Interviews// Darksiders' Creative Director, Joe Madureira

SPOnG: How intense does the combat get? I’ve just been playing Seraphim Hotel, which sort of eases you in. Will there be points where you’re just overwhelmed with lower-powered enemies, or is it more about the big enemy fights?

Joe Madureira: We try and vary it up quite a bit. There’ll be small armies of weaker creatures, there’ll be single opponents that are massive, there are some flying creatures, there are some that you can only fight on horseback. There’s quite a diverse range.


SPOnG: Going back to your comics work – you did Battle Chasers, which is a fantasy IP that you own. Was there any temptation to do something like that? Why go for an original property?

Joe Madureira: At the time when the studio was forming, we wanted to create something new, we didn’t want any baggage from any existing IP, we didn’t want to license anything, we just wanted to create something new and it was fortunate because a lot of publishers were looking for new IP and I think it was one of the appealing things about Vigil and about Darksiders to publishers like THQ – it filled a spot perfectly that they were looking (to fill), which was a more mature action adventure IP, and it was missing for them for a long time and I think it’s helped us.


SPOnG: What age rating are you aiming for? Do you have one in mind?

Joe Madureira: It’s going to be M-rated, for sure in the US. I’m not sure...

SPOnG: It’ll probably be an 18 over here, then. Speaking of different versions – you mentioned that Mark Hamill is doing the voice of the Watcher in the US version. I presume that’s the same for the UK version?

Joe Madureira: I believe that it’s the same. I don’t think we’re doing localisation in the UK version. I’d be very surprised if we were, but I’d have to confirm that.


SPOnG: Actually, the Watcher looked like the Phalanx from space in Uncanny X-Men, with the face with the six slitty eyes...

Joe Madureira: Oh yeah... I forgot about those guys, it’s a good point. They didn’t have any face though, right? It was just a round thing... Yeah, I remember what you’re saying. Damn you and your comics knowledge!


SPOnG: Sorry about that... Is there a plan for a multiplayer aspect?

Joe Madureira: No, single-player only.

SPOnG: Any chance we’ll see it sneak in as DLC, like with Resident Evil 5?

Joe Madureira: It’s possible. There’s no current plans to do it, but if the game’s ridiculously successful I’m sure there will be pressure to support it with DLC. And we would love to, so it really depends if players demand it.

SPOnG: So no concrete plans for DLC at this point?

Joe Madureira: We know that there will be some, it’s just getting the game polished and out of the door is our main focus at this point.

SPOnG: Mentioning that – how far along is the game? It’s aimed at a winter release – is it on track?

Joe Madureira: It’s on track. Sometimes, unfortunately, the last 10% is the toughest part of the journey and we have so much to polish just to get the guns to feel right and things like that, it’s quite a lot of work.