicted this way, understandable since the game takes place a short (but indeterminate) time after the Nephilim tried to invade the realm and their eventual massacre at the hands of the Horsemen.
- Deadpan Snarker: Strife is a snarky gunslinger who's not shy about being sarcastic at one's expense.
- Dynamic Entry: When Strife and War go to Molloch's domain, they are joined by Samael who dives into the battlefield like a meteorite. Strife is impressed.
- Enemy Civil War: An empowered Moloch leads a siege against Blackstone Keep, Samael's fortress, at the beginning of the story and successfully uproots him. Samael aids the Horsemen throughout the game against the demons Lucifer struck bargains with in order to be rid of his rivals and claim their resources.
- Foil: War and Strife are this to each other. The former is a dead serious hulk of a man with a big sword, while the latter is a snarky dual-wielding gunslinger of average height.
- Foregone Conclusion: Given this is a prequel to the main games it's obvious that a few things will happen. Samael will survive, the demon lords will all fall and Lucifer gets away scot-free.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: How everyone describes Belial and Molloch, a boon of their bargain with Lucifer.
- Genre Savvy: Strife, Samael, and Lucifer. Strife is more of a Meta Guy, while Samael and Lucifer play Xanatos Speed Chess against each other, with Samael being a Manipulative Bastard and Lucifer The Chessmaster.
- Genre Shift: Genesis is a top-down Action RPG with optional co-op, while the previous Darksiders entries were third person Action-Adventure.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Lucifer's form is never seen. He's only seen as glowing crimson eyes in the dark.
- The Gunslinger: The Horseman Strife, obviously.
- Harder Than Hard: The Apocalyptic difficulty unlocked by finishing the game once. It's leagues above Mayhem, the previous hardest difficulty, locking every level at 1900 power whereas players will be barely breaking into 1500 with a good collection of cores. Enemies hit much harder, take a lot more punishment and tough enemies like Void Maguses and Legion Champions will how up where they did not previously.
- Hidden Depths: Strife is at first glance a wisecracking gunslinger who doesn't seem to respect any kind of authority. But the players along with War learn more over the course of the game: he's conflicted about the Nephilim's extinction, he has done things he's not proud of even before he became a Horseman, and he does respect the balance.Strife: I know who I am. And I'll do the Council's dirty work. All I want is to know why I'm pulling the trigger.
- I Shall Taunt You: Strife slings jokes and insults the same way he shoots bullets. Not even his brother or Samael himself are safe from his tongue.
- Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: This game takes place relatively soon after the Horsemen's mission to annihilate the Nephilim, meaning that particular subject is hot news. Demons like Vulgrim taunt War and Strife for what they did in Eden, and angels like Abaddon and the corrupted Astartes treat them with palpable distaste. The two themselves aren't particularly proud of their actions: War appears more relaxed but constantly makes justifications as if he's trying to reassure himself and his brother, while Strife more openly questions if wiping out their own kind was the right thing.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Strife and War meet the battle-weary Abaddon who has been fighting Lucifer's corruption in Eden since that realm's fall. He laments that the likes of Astarte have fallen from grace, but he soldiers on, and welcomes the assistance of Strife and War to cleanse the realm.
- Lady Not-Appearing-in-This-Game: Malgros the Defiler, an enormous three-headed demon that resembles Belial, appears in the "Not Alone Trailer"
for the game. The demon, however, does not actually appear in the game. - Lighter and Softer: Strife and War's buddy cop dynamic adds a lot of levity throughout that had typically been used sparingly in the previous games.
- Magic Knight: Both War and Strife's weapons, Chaoseater and Mercy and Redemption, respectively, can be augmented with magic for different effects. They also both use other magical abilities in battle.
- Mammon: Mammon is a demon and boss that both War and Strife have to fight. Befitting his legendary greed, his boss room is one filled with so much gold and treasure that he can swim in it.
- Narrating the Obvious: Vulgrim's first mission for Strife and War has them going to a demonic dungeon to retrieve an artifact. Once there, Strife humorously notes:Strife: Screams of suffering, cages...yep, we're definitely in a dungeon.
