Darkest of Days | Xbox 360 | First-Person Shooter | September 9th, 2009

Time traveling is a subject that has to be taken seriously when designing it into a video game. If the right story and plot revolves around it, it could become a great game. There are many things that have to take place in order for a time traveling adventure to work properly and not completely lose its appeal. It hasn’t been tackled in the FPS genre just yet, and Darkest of Days is trying to rectify that. Is this a reasonable effort, or is it something that should be buried in the holes of the bargain bins?

Darkest of Days begins with the Battle of Little Bighorn during the American Civil War and you play as Alexander Morris, a soldier in the Union army whose role is cut short before you are struck for death. However, before you are struck down for death, a strange event occurs and you are whisked away from the battlefield by strange men. Welcome, you are now inducted into this futuristic time police. You are now welcomed by the women in charge known as none other then “Mother”. You are given the objective of cleaning up any mess in the future and yes this means you’ll be using futuristic weapons in the past. It’s never really clear who this Mother character is, and all you know is the fact that she is what gives your objectives throughout the history you play through.

She sends you on a series of missions where you have to correct some of the unfortunate situation that has befallen on that time period. You’ll be taken to some of histories most famous and important battles, however, the game focuses on one single event thus making it very linear in all sense of the word. Another drawback is the fact that all of your missions only take place in a small range of history, instead of covering say your favorite battle from the American Revolution. The game only covers moments stretching from the American Civil War to World War II and one from back in Roman times. The game also runs into the problem of you only getting handed the same weapons throughout each level and not much to play around with. You’ll notice the same environments and level design throughout each time period and it doesn’t help that the AI isn’t exactly sharp.

 

The missions you encounter have you protecting persons that are important to the time period that have some how been placed in harms way. Your AI is also color coordinated from Blue and Gold. The Gold persons are the ones you have to protect and make sure history sees them the way they are. The people in the blue aura are the enemies that have to stay alive during your mission. You can’t kill them so you have to find some way to disable them. You’ll earn points for the fewer blue aura’s you kill and once you earn more points you can upgrade your weaponry and improve accuracy, firing power…etc.

There will be chances throughout the game that will let you play around with futuristic weaponry but those are few and far between. The game revolves around its checkpoint to checkpoint level design and replicated battles in between. There isn’t much saving grace for the game other then the last 20 minutes or so, but even that is a bit of a stretch. There are many moments where you will find yourself wondering if you should even continue moving forward anymore. The AI is a bit of a mess and don’t seem like they are cooperating at all. You’ll notice the same animations throughout each group and battle and nothing to do with variety. The story gets completely turned around to the point that you don’t even know what’s going on anymore. Raining down death from above to your enemies may sound great, but the actual work is tedious. Taking on the Confederate Army in the Civil War with just a combat shotgun might sound fun but it’s the complete opposite. In fact, the only way to describe this game is two words; Bargain Bin. 

 

The presentation and graphics of the game are completely 1995 to the point that you swear your playing on your Nintendo 64 again. It’s a head scratcher to wonder what kind of budget Darkest of Days was given to begin with. The character models are all generic and offering nothing special to look at. The AI is a carbon copy throughout each major battle with different costumed skins/uniforms. The history itself is nicely done for the most part, but again doesn’t show off its true colors and thus gets left behind. As you continue to peel away from the base of the game and reach the core, you are left with nothing. There isn’t much in the way of sound that would catch anyone’s attention. Weapon effects are well done but could’ve been better by adding that extra pop. The voice acting is ok and along the average scale. There isn’t much effort put into it to make it something you’ll remember the next day.

The only thing that makes Darkest of Days even worth thinking about is the potential for this game. If it was given the budget of say a game like Call of Duty 4 for instance, then we might be talking about something completely different here. However, that is not the case and Darkest of Days suffers from budget constraints completely. There is no level of polish or editing. There is a complete lack of multiplayer which excludes anyone from thinking about taking the game online. Achievement hunters will only find an easy route to raising their gamer score here. Only about 2 or 3 of the achievements find you looking for interesting ways to kill yourself, which is odd.

 

Do not buy Darkest of Days at full price. The game is littered with issues and framerate problems as well as lack of polish. The game is even a bit pricy at $49.99, so wait until those famous two words; Bargain Bin. It’s unfortunate as the games story had so much potential and if given in the right developer’s hands and with the right engine behind it could’ve been something great. Another note is no multiplayer, so you have no chance of taking the futuristic battle to the frontlines after other players from around the world. It’s something that one hopes the inevitable sequel will improve on this outing and hopefully we will receive a much more polish and reasonable effort put into the story. Darkest of Days just misses the mark.