Video Game / Darksiders

The Horseman cometh; And. Heads. Will. Roll.

He's the biggest, most totally ripped barbarian to ever exist and he has a ten foot long sword which he uses to decapitate fools.

— Badass of the Week, describing War years before the game came out.

An Action-Adventure game from Vigil Games and published by THQ, Darksiders (originally Darksiders: Wrath of War; the subtitle was dropped before the game was released) is the first game in the Darksiders series, and puts you in the role of War, one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. When the Creator gave the land of Eden to Man, the outcast Nephilim were outraged and fought the archangels. Only four Nephilim survived: Fury, Strife, Death and War. The Charred Council made them its agents charged with maintaining the Balance Between Good and Evil: the Four Horsemen. A truce was brokered between the Kingdoms of Heaven and Hell: the Seven Seals were created to be broken when the Kingdom of Man was ready, sparking the End War where the Four Horsemen would ride across Earth, restore the balance and forge the pact anew.

Skip ahead to the present day, where the Earth is being pelted by a meteor storm...only it's not meteors, but demons. The angelic Hellguard arrive to fight them and War appears in the middle of the battle. But the other Horsemen are not there and the archangel Abaddon, leader of the Hellguard, states that neither should War since the seals weren't broken. An incredibly powerful demon appears, kills Abaddon and nearly kills the Horseman. Hauled before the Charred Council, War stands accused of starting the End War early and siding with Hell. War claims he was only answering the summons of the Seals, but they are still intact. In lieu of being executed for violating the balance, the Council agrees to send War on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge to hunt down those responsible, be they from Heaven or Hell.

A Warmastered Edition was released on November 22, 2016 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with a Wii U version arriving on a later date. Its PC version was released later on November 29, 2016 through Steam and GOG.com, and owners of the original version of Darksiders in their Steam or GOG library can upgrade to the remastered version free of charge. A Nintendo Switch version was released April 2nd, 2019.

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Tropes regarding the first Darksiders game are:

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: All over. Sometimes justified as you see evidence it's an Absurdly Spacious Subway System.
• Action Command: Press B or circle to destroy your opponent with extreme prejudice.
• Action Girl: Uriel, which is funny, since in Christian tradition Uriel is considered a male or androgynous angel.
• After the End: While the first section of the game takes place during The End of the World as We Know It, the rest of it is afterwards.
  War: How long have I been gone?
  The Watcher: In Earth years? About a century. Long enough for all the mouth breathers to die off.
  War: Then...the Third Kingdom is lost...
• All There in the Manual: The manual and comic books contain a lot of extra back-story not in the game.
• And Your Reward Is A Kickass Armor: When you amass the 10 fragments of the Abyssal Armor. It is also a very awesome powerup. You get it quite late in the game, but you can start a new game with it after obtaining it.
• Anti-Hero: War, full stop. Yeah, he pays lip service to the Balance, but Samael points out that he's really just in it for revenge against whoever is responsible for his disgrace.
• Apocalypse How: Class 4, to the point where just about the only recognizable lifeforms are crows and spiders. And the spiders might not have survived at all but are just Silitha's children. And the crows seem to be there solely because they are soul carriers in many mythologies (partly explained also in the sequel).
• The Armies of Heaven: A small sub-faction of Angels, known as the Hellguard, appear both as antagonists to the protagonist, War.
• Artificial Limbs: According to the back story, War lost his left arm when he rebelled against the Charred Council and attempted to stab Fury, only for Death to step in the way (like that could stop Death) and slice off his left arm. Now War's got a really big metal arm in its place, not that he needs it to swing his BFS.
• Asshole Victim: Samael bitchslapping the Watcher. While he's doing it mainly because the Watcher disrespected him and so he can give War his Super Mode back, the Watcher is a massive asshole who regularly tortures War with his Restraining Bolt.
• The Atoner: Azrael, who feels profound guilt for his part in starting the premature Endwar that crippled the forces of Heaven, lead to Abaddon's corruption, and the extinction of humanity. He helps out War in his quest to restore the Balance knowing full well that War will likely kill him for his transgressions after matters with the Destroyer have been resolved.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Most bosses have one that must be hit in order to stun it, then you can wail away.
