I think it’s safe to say that Darksiders III is the most divisive game in the entire franchise. It’s hard to find a unanimous answer on which Darksiders game is the best of them all (I personally prefer the first one), but most will pinpoint the franchise’s take on soulslike action as its lowest point. Although, I still believe that game was pretty good in its own right, just massively unpolished at launch. It ran poorly on the Xbox One, where I first played it originally, but things are a lot smoother nowadays. Now it’s time to see how well this game runs on even weaker hardware. Darksiders III is finally available on the Nintendo Switch.

For all intents and purposes, this game should not exist. Just like Wolfenstein II, The Witcher 3, and The Outer Worlds, this is the kind of game you wouldn’t even consider being ported to the Switch. It was originally released with a plethora of issues on previous platforms, and it garnered such mixed reviews from critics that we’ve always thought THQ Nordic just wanted to move along and forget that this game had ever been a thing. It’s nice that this exists on the Switch, but let me warn you right from the get-go: any other previous version of Darksiders III is a lot better than this one.

That was to be expected, right? This is the Switch we’re talking about. I love the damn thing, but there are some games that just weren’t created with that system in mind. It wasn’t even the lowest common denominator used as the developers’ foundation back in the day. That means that Gunfire Games had to figure out how to make this game run on what’s essentially super dated mobile hardware for 2021’s standards. It is a commendable effort to see it running on the Switch, but at the same time, it had to suffer a lot of setbacks.

The framerate, which was the game’s main issue back in the day, is still a mixed bag, but truth be told, it all depends on how you decide to play it. If you play the game on handheld mode, it mostly manages to achieve 30 frames per second, albeit with some uneven pacing. Given the portable mode’s smaller screen size, you can mostly ignore the reduced textural quality and geometry, resulting in a somewhat enjoyable, albeit very janky, Souls-esque experience. It’s nowhere near as good as Dark Souls on the Switch, though.

The problem lies in how the game performs in docked mode. Sure, you’re getting a slightly improved resolution, slightly less compressed sound (allowing you to enjoy listening to Phil Lamarr going nuts as the merchant Vulgrim even more), and better textures, but this all comes at the cost of an even jankier framerate. Darksiders III is all about precise button pressing and reacting to your enemies’ incoming attacks, making the game unnecessarily more challenging as a result. You just end up wondering why the hell you are playing this specific version of Darksiders III on a big screen when there are cheaper (and better) ports of the game in other platforms.

It’s nice to have Darksiders III, and as a result, the entire franchise on-the-go, but let’s be real here: this is not the best version of the game. In fact, it’s the complete opposite. It suffers from poor visuals and an even more unstable framerate than the one that plagued the original PS4 and Xbox One releases of the game. You will want to get Darksiders III on the Switch only if you’re a die-hard fan of the franchise or if you’re into grabbing these novelty Switch ports of games that supposedly should not be able to run on such inferior hardware.

 

Graphics: 6.0 It obviously looks inferior when compared to its PS4 and Xbox counterparts, but I expected a lot worse. The problem lies in the inconsistent framerate. It’s a total mess on docked mode, while being a lot more bearable (albeit far from stable) on portable.	Gameplay: 6.5 The Souls-styled combat system is good, but given how the game’s framerate is pretty uneven, you never feel like you’re getting an immediate response from your inputs.
Sound: 7.5 I really like this game’s voice acting, even if the soundtrack is mediocre at best. It sounds a bit too compressed though.	Fun Factor: 6.0 As fun as it is to have this game on-the-go, you’re only here for the novelty. It is inferior to its console counterparts in every single way.
Final Verdict: 6.5

Darksiders III is available now on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of Darksiders III was provided by the publisher.