- The Power of the Sun: Dis and Vulgrim describe the Ember Core as an artifact housing "the power of a thousand suns".
- Pragmatic Villainy: Samael refused Lucifer's deal, partially because he has some alleged respect for the Council's Balance, partially because he doesn't trust his rival one bit. He goes on to make an alliance with War and Strife, guiding them into taking down Hell's Masters. Not out of righteousness, but because with them gone, Samael gains all the more dominion over Hell.
- Restraining Bolt: The post-credits scene shows the Council forging the Seals, in light of Lucifer's manipulations, that play a poignant role in the later games. Judging from the Council's words, they are meant to protect Earth and humanity from direct influence of any parties. Seals one through three bar Heaven's forces, Seals four through six Hell's, and as the first Darksiders shows, the Seventh Seal brings forth the Horsemen when broken.Angry head: Listen thus: With the forging of these Seven Seals, a great treaty shall be wrought in the name of the Balance. They who break it shall suffer the Horsemen's wrath.
Wise head: Let our will be manifest within the Seals. Three from the children of Heaven... three from the dwellers below... And a final seal from our own wisdom.
Reasonable head: The Council has spoken. - Straight Man and Wise Guy: War and Strife are each other's opposites when it comes to personality. War is a By-the-Book Cop with a standoffish attitude, while Strife voices his doubts about the mission given to them openly, can't stop wisecracking and pulling his dour brother's leg. The way those two rub each other the wrong way is an unending source of situational comedy.
- Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: Samael unlocks Strife's Anarchy form and War's Chaos form this way.
- Tempting Fate: Strife notes with disappointment that he expected the Blood Mantle to be more heavily guarded. Cue the guardians of the Blood Mantle. Lots and lots of guardians.
- Tentacled Terror: Dagon is presented as a massive tentacled demon obsessed with drowning his opponents to "cleanse" them.
- The Unfought: Neither Samael or Lucifer are fought at any point in any form. Samael is understandable given you're uneasy allies with him, but Lucifer is hyped as a potential boss but is never even met in the flesh.
- Useless Useful Spell: Rampage for War does very little damage and hits a very small area compared to his jumping heavy attack, especially after it is upgraded to apply War's elements. Stoneskin becomes this in Apocalyptic difficulty as even with the damage reduction you'll still be taking hits that can potentially tear off 1/4 to 1/3 of your health bar if not worse.
- Caltrops for Strife. While it seems useful on paper, basically spreading landmines around, on practice it does very little damage and all enemies sans the huge ones have an uncanny habit of skittering around them.
- Unintentionally Unwinnable: Certain optional objectives, like saving NPCs from enemies in a certain chapter, become almost impossible to accomplish on higher difficulties due to enemies becoming so strong they'll most likely die before you can reach them. Conversely some objectives like eliminating a certain number of Elite Mooks and amassing a quantity of souls becomes "easier" on higher difficulties due to said enemies popping up where they didn't (so you don't have to hunt specific spots for them) and yielding far more souls when killed.
- Villainous Glutton: The newly minted Demonic Lord Belial. Strife is particularly disgusted by him defiling Eden and him regurgitating a crystal the Horseman can use as a key.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The Demon Boltspitter from Chapter 3 is a rude awakening for players who think only standing back with Strife is the answer for everything in the game. The boss has a ranged attack that does a lot of continuous damage and calls a lot of Flea reinforcements that will quickly drain Strife's special ammo. If anything it's a reminder that, yes, War is also important for boss battles.
- Warm-Up Boss: Hollow Fiend is the first major boss fought and although it's huge and hits like a truck full of bricks its attacks are heavily telegraphed. The boss is there to make sure you're getting the hang of the controls and, if you lose Strife, to really make sure you learn how to block when using War.
- Wham Line: Once Moloch is dead, Samael finally explains to the Horsemen just what Lucifer's plans are. And that the Horsemen have actually been helping his plans along the way.Samael: To fuel The Animus, Lucifer struck a deal with the Masters granting each of them power at a heavy price. The fools agreed, believing they would be invincible. He made the same offer to me. Heh, can you imagine the nerve?
Strife: What was the price, Samael?
Samael: Their souls. To be claimed upon death.