• Attack Reflector: War's artificial left hand, which serves as buckler/gauntlet.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Mercy, a four-barrel demonic handcannon, is pretty much the weakest of your projectile weapons, even after getting the upgrades and equipping the appropriate skill boosters. The only thing it's really useful for is against the Ash-Worms (and crows).
• Back from the Dead: War bites it at Straga's hands following the Taste of Power section, only to be resurrected and dragged before the Council in chains. He also dies at the very end of the game, only to be resurrected by the breaking of the seventh seal.
• Bag of Spilling: At the beginning of the game, War is already a powerful Horseman, but a horn is heard twice, first reducing his health to 4 extra bars, and then reducing it to 1. It's implied if not confirmed that this the Council stripping him of his power.
• Balance Between Good and Evil: The Charred Council and the Horsemen are charged with maintaining this.
• BFS:
  • Chaoseater, War's main weapon. It's as long as War is tall and covered in screaming, evil-looking faces, just for that added scary factor.
  • The Armageddon Blade is just as big, if not a little bigger. Abaddon's sword in the final boss fight is much longer than either of War's swords, though it's not as wide.
• Batman Gambit:
  • The Charred Council framed War for starting the apocalypse, knowing he would find and kill the real culprits in order to clear his name. The main reason it doesn't work is the vision War receives from the Tree of Knowledge exposing their plan to him, letting him set up a gambit of his own.
  • Abaddon's big plan for taking down Hell essentially relied on this: when the Seals were broken, he expected the demons' leadership would gather in one location to declare battle rights and officially kick off the war, allowing the Hellguard to deliver a Decapitation Strike then mop up the remainder of Hell's forces. Except that didn't go to plan; Hell already knew about his plan, so its generals didn't bother with gathering and instead erupted out with guns blazing.
• Big Bad: The Destroyer aka Abbadon, who leads the armies of Hell on Earth.
• Big Applesauce: There are no explicit geographical markers, but it's also a city with a lot of overpasses, an extensive subway system (whose cars resemble the MTA), and absolutely enormous infrastructure that's located in America...so the list of cities it could be is fairly short.
• Bilingual Dialogue: Of a sort. War and the Phantom General briefly talk to each other in the demons' language, but it's subtitled in the viewer's language.
• Black Knight: You are one, at least in form. Subverted, however, in War's overall behavior: he's far from a mindless killing machine, sparing people who either don't deserve to die or are genuinely repentant for their misdeeds, and seems genuinely mournful when he discovers all of humanity has been killed.
• Blade on a Rope: The Abyssal Chain is an enchanted gauntlet that fires a spear-tipped chain. It can be used to close the distance between War and his enemies or swing across chasms to large for him to jump over.
• Bodycount Competition: When Angels disrupt War's and Ulthane's fight, they start competing over the amount of Angels defeated as they make way to latter's place. A reward will be had if the player wins.
• Bottomless Pit: Post-apocalyptic Earth is riddled with these. Falling down most of them will cause you to lose some health and reappear nearby. Other pits will instantly kill you. The game doesn't tell you which ones. Have fun with that.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy:
  • Griever, you stupid worm... how many times do you have to get smashed with a flatbed cart to realize all you have to do to stop War's attacks is to knock the cart off its tracks?
  • For that matter, why on Earth Straga would haul around a mace with a giant portal surface on it and continuously heft it up so that said surface is facing towards his only weakpoint is a mystery.
• Boss Banter: Used all the time, as nearly all of them like to taunt you during the fight, sometimes to the point of annoyance.
• Boss Subtitles: But not on all the bosses, interestingly. The Chosen and a couple of other opponents get them.
• Camera Lock-On: One of the trigger buttons act as one, making it easier to keep attacking a specific target.
• Catchphrase: See page quote.
• The Cavalry: The end of the game has War breaking the seventh seal and thus summoning what appears to be the other three horsemen. Uriel states that War doesn't stand a chance facing the Charred Council alone and War replies "Not Alone". As three meteors appear in the sky similar to the one War arrived on Earth in.
• Chainmail Bikini: Notably averted with Uriel. Her armor is... form-fitting, but covers everything and provides excellent protection, at least judging by what War puts her through.
