Video Game / Darksiders III

Fury, your role in this story is yet to be written. I wonder? Will you light the flame of creation anew?... Or stomp out the embers for good?

— The Lord of Hollows

Darksiders III is an Action RPG video game and Sequel to Darksiders II, developed by Gunfire Games and published by THQ Nordic. The former is composed of staff who worked on the previous Darksiders video games as the now-defunct studio Vigil Games. The game was released on November 27, 2018 on the Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox One and PC. A port for the Nintendo Switch was released on September 30, 2021 that includes the post-release Downloadable Content.

Darksiders III occurs at around the same time as the events of Darksiders II. Ditching the elements from the previous two games to pursue the formula from the Dark Souls series by FROMSoftware, players control Fury, the sole female Horseman of the Apocalypse, charged with a quest by the Charred Council to capture the Seven Deadly Sins. Unlike its predecessors, Darksiders III doesn't feature a variety of unlockable moves, nor does Fury ride a mount in the game; instead, the leveling system allows players only to upgrade physical damage, Hit Points or arcane damage. The environment is explorable and interconnected, but exploration only rewards players with souls (functioning as both currency and Experience Points) or materials to upgrade Fury's weapons.

The game was followed up by Darksiders Genesis in December 2019.

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This game provides examples of:

• Action Girl: Fury, of course. It's notable that "Fury" was made up instead of Pestilence^note Originally Conquest or Famine, as it was determined that those didn't fit the action of the series.
• A Day In The Lime Light: For Fury, who's only ever been briefly mentioned in the previous games.
• All Your Powers Combined:
  • The Final Boss of the main story wields weapons evocative of the Horsemen's own arsenal sans Fury; a Chaoseater-like greatsword, a scythe similar to Harvester, and two hand cannons just as large as Mercy and Redemption. Considering Envy likely envied their power the most when they collectively kicked her ass, it makes sense that she would want to emulate them. In addition, she can summon facsimiles of the fallen Sins to aid her in combat due to having their talisman.
  • The Final Boss of the "Keepers of the Void" DLC fuses with the destroyed remnants of all four fallen Keepers, attacking Fury with all their elements, many of their attacks often upgraded, and completely new moves both original and combined.
• Apocalypse How: Thanks to the Angelic and Demonic factions warring, Earth has been rendered almost uninhabitable and crawling with alien life, save for isolated pockets that the Makers protect the humans with. The remaining humans have to transfer to another location at the end of the game when it's clear that the Demons are getting bolder in their assault.
• Badass Boast: When the Charred Council asks Fury if she's willing to undertake the task of slaying the deadly sins even though she's outnumbered seven to one. Her response in the initial teaser trailer?
  Fury: "With pleasure."
• Battle Boomerang: Salvation, a cross blade of angelic origins which the angel Usiel gifted Fury the long-range weapon which is capable of being imbued with the hollow powers for a variety of devastating elemental effects.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Various insectoid beasts make up the entire enemy roster of the Nether area, a subway system that appears to be partially converted into a hive. That even includes the area's resident Sin, Sloth, who resembles an overweight humanoid bug.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Seven Deadly Sins are defeated, Mankind has survived the Apocalypse in sufficient numbers to rebuild and replenish the Earth, and Fury, having learned humility and other virtues on her journey, vows to do all in her power to protect humanity until they are strong enough to fight back to retake Earth, content in the knowledge she and her brothers will meet again. However, it may take years or even decades for Mankind to recover to be ready to fight the kind of war needed to retake Earth; until then, they must abandon their home and find a safe haven on another world, rather than be wiped out. The Charred Council has also gone mad with power, seemingly as a result of the Seven Deadly Sins' influence on them and will surely seek Revenge for the Horsemen's defiance via the imprisoned War, setting off the events of the first Darksiders. Finally, Lilith and Lucifer, the two architects of the whole catastrophe, are still at large.
• Backtracking: Some hidden paths require a specific hollow acquired later in the story in order to get the item at the end. Expect to do a lot of backtracking, especially if you want to collect all upgrade items and consumables.
