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This review has 38 positive votes and 9 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
The Darkness is an awesome game. Period. Amazing visuals, audio and game play make this a must have for gamers and comic fans alike. If you're like me you know this game is based of the comic of the same name. I remember reading this along with other Image favorites as a young boy. Spawn, The Maxx and Young Blood are among the ones I liked most. But anyway, the game stays very true to the comic without having to remove it's sense of realism.
I'm not going to get into the details of the story or anything like that, it's something you should experience for yourself. All I will say is it is damn good. If you've read the comic book though you already know that. The whole take on the story of a mafia hitman and his struggles with the choices he must make, while at the same time trying to control a demonic spirit that helps or hurts him in certain situations is very interesting to watch. But not only is the story itself good, it's presented extremely well. This is most relevant in the voice acting I think.
Which brings us to the audio. Like I said, they did an amazing job casting the voices for this game. Mike Patton as The Darkness is just perfect. The score and/or soundtrack is pretty amazing too. The original music is awesome, heavy and fast in the heat of battle and slow and melodic when things slow down. The music when Jackie talks to or about Jenny is quite beautiful. It also has a lot of great bands on the soundtrack too. It's just a fun game to listen.
It's also not a bad game to look at. The visuals are pretty top-notch. Textures are very slick and the game looks pretty smooth in action. The detail in the gore is just lovely here. You actually feel your stomach turn as you watch your demons tear the heart out of the chest of an enemy and rip it apart as they devour it. The sound effects as this happens just add to the realism.
The game play is fun. It can be too easy at times or really annoying depending on what difficulty you're playing. Walking is the biggest flaw as anyone who has played the game will tell you. Hopefully if they ever make a sequel, they give the option of running. Using the guns is easy but can be frustrating at times. The game seems to have an aim assist, but it only works when it wants to. Like you'll be trying to shoot at a guys body or head and depending on how many guys are near your aim or who's closest to your aim, it will try to aim for the head by itself to make it easier. That sounds great but not when you think you have a shot and then the gun randomly moves where it wants. The best weapons in the game to use are your darkness powers. It's just fun as hell to impale people with a demon arm or throw them into a black hole and watch their bodies flail around.
However there is no such thing as a perfect game, and this games major flaw is the multiplayer. It's just a mess. They have great ideas and great concepts but in practice they just fall apart. First off the lag on this game is insane. People will skip across maps, the screen will shake or sometimes just freeze. It really is just a annoying. Not only that but there is virtually no way of knowing if your shots are actually hitting your opponent. The lag combined with how frantic people move on live, you're basically just shooting all over the place hoping you hit someone. It's just such an under developed part of the game and after playing it makes you wish that a good chunk of the achievements weren't required in multiplayer.
Most of the achievements are fun and challenging, the MP are the only ones not needed. They should have focused more on the single player stuff. Overall this is just a great game. It's full of cool little extras too that are well worth a look. If you find a TV in the game you can watch music videos and even entire movies. Finding phone numbers and calling them can result in some pretty entertaining conversations. Even the loading screens are fun to watch. Usually Jackie will tell a short story in relation to where you're going in the game. The story about his first kiss in the subway is my favorite: "... a hooker named Candy, she crossed her legs... and broke my sunglasses. Heh, good times".  I love it!
In conclusion this is a good buy. Not very challenging, unless you play on hard mode (where two shots will kill ya'). But if you're just looking for something cool to play with an entertaining story, this game delivers. Besides what's better then impaling people and ripping out their hearts?!?
Final rating: 4 stars. (Awesome game but multiplayer was a let down... not being able to run is also lame.) |
DavieMarshall
188,301
TA Score for this game: 1,126
Posted on 25 February 10 at 11:57, Edited on 14 April 10 at 14:47 |
This review has 20 positive votes and 5 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
The Darkness. A game which has aged, but still remains noted as being worthwhile a purchase if you see it cheap in store or online. I picked it up for this very reason, for the grand total of £1.99 through Amazon.
You play through the game in the very familiar FPS style view, as Jackie Estacado. You used to work with and for your 'Big Fat' Uncle Paulie, but after a job goes bad it turns out Uncle Paulie wants you dead by any means necessary. Luckily for you The Darkness is a creature which has been within your family for generation upon generation, which gives you something of an upper hand when it comes to getting some payback.
There are some lovely touches in the game. The TVs for example, feature full length cartoons, music videos and even To Kill A Mockingbird. So, if it all gets to be a bit much you could, in theory, just chill out and watch Atticus Finch and co. on the box.