• Colossus Climb: Straga is big enough that you need to use portals to navigate to his weak point.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Chaos Form makes War invincible for a short period of time and allows him to make short work of any enemy in his way, but its useless against most bosses such as the Chosen. Justified since they are all puzzle bosses, that require using the artifacts you gathered in the respective dungeons in order to beat them. The final boss Abaddon can also shrug off Chaos Form very easily. The only exceptions are Ulthane (who is invulnerable to your normal attacks and requires you to use Chaos Form to beat him) and Uriel.
• Cool Gate: The Voidwalker item creates red and blue portals as long as you're targeting a specific wall patterns.
• Cool Horse: Ruin. He's fast, huge, even for a horse, and produces flames near him to damage enemies.
• Council of Angels: Heaven is run by angels alone. A Creator is mentioned in the backstory, but it's not clear whether he's aligned with Heaven, as there are older and more powerful creatures than angels. Also, if Twilight Cathedral is any indication, humans had an angel-worshiping religion.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: After defeating Straga, War shoots a portal at his head, teleports inside Straga's skull, and then cuts his way out. In actual gameplay, you are restricted to shooting portals at certain tiles.
  • War is significantly more agile in cutscenes than in gameplay. Also, he kills the Stygian by jumping down its throat, and the Stygian's main attack in gameplay trying to ram and bite him
• Dark Is Not Evil: Somewhat averted due to the fact that the Horsemen are all simply doing their job and do have an honor code with no major grudge against mankind. However, it doesn't mean they haven't done some questionable things in their past and present.
• Deal with the Devil:
  • Lilith offers Abaddon one after his death during the apocalypse; in exchange for functional immunity from the Council's justice, he would become the Destroyer and lead Hell's armies. When War later faces off against Abaddon/the Destroyer, they offer him the same deal and are quite sharply rebuked.
  "Would you serve in Heaven? Or rule in Hell?"
  "I choose what once... a coward did not."
  • War's deal with Samael turns into this when it turns out Samael lied to him about the purpose of the Chosen's' hearts were.
• Difficult, but Awesome: It's possible to Lag Cancel aerial attacks with the Crossblade. It takes good timing, but it really increases your combo options for more stylish strings.
• The Dragon: Straga, the demon lord who guards the Destroyer's base and is the mightiest of his Chosen.
• Dragons Are Demonic: When you finally encounter him, The Destroyer leading Hell's forces takes on the form of a huge, evil-looking dragon.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Played straight with The Watcher, who never stops treating War like dirt, and completely averted with everyone else in the game. Other characters, even his enemies, treat War with much more respect and/or fear. Heck, the entire plot happens because every major player, including the Council, is scared shitless of the Horsemen.
• Duel to the Death: Nex Sacramentum (also referred to as the "Death Oath) is essentially a vow by two parties to kill each other in a duel, with unspecified but implicitly dire consequences if broken.
• Dynamic Loading: The areas connecting named locations are usually long and winding corridors with some enemies, simple puzzles and hidden items to mask their true purpose. Played painfully straight in case of Serpent Tunnels, which allow you to travel to nearly any location and consist of series of platforms suspended in a void and nothing else (there are collectibles hidden in three of them, though).
• Elevator Action Sequence: Happens a few times in the Black Throne.
• The End of the World as We Know It: Uses a variation. The apocalypse is not only inevitable but there's a system in place to ensure that it DOES happen. However, the apocalypse was only officially meant to occur when the Earth was "ready" and (presumably) on even terms with Heaven and Hell, with this imbalance in power resulting in humanity's extinction during the premature end war.
• Exposition Fairy: The Watcher serves this role, as well as making sure War doesn't get out of hand.
• Extra-Dimensional Shortcut: The game has the Serpent Holes, portals leading to a green-tinted (or orange) dimension which lets the player quickly traverse between levels. They are accessible through Vulgrim's shops, and some of them even have secret chests in them.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Black Tower.
• Evil Weapon: According to the comic, Chaoseater is a cursed, soul-devouring blade that War risks being destroyed by. None of this is ever mentioned in the game itself, however.
• Eye Scream: The first fight against Straga ends with War impaling his left eye with his sword.
• Fantasy Gun Control: Averted, demons and angels both use rifles/shotguns and cannons, War himself gets a massive revolver, which sadly isn't good for much.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Most demons only have four fingers on each hand. Angels, humans and Horsemen have the normal 5 for some reason...
