Score
Gameplay:	9
Graphics:	8
Sound:	8
FunFactor:	8
PlasmaFactor:	8
Overall:	8.2

The Darkness Review
July 12, 2007 by Bryant Crawley

On one's 21st birthday most people enjoy a beer for the first time. They get to experience the joy of finally being considered an adult in this world. Jackie Estacado, however, isn’t like most people. Nope, good old Jackie's birthday present was being possessed by superhuman entity known as the Darkness. Jackie must learn to harness the Darkness’s powers and control them to the best of his ability. With great power comes great…oh wait, wrong comic. The Darkness is developed by Starbreeze AB, the creative team behind the masterpiece: Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Well does this game hold up to the developers' already sterling image in the industry? In one word, YES!

The Powers of Darkness!

 

For those of you who never read the comic by Marc Silvestri let me give you a little refresher course. The story revolves around the central theme that the possessor of the Darkness, on his 21st birthday, is granted endless amounts of power. They even have the abilty to create anything they want, including creatures called the Darklings (evil beings that kill on command). This comes with a catch, however, as everything they create will disappear and crumble when it comes in contact with light. This power doesn’t last forever. The Darkness is passed from father to son like a parasite and once it is passed down the previous host dies. Jackie Estacado, a hitman for the Franchetti mob, is the Darkness’s new host. Now that that’s out of the way, we can move on to the gameplay.

The controls for Darkness are fairly simple. The left analog stick controls movement (and crouching). The right analog stick is used for looking around and zooming in and out. The A button is used for "case" sensitive actions such as picking up collectables and activating buttons. The B button reloads your gun, X moves your darkling, and the Y button is for jumping. The left and right trigger buttons fire your weapons in your left and right hands respectively. These controls should be familiar to any FPS fan (first-person-shooter). What’s not so familiar is the new twist to the formula that makes the Darkness stand out as one of the most creative games around today. Instead of just using the normal weapons in a FPS (i.e. guns) it lets the player control two snake-like arms (another part of the Darkness) that expand and contract depending on the lighting in the room. To summon them, you click on the left bumper and to use their abilities you click on the right bumper. Sounds simple right? Well there are some things that detour you from being the ultimate monster in the game. First off, the light is not your friend. Dark places make the Darkness stronger while lit areas hinders its’ powers (you won’t be able to summon your friends either). When you get to control the Darkness, its power is unbeatable. You see an enemy standing off in the distance and you’re about to run out ammo, send your new toys in for a silent kill or just run up and impale him with the tentacles (snake like arms). But you don't get all the powers right off the bait. To gain new powers you will have to eat the hearts of your fallen victims.

The Darkness also allows your character to summon these minions called Darklings. There are four different types of Darklings and each has its own job description. The four different types are: the Berserker, Gunner, Kamikaze, and Lightkiller. The one that I used most was the Berserker, due to the fact that he would just attack. No questions asked. The one that I used the absolute least had to have been the Lightkiller. He didn't really seem to do much. The Gunner and Kamikaze were really hit or miss. You have to be very careful on how you use the Gunner because if you walk in front of him while he's shooting you will take damage. Just be warned.

 

Shining Example

The graphics on this game are very interesting to say the least. The character models in the game are gorgeously done while the background textures seemed dull (compared to the character models). I'm not saying that it was a complete downgrade by no means because the backgrounds still do look good. But, you can tell the shining star in the graphics went into the models.

Hear That?

The sound in The Darkness is what I like the most. The sound effects and the music set a very deep and dark tone for the game that can't be beat. Another thing I liked was the voice over work done by the developers. Each person’s voice seems to be the right choice for his or her character.

Fun in the Dark!

With the good we also have to take the bad. The main cause for concern is the constant cut scenes in between missions. With these cut scenes they just have Jackie standing there talking. I mean it does advance the story by explaining what is going on but at the same time, it really slows down the game play. After a while one tends to tune these cut scenes out. I think there should have been a better way to incorporate these cut scenes into the gameplay. The other problem that I had was the multiplayer segments. The multiplayer seems pretty basic compared to other FPS, which is a real shame due to the fact that the game’s single player mode is so much fun. The Darkness probably could have been the end all be all of FPS games if the multiplayer aspect was just as good as the single player experience. The multiplayer portion of the game includes only four modes; deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, and survivor. It also includes about a dozen different maps for one to use.

Plasma Factor

The thing that if will have you playing this game non stop is the fact that it takes the normal formula of a FPS an adds its own special touch. Leveling up your character and using the Darkness is probably the most fun I've had in a FPS in a very long time. Learning how to control the Darkness and using it to its full advantage takes the genera a step further. When you finally max out ones character the game can seem to be a tad bit easy (with powers like the Black Hole). Of course, that’s not going to be until the very end of the game.

 

Enter the Darkness

All in all, this game is a smash hit. Only with a few tweaks The Darkness would be by far, one of the best FPS on any system. And that is saying something. Like me, you will have a blast playing this game and using your powers. I highly recommend going down to your local retailer and picking this game up. Not too many games are with the $60 price tag but in this case, The Darkness is worth every penny!