14 DAY TRIAL // The action game Darksiders, a triple-A title that was originally developed by Vigil Games and published by the defunct THQ company, will be getting a Linux version.
You might be wondering how this game is getting a Linux release now that THQ is no more and the studio that built it disbanded after the bankruptcy of THQ. The assets for Darksiders were bought at an auction by Nordic Games, a game publisher from Austria.
The Darksiders franchise actually features two games, but the guys from Nordic Games haven't said anything about the second part. It's likely that, if the sales from the first Linux version of Darksiders go well, we might get to see a port for the second part.
We reached out to Nordic Games and Philipp Brock, the PR manager for the publisher, and he explained that they have a separate division that works on the port for Darksiders and they even managed to enlist the help of the original programmer for the Vigil engine, which was used for the game.
Darksiders was initially launched on console and eventually made it to the PC. This means that the engine is pretty versatile and that it used DirectX 9. Games like Darksiders should be easy to bring on Linux through OpenGL.
To entice the Linux players a little bit, Nordic Games also published a screenshot from the Linux version of the game, with the character in the Crossroads level, which is very close to the starting point.
“Deceived by the forces of evil into prematurely bringing about the end of mankind, WAR – the first Horseman of the Apocalypse – must return to Earth to search for the truth and punish those responsible. War must take on the forces of Heaven and Hell, forge uneasy alliances with the very demons he hunts, and journey across the ravaged remains of the Earth on his quest for vengeance,” reads the synopsis.
The title will most likely be available on Steam, where it was offered numerous times with generous discounts. It features controller support, Steam Achievements, but has no multiplayer to speak of.
It's also interesting to note that Nordic Games has a number of other games in its portfolio that we would love to see on Linux, like the Red Faction franchise, Spellforce, and Supreme Commander, just to name a few. This is not their first Linux endeavor and Nordic Games has proved to be an avid supporter of the open source platform.
There is also no indication of when the port might be ready, but we will make sure to keep you posted with any news on this subject.