• Blood Knight: Fury, of course. At the start of the game, she's feeling so bored that she wishes for another war to happen so she can slaughter everything. She even remarks that she would have even killed Rampage if she didn't love him.
• Bookends: From the start of the game, Fury defeats the Starter Villain, Envy. And cue her Watcher's betrayal after revealing her true form and her nature, Fury fights Envy as the Final Boss near the end of the game and defeats her for the last time.
• Boring, but Practical: The Leviathan weapon upgrade Vulgrim sells. It has two effects, neither of them world-changing. One gives you a regeneration effect. It isn't particularly strong but given how much time you spend in the game solving puzzles, it will usually have time to help you out. The other effect gives you spirits whenever you break environmental objects. Not a lot of them at first but you'll be surprised just how many breakable objects there are lying around. It doesn't take long at all to make back the Leviathan's price and from then on it will be responsible for several level-ups all on its own.
• Boss-Only Level:
  • The final fight with Envy has no enemies and Fury is directly teleported by Ulthane to her after finishing the shrine teleporter.
  • Pride's Temple is straight and short, past a small armada of enemies, and is unlocked early in this south end but can only be accessed if you defeat the first five bosses.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: "The Crucible" Downloadable Content allows the player to farm for upgrade materials that are normally supposed to be found in limited quantities per playthrough of the main game, allowing one to potentially max out all their weapons and Enchantments before even starting New Game Plus. Even "Keepers of the Void", in addition to offering more rare upgrade materials for free, also grants access to four additional weapons, which translate to four additional Enchantment Slots to allow you to equip passive buffs to without even having to attune a hollow form to that particular weapon.
• Bullet Time: If the player manages a perfect dodge, time will slow down, allowing Fury to counterattack with a special move a la Bayonetta
• The Bus Came Back: After his absence from Darksiders II, Ulthane returns in this game.
• Call-Forward: Before Fury sets off with the human survivors, she asks Ulthane to assist in War's future endeavors, knowing he is innocent of the Charred Council's accusations of triggering the End War; Ulthane complies. This answers one of the lingering Plot Holes as to why the latter willingly helps War during Darksiders, despite the character's involvement in The Conspiracy behind the End War.
• Convection, Schmonvection: When equipping the Flame Hollow, Fury won't take damage from standing on lava. Won't work if other hollows are used, obviously.
• Counter-Attack: With precise timing, Fury can deal extra damage if she was able to do a perfect dodge to an enemy.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: The game features angels and demons fighting, and the Council of Watchers acting like a God-like figure to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
• Dramatic Irony: The ending with Lucifer saying that everything is going to plan with Abaddon and heaven and hell is funny because we know that in the previous games that War is going to kill Abaddon, and Death is not going to give him his army of Nephilim, so saying that things are going according to plan seems a bit premature for Lucifer.
• Dressed Like a Dominatrix: Fury of course, complete with a dominant attitude and a whip. Wrath even likes her for this.
• Dump Stat: Health is generally seen like this. Enemies can take out Fury in just a few hits no matter how much points you put into it and you eventually get enhancements that significantly buff your health and healing, making anything you invest irrelevant. Better to focus on maximizing the damage your attacks deal.
• Early Game Hell: Early on you only have two uses on your Nephilim's Respite, no form changes, no ranged weapon, and the level ups barely do anything (they increase your physical damage by 5% per level, which is pathetic until your weapon is at a decent level). As soon as you get another use on the healing item, increase your health and upgrade your weapon a bit the game becomes drastically easier, It also doesn't help that the later bosses seem to have way more telegraphed attacks than the early bosses.
• Equipment-Based Progression: While there is a leveling system for Fury, the best way to increase damage is by forging the weapons and upgrading enhancements to their Balanced form.
• Exposition Fairy: Fury is accompanied by a female Watcher. Unlike the one that followed War, this one is decidedly less antagonistic towards her Horseman. Of course, this one also has malevolent designs of her own.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Fury's armor has her left arm covered in armor while her right is bare save for a metal wrist guard.
