Darksiders Was Originally Planned as a Four-Player Co-Op Game

Vigil Games, the developer behind the Darksiders series, has revealed that its original plans for the first game was to make it a four-player cooperative experience, instead of the single-player title people eventually got to experience.

Darksiders II is getting ready to appear next month, so Vigil Games has started talking about its development strategy and how, initially, Darksiders 1 was supposed to be an experience centered around four players, presumably each controlling one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

According to Darksiders 2 lead designer, Haydn Dalton, the plan was dropped in favor of a more traditional experience.

“Originally, Vigil wanted to do a four player co-op game,” Dalton told CVG. “Realistically, though, we didn’t have much console experience and it was a whole new genre for us. So instead we went down the less risky route and focused on a single one of them.”

With the upcoming second game, Vigil once again pondered the idea of a co-op experience but, in the end, decided to please fans that wanted more of a traditional hack and slash experience.

“With the second game we thought of doing some form of co-op, but that was still very risky. Plus, people liked what we did with the first game and we didn’t want to take that away from them. I guess we’ll find out when [Darksiders 2] comes out whether they still like it [Laughs].”

Still, the studio hasn’t completely given up on the cooperative Darksiders experience and might revisit it with another installment in the series.

“I don’t think there’s anyone here that likes Darksiders and doesn’t like the idea of causing destruction with three buddies,” Dalton added. “The puzzles would have to change quite a lot, because we design them with a single person’s perspective in mind. Co-op puzzles would be a whole new challenge for us, and how the game would work if someone decided that they wanted to play by themselves.”

Darksiders II delivers a single-player experience, which, as we saw yesterday thanks to a gameplay trailer, looks quite impressive.