The Darkness

Review by IRaptor IKraine

Story

The game starts off in the back of a taxi driven by two apparent friends. Trouble soon breaks out and one of your friends unfortunately gets his face fucked by a truck. You jump into the front seat, mow down some workers and crash in a tunnel. Unfortunately your other friend gets messed up pretty bad but does give you a set of swish handguns (I put the poor guy out of his misery with them). From here the game begins and the review will not mention any more spoiler moments.

The opening was different to what I thought it may be. Jackie Estacado, the lead guy, is part of a mob gang in this game universe. You get introduced to some good characters in the game that have very different personalities. These are friends of Jackies and can offer all sorts of missions, side quests etc. which progress the story. The side-missions can be random but a few of them are linked with the main story, all of these also unlock phone numbers where you can unlock special features for the game.

The story, for me, is confusing and at some points mental. It also doesn't offer a lot of depth however some cool moments arise and a few twists and turns. There are 5 game chapters, two of which I want mention in detail, but they're messed up. These didn't really add much to the game and hindered it slightly. I would have personally preferred to stay in the 'main part' of the environment.

The length of the story is also a little short. It took me about 4 -5 hours to complete and that was with collecting all the hidden numbers / letters. The ending of the game is pretty basic but there is an awesome 'cut scene' section towards the end.

All in the all the story is basic but does keep the game moving. You also feel for the main character so when certain events happen you do want revenge or feel sorry for him.

Gameplay

This is obviously the main factor to any game and luckily this game has a good play system. The controls are pretty easy to pick up and are nicely mapped to the controller so that the player can utilise the 'power of the darkness'.

I was pleasantly surprised by how the game was laid out. It differs from the day to day FPS. The game does offer the classic linear shooting scenarios however the game is executed differently. It offers a free-roam system, similar to Bioshock. The player can enter trains to travel to different stations and then get off at different towns. There are a good few towns (areas) in which all the action happens. Most of them are visited multiple times and it can get annoying travelling back and forth.

The Darkness powers are a good element to the game and offer a new medium to the game. The powers are activated with the secondary shoulder buttons however they cannot be activated anywhere. The game is named The Darkness so this comes into play. The Darkness powers can only be activated in the dark so you will have to destroy the lights so you can activate them. The darkness has many different power levels and this is increased by eating enemy's hearts. To get the most powerful you need 180 hearts of enemies. There are 4 different powers and they're unlocked as you progress through the game.

You will start with a darkness power called "Creeping Dark". This gives you control of a 'demon snake' which can climb walls, climb onto roofs and eat people's faces.The second unlocked darkness power is "Demon Arm" these are like tentacles that can impale enemies and whip to destroy lights, which is always useful. The demon arm is one of my favourite powers because you impale the enemy and throw them in the air BRUTAL. The third unlocked power is called "Darkness Guns". These are essentially 'special' guns that destroy opponents. One of them ejects a high powered single shot charge and the other a rapid-fire spark type thing. The final power is called "Black hole" quite aptly named as it creates a black hole where enemies, random pieces of scenery and whatnot is sucked into.

There are also Overlord type minions in the game, these are also unlocked throughout the game and all have different abilities. The minions can be spawned from pits, which can only be seen in Darkness mode (press of a button). You can spawn one of each minion and until that dies you cannot spawn a repeat. The first minion is called "Berserker" they basically jump on people and molester them to death. The second are "Gunner" minions. These carry a fuck-off mini-gun and blitz anything in their paths. The third minion type is called "Kamikaze". They simply have a high explosive attached to their back, run into a situation and blow themselves, and hopefully enemies, up. The final minion is a "Lightkiller". These have battery packs on their back which they omit high voltage charges from to destroy nearby lights.

There is the obvious gameplay factor. This is an FPS game so there guns in it Unfortunately the shooting element isn't too strong and if this game was simply a shooter I wouldn't rate it as high. Luckily the game isn't strictly shooter. There are a small selection weapons available. There are a range of; pistols, smgs, rifles, shotguns and a crazy 64 mag auto shotgun. The shooting is basic but it's liveable, the way the guns move can be annoying because they do move abruptly.

The gameplay isn't perfect but does offer some cool moments especially with the darkness powers. The heart consuming feature is gory but welcome.

Graphics and Sound

The menus in the game are nicely laid out. They aren't too difficult to navigate around but look very nice, especially with the labels reflecting on the darkness in the background. Another good feature is an achievement menu. It tracks what achievements you have unlocked or have yet to unlock but also shows your progression to achievements. The menu will give you a % completion of the achievement so you know how close you are to achieving it, a good feature for me as I'm a gamerscore whore.

We'll start with the graphics. The art style in the game is brilliant. The graphical style really sets the dark mood of the game. The subway, which is where most of the action happens, is nicely laid out. The subway is dark, dank and covered in professional graffiti and you feel disgusted by it but at home. The character modelling is also nice. The faces look quite realistic, in some cases, but the bodies are a little bland. The in-game textures also vary. There can be some very nice looking textures and some bland, low-quality ones. The weapon detail is also 50-50; the gun detail can be good but mainly a little lacking. The smoke omitting from the barrel after shooting is pretty cool though.

The sound is a good point in the game. The weapon sounds are good and quite realistic. The darkness sounds are good too however the voice of The Darkness can get annoying. The sound also adds to the gore of the game, the squelching of the hearts as they're ripped from enemies bodies. The screaming of some 'dead enemies' can be haunting too.

Conclusion

So we basically have a good game here. Its by no means 'the best game' but offers a bit of fun. I do recommend this game to any FPS or Horror fans. I would only recommend you buy this for a price under £10 or rent the game due to its lack of multiplayer and short story.