Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda franchise is among the most highly praised in the video game industry. Even the worst titles (barring the non-Nintendo produced CD-I exclusives) are among some of the top-rated games, and Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time is still the best-rated title of all time. For some reason, there aren't many attempts to copy The Legend of Zelda's success. The games that follow the Zelda mold are few and far between, and the only really notable one in the last few years was Capcom's Okami, which was a fantastic game in its own right. Vigil Games doesn't appear willing to let this potentially excellent niche go untapped for much longer, however, and Darksiders: The Wrath of War could be just the game for fans who have been waiting for a darker Zelda title.

The end of the world may be something predicted for countless centuries, but that doesn't mean that it's necessarily going to be on time. That's the theory behind Darksiders: Wrath of War, which stars a Horseman of the Apocalypse, War. He and his fellow horsemen rode out and ushered in the end days of mankind, only to discover shortly afterwards that the apocalypse wasn't supposed to occur for quite a while, and the plans of both Heaven and Hell have been thrown off by the sudden extinction of mankind. War is stripped of his powers and exiled, but he isn't going to stand for being made the scapegoat for someone else's plans. Gathering what remains of his power, he returns to Earth to figure out exactly what happened, where his fellow horsemen are, and who is responsible for the early apocalypse.

The majority of Darksiders is going to be spent exploring dungeons, not unlike The Legend of Zelda. (You're going to be hearing that quite a bit in this preview, so be warned.) Each of the dungeons houses part of the answer to War's mystery, but getting through isn't going to be a walk in the park. Gameplay is primarily a combination of completing puzzles mixed with the occasional combat. It is worth noting that you're a bit more action-oriented than Link, and War can actually jump. Taking a note from Soul Reaver, War can even use a bit of his remaining power to form tattered wings that allow him to glide over gaps. We didn't get to see too much of the exploring, as our demo was primarily focused on the combat and puzzle-solving aspects.