It's many years in the future and the great Apocalypse has come upon the Earth. Angels are fighting demons on what remains and those left behind wander the world as soulless zombies. This sets the stage for THQs new IP, Darksiders: Wrath of War. In Darksiders, you take on the role of War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, making your way down to wreak havoc on the charred remains of the Earth.

We were treated to a short demo by one of the developers, showing off a a very open world, allowing players to rampage through the city areas, destroying at will and using pretty much anything as a weapon.

Sprinkled throughout the open areas are dungeons that can be explored and pillaged for power ups and new abilities. Puzzle solving plays a hand in the dungeon explorations, as well as the ubiquitous epic boss battles. Joining you in your quest is your horse, Ruin, who has his own set of abilities that can be upgraded throughout the game. The art style was just beautiful and was done by graphic novel artist Joe Madureira's (X-Men, Battle Chasers, The Ultimates).

It was kind of hard to get a real handle on the game since it wasn't really a hands on type of experience, but from what I could see, the gameplay elements (to me anyway) seemed like a combination of Crackdown and God of War. Not a terrible combination to be sure, but I will be looking forward to the time when I can actually try it out myself.

With a release of early 2009, I'm sure we'll be seeing and hearing more about this title at the various events in the months to come.