• Foregone Conclusion: Like the previous game, the events from the first Darksiders ensures Fury, Ulthane and Strife survive Darksiders III. Due to the ending of this game, whatever Fury and Strife are doing in the interim winds up with both characters eventually returning to Earth.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When playing through the game, there is an icon at the top of the screen that leads the player to each Deadly Sin throughout the world. The icon looks like a mask similar to the one Death wears in Darksiders II. It turns out the Watcher, who helps guide Fury to each Sin, is Envy in disguise - when she reveals her true self, she wears a mask similar to Death's, hence Envy was guiding and manipulating both the player and Fury during the whole game.
  • When confronting Abraxis, one of his lines of dialogue is thus:
    Abraxis: "The meek always envy the strong. Isn't that right, Watcher?"
  • At the start of the game, the Charred Council briefly remark on the status of each Horseman: War is in chains, Death is AWOL, and Strife "attends to other matters." Strife's actually been on Earth this whole time, and puts in a brief appearance at the very end of the game.
• Giant Enemy Crab: Sloth, who is carried by a giant crab who fights in his stead. At least, for the first phase of the battle. After you kill the crab, Sloth decides It's Personal and decides to take the fight to you.
• God and Satan Are Both Jerks: Or to be more exact, Heaven and Hell are both jerk factions. Though it's implied the The Creator cares for humanity sufficiently, it's clear Heaven and its Angels do not, while Lucifer and the forces of Hell actively try to corrupt and destroy them. The game makes it abundantly clear that the forces of Heaven and Hell have conspired to diminish humanity for years due to fearing their special potential to surpass them both and uphold the Universal Balance. Neither side has shown care for humans and their War was essentially part of a plan to make humanity extinct and claim Earth for themselves.
• Guide Dang It!: Gluttony's second phase - while it's fairly clear from the arena layout that players are supposed to make him swallow the underwater mines that have been constantly following Fury throughout the level, figuring out how to do so is harder since the game gives players no method of grabbing these mines without them exploding, thus it's best to herd them along until they get pulled in by Gluttony's inhaling attack.
• Irony: Fury's horse Rampage gets its own trailer to establish it and Fury's relationship, something that neither War or Death's horses got. It is the only horse so far in the series that isn't used during game-play. In fact, it is killed pretty early on in the story.
• Last Stand: At the game's climax, with the Destroyer's army about to overrun humanity's last safe haven, the Makers on Earth fight back the demons long enough for Ulthane and Fury to evacuate the last of Mankind to a new sanctuary where they can rebuild their numbers.
  The Destroyer: (commanding its demon army to attack) CHARGE! Let the armies of Hell eliminate ALL that is human! Once and for all, we will raze this planet!
  Ulthane: Makers, if you honour your station, do what must be done!
• Male Gaze: Surprisingly averted, considering that Fury is the type of character ripe for this, but there are the occasional moments where the camera pans out over Fury's body.
• Mistaken for Granite: Some levels have stone statues in the shape of various aliens. You can smash them if you want, but some of them contain actual angels or demons inside.
• Money Is Experience Points: Taking a leaf from the Dark Souls franchise, money functions both for leveling up and buying items.
• Morph Weapon: Scorn, fury's main weapon, is technically only a magical hilt. By default, it manifests as a Whip Sword. Depending on Fury's current form, it can also take the form of a pair of flails, a lance, a massive hammer, and a combination broadsword and twin swords.
• Mythology Gag: The Leviathan enhancement that can be bought from Vulgrim is a nod to the Darksiders comic, where Death was tasked by Vulgrim to bring him a Leviathan's tongue in exchange for information. Death killed and brought him the beast's whole corpse, and reading the description has the enhancement itself mention Death.
• New Game Plus: Takes some cues from Dark Souls, unsurprisingly. Enemies are vastly stronger, there are additional even stronger enemies scattered around the game world and there are new, better loot drops, including armor upgrades, which are entirely unavailable in your first playthrough.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Literally, as Fury gains a new power every time she kills a Deadly Sin and the Lord of Hollows give her a new hollow that lets her access Elemental Powers.