  • This actually makes an amazing amount of sense when you think about it. Humans and Angels come from the same Creator so it makes sense that they'd share some similarities. The Horsemen are Nephilim who, according to religious lore, were the children of Angels and Humans and in Darksiders are children of the Creator meant to guard the humans when they were first created. Where the demons come from isn't clear but it seems to be that the Creator races all share vaguely humanoid appearances which makes sense if they were made in His image.
    • Slightly changed in Darksiders II, where the opening reveals that the Nephilim are the children of angels and demons instead of children of the creator or children of angels and humans.
    • Also subverted in that it's implied that demons and angels are entirely separate races, as opposed to demons solely being former angels. Though the prequel novel The Abomination Vault confirms that angels can be changed into demons.
• Genius Bruiser: Let's just say Ulthane is a lot smarter than he looks. He's an Ultimate Blacksmith and is one of the three conspirators behind the plan to trigger the premature Apocalypse in a bid to destroy the forces of Hell.
• A God Am I Abbadon makes several claims to such to both Azrael and the player. Not surprising seeing as who he's named after.
  • After War gives him all 4 Chosen's Hearts, Samael says to War that his restored powers make him "like unto a god".
• A God Is You: The Horsemen qualify.
• Gold and White Are Divine: This is the color scheme of most of the angels and their angelic gryphon mount that the protagonist steals from them.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: War enlists the help of disgruntled former employees and allies of the Destroyer. The games ends with War summoning the other three Horsemen to sort out the Charred Council it appears.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: The Abyssal Chain can pull War to climbable surfaces and let him swing from certain points. It also can be used to pull small enemies to War, or him to larger ones. Very useful against those sword-wielding daemonettes, which it knocks off their feet.
• The Grim Reaper: Two instances;
  • Azrael, the Angel of Death, who oversees the Well of Souls leading to the afterlife.
  • Death of the Four Horsemen, War's older brother. While he doesn't make a physical appearance in the game, he is mentioned repeatedly and his signature scythe can be acquired as a weapon.
• Ground Pound: The Tremor Gauntlet gives you this as an air attack.
• Guide Dang It!: You will probably need a guide for 100% Completion.
• Guns Are Worthless: Mercy, even with the damage upgrade, is only useful while taking on ashworms.
  • Also, in the Armageddon section, police officers will shoot pistols at demons and War. To absolutely no effect whatsoever.
  • The BFGs carried by the angels subvert this inflict considerable damage.
• Final-Exam Boss: Nearly all the bosses in the game require you to use the items you collected in their dungeon to defeat them.
• Hand Cannon: Strife uses two of these. War manages to get one of them, Mercy. Death receives the other one, Redemption, in the sequel.
• Heart Container: Lifestones. Piecing together four Lifestone Fragments essentially gives War an extra health bar.
• Hellish Horse: Ruin, the Red Horse of War.
• High-Pressure Blood: Averted for most of the demons, but with higher level skill boosters, played hilariously straight with the weakest enemies, zombies: they erupt in a fountain of blood after one hit.
• Homage: A respected member of a supernatural order is stripped of all power before being given a second chance by a shadowy mysterious entity that manipulates him into gliding with wings that barely work and pushing around a lot of block puzzles. The game also contains a boomerang, souls used to purchase moves, a button to execute enemies and a gun that shoots blue and orange portals.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Subverted with Straga at the end of the Apocalypse. You're very much expected to beat him, but War ends up losing to him anyway due to having his powers sapped.
• Horsemen of the Apocalypse: The main character is one of them. The others are coming in the next game. Two of the traditional Horsemen have been replaced: Strife replaces Conquest and Fury replaces Famine. Word of God is that they were thinking in terms of the War, Death, Pestilence, and Famine set, and they didn't think Pestilence and Famine were suitably militant and dynamic for an action game series.
• Hulk Speak: Straga talk like this. Straga like to say own name.
• 100% Completion: You can get an achievement/trophy by doing this as well.