The Darkness is commanded into presence by pressing LB, though this is only possible in area suitably devoid of light. You can achieve this by shooting out lights to create the atmosphere best suited to your inner demon. As you progress you will unlock 'Darkness Powers' such as the Darkness Arm which you can use to whip out light sources and conserve your ammo.
You can also command Darklings which are equipped for ripping off your enemies faces, shooting a lot of holes in them, blowing them up, or electrocuting them, depending on your mood. The electric Darkling (or rather the Lightkiller darkling) uses their electric pack to kill the lights surrounding them too, which is very handy.
In addition to The Darkness Powers you have a host of guns at your disposal. But, to be honest, you'll only ever need your dual pistols. The assault rifle seems to do nothing to your enemies, often missing completely or causing them a mild itch when it is on target. The shooting system is OK at best. When faced with one or two opponents you won't have too much trouble taking them down. However, find yourself faced with a dozen enemies and the shooting element falls apart as you find yourself unable to turn quick enough or place any shots on target.
Arguably this is because you should be making copious use of your Darkness powers, but sometimes, before you unlock the higher levels of Darkness Powers (such as the insanely fun Black Hole which envelops entire hordes of enemies) you WILL have to use your gun toting abilities (except it's more of a gun wielding disability Estacado possesses).
This isn't helped the painful speed at which Estacado moves whether standing or crouched. You can't flee for cover. The best Estacado can manage is walking purposefully away from the bullets.
This brings me on to the controls which feel a little incomplete. Standard controls such as runni... sorry, walking, strafing and 'head movement' are all fine. It's hard to get these wrong. But the controls fall down on ocassion. Take the Darkness Power 'Creeping Dark'. Here you place a tentacle on the floor and control it as it slithers silently around striking enemies down and devouring their hearts. It's a lot of fun. But seven times out of ten you'll attack an enemy only to have your tentacle complete it's animation of attack and then suddenly drop to the floor facing a completely different way to that which it should which becomes quite disorientating in the dark level design and tint that The Darkness vision (ability to see in the dark) brings to your screen. The Creeping Darkness can also slither up walls. Except, sometimes it can't. And you'll be ramming it's head against a wall time and again until you finally accomplish a wall climb. Then you may have to repeat this procedure to return to the ground on the other side. Quite annoying.
Luckily the other Darkness powers, such as the arm and black hole aren't as cumbersome, and impaling people and moving objects around isn't tricky at all. Indeed it retains it's entertainment value throughout the duration of the game.
You may also find that at times you have to place Jackie in exactly the right spot for an action to become available to you, such as using a ticket to enter the subway. If you're slightly off, and not looking at the right spot, you're not going anywhere and you'll be forced to dance around the spot until 'Press A to use Subway ticket' flashes on screen.
The subways are the method of transport in The Darkness. But, you'll only ever visit two subway stations in the whole of New York. Fulton Street and Canal Street. From there you'll access around five or six other locations. You'll be doing a LOT of back and forth for side missions and such and finding yourself thinking that you'd imagined New York to be a lot bigger. Furthermore you'd expect it to be busier. I didn't expect a GTA style street scene with lots of people milling around, but I did expect to see more than two people outside in a whole block. The areas look comically deserted and feel very empty. It does little to create anything of an atmosphere. There's no traffic, no ambient sounds, no people, no background noise. Nothing.
I'd read a lot about the story of this game too, but personally, I felt it was a little weak. The ending especially. I actually became a little lost here as I complete one section, and then after a series of dramatic flashes I was back at the beginning of the level, with all of my actions intact. That is to say, lights destroyed, bodies where they fell. It's just I'm back at the beginning and forced to walk my way to the objective again.
The voice acting throughout is superb though, (Patton as The Darkness is wonderful), and the actual on screen choreography of the characters is very good. They gesture and move believably and it's a nice touch indeed. The 'interviews' with Jackie between loading scenes are nice too. Whether it's story related or a fun little tale Jackie has to tell about the subways, it's much better than sitting and watching a loading bar move upwards. Some of these banter stories become a little worn throughout though, and by the end of was tired of hearing about Jackie's friend 'Crazy Abdul' as a time filler between locations.
This review, on the whole, sounds quite negative but the game is ultimately enjoyable. It's just not the polished item I had hoped for based upon glowing five star reviews on this site and on others.
All reviews did however mention how atrocious the multiplayer aspect was. Which is true. Lag isn't the word. It's best viewed as not even being there, and not bothering with. Unfortunately however, there's a lot of Gamerscore invested into the multiplayer element, and you're unlikely to ever see much of it.
To sum up, it's worth a little bit of your money in the pre-owned section of a games store, but don't pick it up expecting too much from it, else you might walk away with a sense of enjoyment overshadowed by slight disappointment as I did.