• Not Quite Flight: When using the Storm Hollow, Fury can float downward after jumping, which will slow her descent speed to allow some control and, if she touches a tornado, will be launched into the air.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: As soon as you get the Storm Hollow, you can go back to a small tornado in Haven that will lead you down a path with particularly overleveled enemies, including one of the annoying invisible demons and a corrupted angel as well as one of the big four-armed chargers. There's also a big lurcher cluster in that same area as well as a weapon upgrade. Killing everything there gives several thousand spirits, which is enormous at that point in the game.
• Prequel: While the game happens around the same time Death sets off on his adventure in Darksiders II, Darksiders III explicitly takes place during the time of War's imprisonment by the Charred Council for falsely triggering the End War.
• Rule of Three: Given a Lampshade Hanging by Fury, who notes the use of three items in a variety of puzzles and is annoyed at the Creator for "taking shortcuts".
• Seven Deadly Sins: The Charred Council enlists Fury to hunt the Sins, who are described as enemies of Creation itself.
• Slasher Smile: Fury sports one after revealing herself to War, and seems to do so while engaged in combat.
• Smug Snake: Pride, natch. She shows up specifically to taunt Fury midway through the story, only to be fought much later.
• The Smurfette Principle: Fury is not just the only female Horseman, but also the last female Nephilim.
• Souls-like RPG: The game breaks away from the trends of the previous titles by modeling itself into this genre - hard-to-kill enemies, a fragile protagonist, reliance on avoiding damage with the invincibility frames of a dodge, a reusable healing item that recovers over time, save points players can teleport between, strong bosses that require pattern recognition to beat, collecting souls from dead enemies to spend as Experience Points to level-up, and upgrading equipment having more impact on player character power than the level-ups themselves.
• The Stinger: A post-credits scene shows Lilith meeting with Lucifer in secret; Lucifer is amused to learn Fury is protecting what's left of Humanity, but dismisses it as irrelevant; with Heaven, Hell and the Charred Council fighting amongst themselves, Lucifer infers to Lilith that his plan is to let them battle it out, then emerge victorious with no rivals or checks on his power left to oppose him.
  Lucifer: "So, the young one plays nursemaid to Mankind...it is of no concern. Abaddon rules over the Earth, Heaven and Hell scramble to take their place at the table, and the Council? The Council works against the very Balance they profess to uphold. Soon, corruption will overtake them all...and only I shall remain."
  • Alternatively, if Fury killed Abraxis and earned the amulet from the Lord of Hollows, Lucifer's tone with Lilith is much angrier, but ultimately he notes that the Charred Council will send War to clean up its mistakes (following the plot of the first game) and he can still take advantage of the situation.
  Lucifer: Fool! I told you to silence the traitor! No matter. The young one remains unaware of the power she possesses. The Council will deliberate this turn, and they will send War to Earth. A mistake! The final seal will be broken, and I will revel in the chaos!.
• Superboss: Scattered across the game world you will stumble across the Chosen, which are palette swaps of some of the game's nastier enemies. They are generally fairly scary and don't drop any spirits, but their arenas have good loot and they drop Essence of a Chosen, which you need to enhance your weapon upgrades to their final tier..
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: Fury can stay indefinitely underwater in the few sections of the game requiring it. Using the Force Hollow sinks her like a stone and she can't use the Flame Hollow until she jumps back to dry land.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Ulthane asks Fury to find and send any human survivors she comes across back to the sanctuary, which she reluctantly agrees to in return for equipment upgrade services. Not only do they tend to be located in spots with upgrade materials, saving enough of them and talking to Ulthane will have him give Fury a talisman called Rider's Mercy, which he will enhance to provide various bonuses based on many have been saved.
• Walk, Don't Swim: Fury will sink like a stone and walk under water if she equips the Force Hollow. She can even attack while in this state.
• Walk on Water: Fury can freeze the top of waters and lakes if she equips the Stasis Hollow.
• Wham Line: Courtesy of Envy, who's been masquerading as Fury's Watcher throughout the game:
  (To Pride) "Always so pretty — I used to be so jealous of you, sister."
• Wham Shot: As Fury leaves with the residents of Haven in the ending, she sees Jones charge into battle with two VERY familiar guns as he easily dispatches numerous demons. He turns around and is revealed to be none other than Strife.
• Whip Sword: Fury's primary weapon is a bladed whip, which she likes to use to make enemies hit themselves with their own weapons.

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