Problem? Isn't derivativeness the essence of the differences in genres? Why would anyone give a penalty to games that borrow some elements from other games? It's like bashing racing games and FPS's for having racing and shooting elements in them.

...Sorry, just thinking aloud.

Nope:

Derivative -

2. . based on or making use of other sources; not original or primary

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/derivative

So, it was used correctly.

I assume the should shields are a Metroid reference

What'd he mean by "homage", then?

Really, do I need to define Homage too? In essence the first guy is correct, hoewver, the second disagrees because he likes the game, so he says it's a Homage... the difference to him being liking it or not.

lol Nathan, I think you misunderstood. I wasn't talking about the meaning of derivative. Essentially, if games do not borrow elements from other games, we wouldn't have different genres, and most likely almost no complex games. Therefore, the arguement that there is a problem when a game borrows certain elements from other games is moot, especially when reviewers are so hypocritical about it.

Are you sure about that hylorian? Because... well. Madden doesn't borrow from Adventure games, nor do 90% of FPS's. RPG's and Adventure games have some simularities though.

Plus, Darksiders in this case is the same genre as Zelda. I think it's really all a matter of opinion. :)

FPS's borrow an awful lot from action and platform games. Madden incorporates some level of economics, and the action/adventure genre is, of course, a blend between pure action and adventure games.

These advancements could only be achieved by developers looking what another game did well, then borrowing and trying to incorporate these aspects into their own game. There is a limit to how much you can borrow/steal from other games however, but trying to be original and reinventing the wheel each time is simply a waste of time and effort.

Where my critisism lies is that some games, that clearly contain many already well-established elements (think games like CoD:MW2) and try to perfect the balance between these elements get praised to death, while other games that try to do exactly the same with another genre (Darksiders in this case) get bashed for not being original enough.