• Humans Are Special: Not only was the birth of our race part of the reason why the Charred Council forced a cold war between Heaven and Hell (so that we could become powerful enough to take on both), but apparently there was something about us that earned us Earth's title of "The Third Kingdom". And our extinction in the beginning of the story is one of the major reasons why the Charred Council is pissed at War. We're physically weak in comparison to other races, but for some reason we're important.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Armageddon Blade, the only weapon capable of harming The Destroyer. It's stupidly powerful but you can't attach enhancements to it, and it replaces the Chaoseater for the rest of the game once you obtain it.
• Improvised Weapon: Don't let being a Horseman of the Apocalypse stop you from swinging telephone poles, parking meters, cars, chairs and pianos at flaming demons. In fact, there's an Achievement for killing 150 enemies this way, known as "Improvised Kills".
• In the Back: War dies at Uriel's hands after the latter stabs him through the back.
• In the Hood: War's armour sports a hood, keeping most of his upper face in shadow.
• Jerkass: The Watcher. Makes it all the more satisfying when War kills him.
• Justified Tutorial: The Taste of Power segment serves as one, framed as War arriving on the war-torn Earth and trying to figure out why the hell the other Horsemen haven't shown up yet.
• Kill It with Fire: When using the hellfire weapon enhancement.
• King Mook: The second boss fight, the Phantom Guard General, looks like a bigger version of the wussy Phantom Guard Soldiers you've been slaughtering - and summons several of them throughout the fight.
• Kung Fu-Proof Mook: The trauma that appears during the Armageddon segment, because it's meant to introduce the player to Chaos Form, is immune to all attacks except for Chaos Form.
• Last of His Kind: The Horsemen are the last survivors of their ancient race (the Nephilim). The rest were killed off in the war that consumed their kind. The Charred Council took in the four and charged them with enforcing the Balance.
  • Retconned in Darksiders II, where not only the Nephilim are the offspring of angels and demons (and therefore, not exactly as ancient as Heaven and Hell), but the Horsemen themselves (with some help from Heaven) killed off their own race as their first mission from the Charred Council.
    • Justified Trope: Considering that said Nephilim were going on a mass world-destroying spree that would have destroyed the Balance and humanity was next on the list of their victims.
• Light Is Not Good: Subverted: The reason Angels are attacking War is that they blame him for The End of the World as We Know It and are understandably pissed off about it. They eventually realize he wasn't to blame, and Uriel even says she's sorry.
  • Abaddon plays it straight and even Azrael's hands are not spotless as he was a co-conspirator.
• Lightning Bruiser: As well as being strong enough to juggle cars, War can zip around like he has rockets attached to his boots. The developers' stated intent is for Death to be the Fragile Speedster to War's Mighty Glacier.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Straga is declared to be one by Azrael, however, you can revisit the Black Tower after you defeat him anyway ...but if you look north from any of the outdoor zones, you'll see the Black Tower's shattered remnants on the horizon.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Uriel blames War for Abaddon's death and insists on hunting him down despite his protests that he was summoned, which he was sorta. And only after swearing a death oath and being soundly defeated by you does she finally listen to reason.
• Magitek: The Angels wear Powered Armor and wield energy weapons.
• Man Behind the Man: A woman - heavily implied to be Lilith - was the one who offered Abaddon his Deal with the Devil.
• Mask of Power: The Mask of Shadows, which lets War see into the Shadow Realm and interact with its denizens.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Knowing what title is usually tacked on to the end of Abaddon's name (or, alternately, what it means in Hebrew) ends up revealing a major plot point long before the plot brings it up. This may have been intentional given how much the game is based on the actual biblical Apocalypse.
  • "Uriel" means "God is my light/God is my fire". And in tradition, Uriel was the angel that cast man out of Eden and also holds the keys to the gates of Hell. Pretty snappy for the commander of the Hellguard.
• Megaton Punch: A Quick Time Event has War deliver one to Tiamat, whose about the size of a small house. War uses a similar punch later on to drive Chaoseater into the weak point on Straga's neck.
• Missing Secret: Due to a bug, one of the chests in Drowned Pass never registers as opened. When a player returns there with an upgrade that reveals all collectibles on map, they will see a chest that's nowhere to be found. And since there are chests that appear only when you do some totally unrelated action, like destroying all hydrants, cue players doing things like killing all the monsters three times over (since there are no destructibles on that map).
• Money Grinding: If you want these shiny weapon techniques or fury techniques, you'll have to do quite some.
