DarkSider - Cheap ripoff or cool game?

So hey everyone.

I'm almost finished playing DarkSiders (for 360), and have realize the following.

The storyline is similar-ish to G-d of War (mythology and the such)
The mechanics are similar to a lot of games (but thats pretty standard)
The weapons include a boomerang and a grappling hook (a la Zelda)
There is a PORTAL GUN (seriously could the rip be more blatant here)

SO...here's the question, for anyone whose played the game or has seen it:
Is this game just a cheap knockoff of everything above, or is it a good game in its own right?

Discuss.

Never played it, but a portal gun and other guns that actually kill people sound awesome.

I don't think anyone besides me checks this forum

Yeah, there's a normal gun too (but it is pretty lame). You do use it do kill this giant worm thing which is pretty sweet though.

I think portal explored the idea of portals in a purely puzzle setting, with no combat that involved guns other than the portal gun, and it would be interesting to be able to kill stuff with a gun while dodging attacks with portals.

True, yeah the final-ish level makes great advatage of stuff like this...

i.e. solving puzzles by slowing time, then creating portals, then using the boomerang to open a door, all while avoiding stupid bats that try to kill you, and using the grapping hook to swing across open spaces

I played it and loved it, and here’s why I think more people should play it. It’s just my mini-review of the game, but the tl;dr version of it is that it’s a fantastic game that, I believe, should really receive more attention. The direct answer to your question is at the bottom.

The Review
So, I played DarkSiders to death, and eventually 100%-ed the game. I really, really liked it. If you want to compare it to only a single game, it's actually closest to the 3D Zelda games. You enter a dungeon/temple, you are given a new toy, you solve puzzles with that toy (maybe see some old puzzles for you to use your old toys on), then you beat the boss with that toy. There is also a boomerang, bomb-plants, a hookshot, a mask-of-truth, and empty bottles for you to keep your inventory in.

DarkSiders rips off of a lot of games. Yes, there is a portal gun used to solve puzzles. Yes, the handgun works exactly like the one in Devil May Cry. Hell, there's even an on-rails section that is EXACTLY from Panzer Dragoon, with you riding on a giant winged beast, painting targets with the lock-on, and tapping the shoot-button to shoot down their projectiles.

So we’ve established that the game is rather unoriginal. Why did I love it so much?

It’s presentation is top-notch. Joe Madera’s art is as excellent as always (he was lead artist for the game. You may know him from his work on the good Deadpool comics, and on Uncanny X-Men if you read comics). The game is colorful, enemies are varied, and while the graphics are great-but-not-spectacular, their originality and character is always a joy.

The story, while a little hard to follow, is original, interesting, and told very well. While God of War simply pilfers iconic creatures from mythology and gives you an excuse to kill them all, DarkSiders is bold enough to create its own setting, and populate it with some history. The voice-acting is fantastic, with characters The Watcher (voiced by Mark Hamil) and Samael being the standouts. The story ends very satisfyingly; it provides a dramatic conclusion, answered a lot of my questions, but still left enough questions open to make me want a sequel. The story IS somewhat hard to follow, but only in a comic-book sort of way.

And those two words really sum it up. “Comic book”. Everything here is a comic book. From the intensly-cheezy-but-dead-serious melodrama of the story, to the busy and colorful art. The game has a ton of comic-book personality, and I personally love that. It’s not a feeling you get from any games on the market today (some of them go out of their way to say IT’S A COMIC BOOK NOW e.g. the cutscenes in InFamous, but the tone is lost in the actual game that is played). So Darksiders was actually a huge breath of fresh air in the ocean of brown-and-grey shooters and oh-so-bloody God of War clones.

So yeah, the gameplay is unoriginal. But it’s far from uninspired. When is the last time you played Zelda anyways? The combat is a bit less mindless than GoW, but otherwise borrows very heavily from the game. It’s not nearly as visceral, but it’s also not nearly as central to the gameplay, and necessary tactics are varied enough to remain interesting. DarkSiders uses a proven formula very, very well IMHO. Although you will be taken out of the experience every now-and-again by it’s near-plagiarism of certain ideas, it always sucks you back it with its charm and its personality.

The Answer to your Question
It’s the first game from Vigil Games, a developer formed by a game designer and a comic book artist. The comic book really shows through in a way I haven’t seen any game do before it. DarkSiders borrows very heavily from other games, and not always successfully, but generally remains engaging throughout while really making you excited for the (4-player co-op!) sequel. Claiming that the developers didn’t take enough risks is somewhat disingenuous, as we’re discussing a brand-new IP (already a rarity in today’s market). We’ve seen games try using GoW’s QTEs and generally fail, but DarkSiders pulls off just about everything it tries to do with enough polish and aplomb so as to make it genuinely add to the experience. And that experience is one of an engaging Zelda-style dungeon-solver presented through beautiful and varied art and surrounded by a very original story. What’s not to love?