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inspectorpj
56,532
TA Score for this game: 1,159
Posted on 12 January 11 at 11:17, Edited on 21 May 13 at 17:15 |
This review has 16 positive votes and 1 negative vote. Please log in to vote. |
(Portuguese Review)
História
Em “The Darkness”interpretamos o papel de Jackie Estacado (Kirk Acevedo), um assassino profissional pertencente a uma família mafiosa de Nova Iorque. Após um trabalho de recolha de dinheiro que corre mal, Jackie acaba na lista de alvos a abater do seu tio Paulie, lider da familia criminosa.
Nos primeiros minutos de jogo Jackie vê-se possuído por uma espécie de demónio- The Darkness- que lhe irá conferir alguns poderes paranormais ao longo de todo o jogo, sendo por isso uma especie de aliado de Jackie, embora à medida que à história se vai desenrolando iremo-nos aperceber que nem tudo é o que parece.
Quem segue os “comics” da Top Cow Productions pode estranhar um pouco a história, visto ela ser diferente da apresentada nas bandas desenhadas, ainda assim podem contar com algumas familiaridades que provavelmente irão causar alguns sorrisos.
Apresentação
Em termos visuais “The Darkness” é um jogo acima da média. Tecnicamente é competente, especialmente se tivermos em consideração que o jogo desenvolvido pela Starbreeze Studios saiu para as prateleiras em 2007. Um mundo muito detalhado, com excelentes texturas e efeitos de luz muito bem conseguidos é o que se pode esperar deste titulo.
Onde “The Darkness” brilha verdadeiramente é no departamento artístico, com alguns cenários verdadeiramente fantasmagóricos, especialmente nas partes que se desenrolam fora de Nova Iorque. Referir ainda o design verdadeiramente macabro de alguns inimigos e até de alguns aliados.
Outro aspecto que não foi menosprezado pelos criadores do jogo foram as vozes presentes no jogo, contando com alguns nomes conhecidos como Kirk Acevedo, Mike Patton, Lauren Ambrose ou Mike Starr só para referir alguns. Todos eles injectam grandes doses emocionais na suas personagens, contribuindo muito para a atmosfera do jogo. Nota muito positiva para Mike Patton que faz o papel da escuridão. Verdadeiramente assustador.
Como aspecto negativo quero fazer referência a uma framerate algo inconstante em determinadas secções do jogo, nomeadamente as partes do jogo que se desenrolam fora de Nova Iorque.
Jogabilidade
A jogabilidade em “The Darkness” tem um pequeno “twist” que concede a este titulo alguma originalidade, e que lhe permite diferenciar-se um pouco da concorrência, os poderes especiais que Jackie tem à sua disposição são “recarregados” através da escuridão, isto significa que o jogador terá de ter sempre em atenção o ambiente em que se encontra, pois ir para um sitio iluminado diminui drasticamente o impacto dos poderes paranormais ao serviço de Jackie, assim como as suas hipoteses de sair vivo de um tiroteio. O jogador para se tentar manter na escuridão poderá destruir grande parte da fontes luminosas presentes no jogo, introduzindo isso um pequeno elemento estratégico ao jogo, onde o jogador terá de pensar que luzes destruir para se poder movimentar durante os tiroteios, assim como ter de escolher entre disparar sobre um inimigo que se apresente como um perigo iminente ou uma fonte luminosa que nos permita abrigar das balas inimigas.
Multiplayer
Em termos de multiplayer e embora não possa comprovar a sua qualidade visto já não existirem jogadores online, deixo aqui a minha nota negativa ao facto de existirem demasiados achievements online para um jogo que dá tanta enfase ao seu single-player.
Conclusão
“The Darkness” é sem dúvida um jogo acima da média, recomendado a fãs não só da banda desenhada em que se baseia, mas também a fãs de first person shooters em geral. Tem algumas falhas e por vezes torna-se algo fácil, mas mesmo assim é um jogo que recomendo.
8/10
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This review has 30 positive votes and 15 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
The Darkness is a great game that really changed the way I thought video games could be played, and the way their stories could be told.
As a long time fan of the darkness comic books, I must say I was impressed with the overall adaptation of the plot into the game. It's different, but not so much so that you don’t feel like you are controlling the same old Jackie Estacado.
The Darkness mixes original game play with a powerful and dramatic story line and very strong voice acting to make a once in a lifetime gaming experience in the single player story mode.
However it does not exist without flaw. During the game (avoiding any spoilers) the "alternate sequences" sometimes feel long and dragged out- while the main setting (NYC) is a lot of fun.