• Mook Chivalry: Enemies, even the Giant Mooks, stop attacking and cordially get out the way during an Action Command so War can layeth the smacketh down.
  • Just one enemy type averts this: a subspecies of flying stirge which generates electrical fields which can shock you coming out of the killing animation. Given that they're one of the weak species which exist to be killed en masse to heal you (and produce currency instead if not killed by Action Command), finding this out can be unpleasant.
• A Mythology Is True: The Abrahamic religions^note Judaism, Christianity and Islam are real in this game. Specifically, the Book of Revelations-inspired premise and Kabbalah-esque lore. There's even a bit of Norse mythology in there (ex. Magical trees connecting to other realms and being able to use them as transport). Subverted in that a lot of creative license was used, making the universe seem very loosely based on it.
• Mysterious Backer: Sammael is a demon from hell so powerful that the Destroyer had him imprisoned and reduced to an extra. He uses what power he does have left to help War, the protagonist, so that War will help him get his powers back.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Destroyer, Abaddon, all of the Horsemen. And these are only naming a few.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Nice job starting the apocalypse without the 7th seal being broken, War. Subverted in that he was tricked by the Council to come down.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Watcher ends up severely pissing off War when he finally tries to kill him. This ends up not being a bright idea since if he didn't want to try to destroy the Charred Council before he sure does now. Also, once he had the Seventh Seal, he should've performed a Villain: Exit, Stage Left and let Uriel deal with War instead of just hanging around to gloat. What does he get for his trouble instead, you ask? Just a really bad case of death.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: In the comic, the Horseman Death. He once shrugged off being impaled by War's Chaoseater. Ironically, the sequel made him much less durable but more mobile than War.
• Noble Demon: War, with his code of honor, can classify.
  • Samael ends up as one as he fulfills his end of the bargain.
• No Ontological Inertia: After defeating the Stygian, all ashworms inexplicably disappear from the Ashlands.
• Oh, Crap!: Abaddon when he sees that War has arrived on Earth, which he realizes means his plan has failed. You don't realize that's the problem when you see it happen, though.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Despite having not just one health bar, but several, you'll run into this with higher level enemies.
• One-Winged Angel:
  • War has the ability to do this via Chaos Form, which turns him into a gigantic, flaming demon-like creature that can when his Wrath gauge is full.
  • The Destroyer kind of inverts this, as he starts in his one-winged form of a enormous, demonic-looking dragon and shifts back to his more humanoid Fallen Angel form as the battle progresses.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: How War wields his BFS (he even provided the trope picture at one point).
• Order Versus Chaos: Angels versus demons, guess which side is which.
• Our Angels Are Different: These angels prefer full suits of futuristic armor to robes and laser-shooting spears or energy cannons to flaming swords.
• Our Demons Are Different: Yes, they are, as it's implied that they may not be entirely like the demons of Judeo-Christian mythology, where demons were only fallen angels. They also have guns but in fewer numbers than the angels. They are mostly melee fighters and tough as nails.
• Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: Most demons, there is even a trophy/achievement for disgorging 5000 gallons of demon blood.
• Palette Swap: Nearly all of the mooks are upgraded and given different colors throughout the game.
• Permanently Missable Content: Subverted. Despite Azrael's words to the contrary, you can go back to Lost Eden at any time after your first visit.
• Plot Coupon: The four Chosens' Hearts. Each one needs to be acquired by War before Samael will give him access to the Black Throne and therefore The Destroyer. These are later replaced by shards of the Armageddon Blade, the super-powerful BFS needed to give The Destroyer a bad case of the deads.
• Power Fist: The Tremor Gauntlet. It also smashes ice barriers and lets War open really heavy doors.
• Power-Up Mount: Ruin, Despair, and the heavenly beast that War hijacks.
• Pun-Based Title: The HD remaster is called the Warmastered Edition.
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: The Crossblade, which can lock onto distant targets before returning to War's hand.
• Ragnarök Proofing: A hundred years of occupation by demons and no humans to maintain buildings means that the wrecked city that serves as the main hub and the ruins Tiamat resides should not still be standing.
• Ranged Emergency Weapon: War gets a gun and a boomerang for long-range work, but there's no question that he's a melee character; neither of them can do much of any damage, but there are a few situations where you're forced to use them on enemies you either can't reach, or don't want to be standing next to.
