The characters of THQ’s Darksiders look like they’re straight from the cover of a 70s metal album. War, the gnarly protagonist, is one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, so there’s obviously going to be lots of killing. The hellish characters look like all they need is a guitar to have a good time, but this isn’t the comedic Brutal Legend. These guys are for real.

Unfortunately, both for ourselves and War, he had been tricked into destroying the world before it’s proper time. People are pissed at him, and he’s been stripped of his powers. He goes back to the barren earth to find out what exactly has gone on. The demo didn’t provide too many details, but it looks like there will be a fairly involved storyline considered the fair number of cutscenes.

With the mankind stomped out, the only living creatures appear to be zombies and other foul beasts. While War might be a legendary badass, playing as him doesn’t really stand out from Dante or Kratos. Sure, there’s a lot of hacking and slashing to do, but in the limited amount of time to play there wasn’t much unique about the character. Sure, he looks awesome, double jumps like a platforming hero and can pulverize enemies into an mess of blood, but right now it just feels like something is missing.

While the fighting is nothing totally original, it’s still easy to enjoy the chaos. Enemies can be picked up and slammed into the ground and large objects can be used to beat back the hordes. I guess simplicity is sometimes the best way to go rather than convoluted controls. Playing as War is a smooth and immediately accessible. He can dash around, climb walls and lob cars with relative ease. Killing baddies nets experience that can later be used to upgrade the character, but this aspect was not available in the demo.

As it stands, the combat is merely above average, but the RPG elements promise to add some depth to separate it from its strictly-action oriented ilk. The first level was straightforward, but later on there should be dungeons with puzzles, which is a great fit for the game. Not many RPGs with interesting storylines have decent combat, but Darksiders might come together to provide a nice blend of genres.