Almost 8 months after its first release Darksiders III is getting its 2nd DLC, after the rather disappointing crucible DLC that left fans wanting more. Adding in the Abyssal Armor from the first 2 entries in the franchise, pulling it out from the base game and relegating it to a reward for this DLC. Combining climbing segments, puzzles and boss fights galore is this 2nd helping of DLC worth the price?
Being accessed via Vulgrim, the merchant informs us of some dangerous activity among the serpent holes, which prevents him from easy access to his shop locations. While it doesn’t affect the main game at all, we are allowed to help him with such issues with the offer of items as a reward. The DLC is set up into 4 wings, each one is specific to one of the elements that Fury can control, Flame, Storm, Force and Stasis, each utilizing some of the previous’ wings elements. On completing a wing you will be treated to a boss fight dissimilar from the main game, bringing a much needed unique take to the DLC. Overall the DLC will last you around 3 hours if you’re in the end-game, longer if you start earlier or are somewhat stumped by puzzles.
Since each wing uses an element you can’t complete this DLC until you own each one, but you are free to do any you currently have. Through exploring the wings you will be jumping around, using your elemental traversal powers and flipping switches to solve puzzles. The fights within the wings aren’t too hard, reflecting the difficulty of the areas you gain the elements within. Thankfully the bosses do pose some challenges, though their AI isn’t anything to write home about.
In a weird design choice, a lot of the void wings are mostly empty abyss of clouds and floating platforms, creating an uninteresting field to play around in. Enemy designs are also somewhat uninspired with plenty of rock-made monsters of very similar designs, even reflecting somewhat onto the bosses themselves.
As you explore the DLC you will find items scattered about, either on corpses or merely on the floor. These items are mostly what you can find in the main game like soul shards and collections. They aren’t the main attraction of the DLC, neither is the souls gained from enemies, the real prize is the Abyssal armour. Though since you need all elements to finish the DLC you won’t really be using it for too long.
There are some new weapons to get your angry mitts on, with each boss granting you a new one until the final boss rewarding you the armour. Looking flashy with acrobatic attacks the new weapons do add a new dynamic to combat, though with all the climbing and switches to hit within the DLC you aren’t going to use them too much unless you spend a lot of time within the survival segments. You’re most likely not going to use the new weapons for long either, as by the time you complete the DLC your base weapons would probably be max upgraded.
Sadly the DLC doesn’t do much to fix the number of bugs and glitches found within the main game, and with 6 patches up to this point, it may be the last sign that those issues are going to go unsolved. I got stuck in the floor several times, did falling attacks from the ground, teleported around the area and had attacks not connect with enemies large enough that it would have been impossible to miss. I also had experienced a game crash at one point in my run of the void.
Overall, Keepers of the Void gets a 6/10, it is not worth the £11 for what little use the new weapons and armour give you, alongside the armour that was a staple of the series being behind a paywall. The bugs have not been seen to, the void itself is uninspired and boring to both play and look at as well as the whole DLC feeling somewhat rushed and padded in areas. If you could get this for cheap, or in some sort of collection it may be worth it just for the new pieces of gear, but there isn’t much else to draw you in.
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