• Rated M for Manly: The game is filled to the brim with testosterone. You play as one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, armed with a sword bigger than Texas and whatever tools of destruction you get your gargantuan hands on. You've been accused of starting the final war between Heaven and Hell too early, and are sent by a trio of lava heads called the Charred Council to clear your name the only way you can: Butchering your way across the post-apocalyptic remains of Earth on a quest to kill the ones responsible. It doesn't get much more metal than this.
• Real Is Brown: Played straight for most of the game, but justified in that it takes place in the burned-out remains of a human city after the apocalypse. It's averted in the areas where the vegetation has started to grow back.
• Red Right Hand: Samael is already a huge, horned red demon, but one of the unsettling things about his design is that his wings appear to be upside-down.
• Rewarding Vandalism: Most breakable objects will release souls when destroyed, but most don't respawn when you come back later, either. Who's going to replace those broken down cars, the demons?
• Riddle for the Ages:
  • What would happen if Nex Sacramentum was broken? While it's implied to involve some kind of dire consequence, since even the Watcher backs down after War warns him against killing or forcing him to kill Uriel, it's never elaborated upon beyond this.
  • How did Ulthane get his hands on Mercy, either to give to War or to copy?
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: You engage in one of these in an attempt to clear your name and regain your rightful place as an enforcer for the Charred Council. The games ends with a Sequel Hook where War summons the other three Horsemen, with his dialogue implying they intend to show the Council what's what.
• Sadly Mythtaken:
  • The most well known interpretation of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse are that of Conquest, War, Famine, and Death; Pestilence replaces Conquest in some versions. However none of the names of the horsemen are explicitly stated in Bible except for Death. The names Conquest (or Pestilence), War, and Famine are taken from popular interpretations of how they're described in the Bible. Granted, they are very famous interpretations but none the less the source remains open to new definitions. Thus, it could be argued that having the white Rider as Strife and the Black Rider as Fury is in fact as valid as any other rendition making this another aversion of the trope.
• Sand Worm: The ashworms. They happen to live in a desert created from the ashes of all humanity (or perhaps, from all living things in the planet, possibly including all fauna and flora).
• Scary Impractical Armor: Considering everyone present in this game is a superhuman at least, the armor they wear isn't impractical as such, but still fits the spirit of the trope.
• Scenery Porn: Eden definitely qualifies, despite being a shadow of what it once was. Anvil's Ford is quite pretty too.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Samael. An unusual use of this trope, since you have to free him and restore his full powers to continue your quest against the Destroyer.
• Sequel Hook: The game ends with War killing The Watcher and the Seventh Seal destroyed, thus freeing him and the other Horsemen to give the Charred Council what's coming to them. However, the hook seems to be for the third game, not the second. Given the ending of the second game, which ends with Death being called by the breaking of the Seventh Seal, this seemed to be the case. Then the third game stars Fury and ends up being set during War's 100 year imprisonment and Genesis is a prequel staring War and Strife. The most likely candidate is now a fourth console game (fifth overall).
• Shout-Out: Many possible shoutouts in the items (Do the Crossblade and Abyssal Chain remind you of anything?), but one particularly obvious one. Late in the game, you get the Void Walker item. It creates one pair of portals at a time (though only at specific locations), through which you can jump. The first portal you fire is orange. The second is blue. Sound familiar?
  • Oh, it doesn't stop there. There's the Empty Vessel, which you can fill with souls of enemies so you can use it later (Empty Bottle). There's the Hoardseeker, which reveals the location of all the treasure chests in a dungeon (Compass). There's the Mask of Shadows, which lets you see hidden objects (Lens of Truth). And... You have to collect shards of the Armageddon Blade before you can fight the final boss (The Triforce shards)
  • And after the aforementioned reunion with your horse, the demons watching you fight off their buddies in a gladiatorial arena decide to all just attack. The Watcher has this to say:
    The Watcher: Are you not entertained?
  • The achievement for gaining the Mask of Shadows is called "Sight Beyond Sight".
  • Speaking of The Watcher, it's Mark Hamill doing the voice. Does it sound familiar?
  • War and Vulgrim look similar to Prince Arthas and Kel'Thuzad respectively.
