Google is hoping to reach no less than billions of people with its new streaming project called Stadia. Numbers that even the most successful console manufacturers can only dream of seeing! However, the US-based company is not throwing its hat into the ring in the form of competing hardware: Google Stadia is a service that takes over the calculation of games on its own servers and streams the result to the user's screen.
This makes classic consoles and powerful PCs superfluous; games can be played on an old computer as well as on a suitable smartphone or TV with Google Chromecast Ultra.
Google Stadia has received a mixed response since its launch in mid-November. While some originally announced features were missing at launch, or the game selection was relatively small, the groundbreaking function of the service was hardly questioned. For those interested who have not yet committed to a platform, so-called cloud gaming provides an option with a pleasantly low entry barrier!
A closely related advantage is the flexibility provided by the service. For example, imagine a passionate gamer who is traveling a lot for work: as long as his destination has a decent internet connection (Google recommends "at least 10 Mbit/s for high quality with 720p"), he can also access full-fledged blockbuster titles on the go without having to make much space for equipment in his suitcase.
Two like War and Strife
At the end of the day, however, each platform stands and falls with the experiences it can offer its users. In this context, the start-up offer of just over two dozen (mostly already published elsewhere) titles was criticized in many places, but Google promises improvement soon. Some much-anticipated games are even making their debut on Google Stadia before console players will have the honor - for example Darksiders: Genesis.
The prequel focuses on War and Strife, professional riders of the apocalypse. While War should be well known to all fans of the first part, his co-worker specializing in firearms is making his late series debut. Together, the two must nip a completely devilish plan in the bud, by which Lucifer himself wants to disturb the balance of things.
After three numbered games in the tried and true action-adventure style reminiscent of a mix between The Legend of Zelda and God of War, the series switches to an isometric view for its fourth outing. Just in combination with the infernal setting of the unconventional spin-off, memories of Diablo are inevitably awakened, but in fact, the concrete parallels are largely limited to the optical: On this way to hell, loot and level don't play a big role.
Instead, the handling of the two riders is quite comparable to the previous parts of the Darksiders series, so War even falls back on many familiar attacks from his own performance. Motivating equipment items, abilities and improvements are of course still there!
Solo players can freely switch between War and Strife to take advantage of their respective strengths or take strategic breathers as they see fit. In addition, angels and demons can also be taken down in the obligatory two-player co-op mode.
Darksiders: Genesis will be released on Google Stadia and PC on December 5, while console players will have to wait until Valentine's Day: The version for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One will not be released until February 14, 2020.