  • The offer that Lilith gave to Abaddon to become the Destroyer, which Abaddon also offers to War before the final boss: "Would you serve in Heaven, or rule in Hell?" This is a reference to the classic epic poem Paradise Lost, in which Satan addresses his followers with a Rousing Speech after being banished to Hell by God ending with the classic line: "Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven."
• Sinister Scythe: The Harvester, Death's scythe. You get more souls if it's used for the killing blow.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Uriel frees War from the Charred Council by breaking the Seventh Seal, thus summoning the other three Horsemen.
  • Azrael bringing War to Eden allowed him to reach the Tree of Knowledge, which in turn allowed him to find out the Council's Batman Gambit and set up one of his own to foil theirs.
• Spikes of Doom: Demon warriors' armor (and bodies) and the Abyssal Armor Set.
• Stripperific: Look closely at the statues in the Twilight Cathedral.
  • The Wraith enemies also qualify.
• Superboss: Wicked K is a zombie-like Wicked with a top-hat, a cane, and a British accent who can block all of your attacks except for block counters. You can fight him up to four times, for a Soul reward.
• Super Drowning Skills: War can breathe underwater forever, but there are several enemies that die instantly when they hit the water.
• Super Mode: Chaos Form for War (Heroic version), and the Destroyer for Abaddon (Villainous version).
• Sword of Plot Advancement: The Armageddon Blade, the only weapon capable of harming The Destroyer and breaking the seven seals. War has to reforge it with Ulthane's help before he can take on The Destroyer.
• A Taste of Power: War starts with eight Lifestones, a maxed out Chaoseater and the ability to use Chaos Form indefinitely. Then he loses half of the Lifestones and Chaos Form. And the Charred Council takes the rest after the first Boss Fight.
• Teach Him Anger: Samael goads War into focusing his hate in order to break the weakening effect the Council has imposed on him. This unleashes his Chaos Form which he lost after the Armageddon.
• Teleport Spam: Silitha's combat style.
• Thanatos Gambit: War deliberately spares Uriel's life after she invokes Nex Sacramentum as part of one. By sparing her life and later letting her kill him after beating the Destroyer, they are both freed from the death oath; Uriel's subsequent breaking of the seventh seal then resurrects War and frees the Horsemen from the Charred Council's control.
• Unwitting Pawn: The Council set up War so they could use him as an assassin. Samael later uses War to reclaim his stolen power from the Chosen.
• Updated Re-release: The Warmastered Edition gives the game a visual overhaul with higher resolution textures, higher quality shadows, new post-processing effects, remastered cutscenes, and runs at 60 FPS (save for the Wii U version). This version also includes the Harvester scythe previously exclusive to pre-orders.
• Violent Glaswegian: Ulthane in spades. With a huge hammer, no less.
• Wakeup Call Boss: It's not too difficult to figure out how to defeat Tiamat. Actually doing it, on the other hand, can prove extremely troublesome if you haven't stocked up on healing items beforehand.
  • Using the Crossblade the entire time? Death of a Thousand Cuts actually works, and is somewhat practical if you charge it up first. Hardly took a scratch.
  • You can defeat her the conventional way without taking any damage. This requires good reaction with dodge and familiarity with her arsenal, but absolutely nothing different from any other bosses or even tough mooks.
• We Can Rule Together: Abaddon makes this offer to War with the same deal that he accepted to become the Destroyer. War's response?
  War: I choose what once... a coward did not.
• Who Dares?: One of the reactions that ice knights give when the player approaches them is a snarly "Who daresssss?"
• Wormsign: In the levels with the Sand Worms this is how you see them coming for you.
• Worthy Opponent: War considers Uriel one of these. So much so that he refrains from finishing her off after defeating her in a sacred duel to the death because he doesn't want the last of Heaven's honor to die with her.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • Appears to be the Charred Council's plan for War when he's finished hunting those responsible for breaking the truce. Doesn't quite work out as planned though seeing as how he's still very much alive.
  • The Watcher's sister when she tells the Council that the End War is happening prematurely during the comic.
  • Subverted when Azrael keeps finding ways of making himself useful.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: Those souls you pay Vulgrim with? He eats them, and the game makes this very clear the first time you meet him.
  Vulgrim: Mmmm, there were a few young ones in there. Haha, spectacular!

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