Also I must bring up multiplayer. There are a good amount of multiplayer achievements, but the multiplayer is a little underdeveloped. The Darkness is defiantly a game for the single story mode. This is a great game that I feel any Xbox 360 fan should play through at least once!!!! |
ryanlegend95
135,521
TA Score for this game: 860
Posted on 26 October 12 at 17:40, Edited on 14 November 12 at 19:26 |
This review has 9 positive votes and 2 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
"Darkness will fall" said Mike Patton. I mean Darkness.
Yes folks I am today writing a favoured game of mine called The Darkness which was released in 2007 and was developed by Starbreeze who are the creator's of Riddick and Syndicate.
Whoompa Gangman Style!
The game is based around Top Cow's The Darkness comics. The story isn't an exact port of the comics but you can tell it's based around the main character. You play as Jackie who is a cold blooded killing machine who works for his uncle Pauly in a mafia gang. His uncle has a temper and doesn't take failure to kindly. As you might of guessed Jackie has failed a mission and now he has a price on his head. Jackie will have to stop his uncle while The Darkness is growing inside of him.
Now here's a dark hearted review.
Graphics:
Back in 2007 this game looked amazing and it still does today. It does have some ugly and dated parts but the graphics still hold up pretty well. Better than most old games anyway. The character models look great but they lack facial animations which is a bit of a bummer but nothing too serious. Some of the other animations also look dated during the dialogue parts but in cut scenes they look OK. Other than that the rest of the game looks brilliant. The lighting is spot on and the water effects are some of the best I have seen. The textures are also good but do look blurry in some places but they are hard to spot generally.
Did I mention its great atmosphere?
The game runs well but does have the occasional stutter when there is a lot of action involved but other than that everything is fine with a minimal case of screen tearing which seems to happen a lot these days.
I give the graphics an 8/10.
Sound:
The sound design is amazing. The sound effects are great and the music really does set the mood but it's the voice acting that deserves all the credit here. Everyone does a great job at telling the story and Mike Patton's Darkness voice is truly amazing. For those who don't know who Mike Patton is. He is the lead singer of Faith No More. Well done Mike. Truly a talented voice.
I give the sound score a 10/10.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is a little dated but is still fun. You get to carry a large roster of weapons and use your Darkness powers at the same time. There are 4 Darkness powers in total and they all have a purpose. You will be able to take control of The Darkness and slither through tight gaps. Use your whip to carry heavy objects and stab your foes. Use Darkness guns that are very powerful and create black holes to suck your enemies into another dimension.
There are also gremlins that carry saws.
The gunplay is clunky but manageable. You can hold 2 guns at the same time and just spray and pay at your foes. There is no crosshair for this game and instead you have lasers to pin point your target. This is cool because you can get the best precision possible but takes time to get used to. There is aim assist if you need it. You also get to free roam around the stages and interact with people to find side missions and collect collectables to unlock bonus content.. There is multiplayer but no one is playing and it's not that great either due to its clunky combat.
I give the gameplay score an 8.5/10.
Storyline:
I always love a good storyline and this is my second favourite story that I have ever heard (Deadly Premonition being first). The game goes into a lot of depth about Jackie and his background information which does make you attached to the character. It also goes into a lot of depth between his relationship between his girlfriend Jenny, his uncle and The Darkness.
Ahh young love even though Jackie looks 30 when he is supposed to be 21.
Overall the story is compelling and has a lot of mystery and that's why I'm giving the storyline score a 10/10.
Is it your cup of tea?
If you love a good story then pick this up immediately!
If you want something old school then this will be inviting.
If you want something unique and different to the average COD game then this might take your fancy.
Summary:
Good:
-Fantastic voice acting.
-Well written storyline.
-A true classic.
Bad:
-Clunky gunplay.
-Poor multiplayer.
-Trying to find a better storyline.
Overall this is a great game that would make a fantastic franchise. I give it an overall score of 9/10.
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z RagnaroK z
119,139
TA Score for this game: 1,977
Posted on 09 December 11 at 05:01 |
This review has 7 positive votes and 2 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Singleplayer: Yes
Multiplayer: Yes
Possible to get 1000 on: Yes
Estimated time to 1000GS: 30-40 hours
Offline achievements: 37 (795GS)
Online achievements: 12 (205GS)
Introduction:
The Darkness is one of the those very under appreciated games that people look past in comparison to other games on the shelf. It has a decent storyline, terrible Multiplayer, and is not hard at all to get the full 1000 on (for those completionists out there). It consists of demon like quality's combined with a mob mentality sort of storyline. The game is also based off the comic book series for those who follow TOP COW.
*SPOILERS*
To sum it up, you play the character of Jackie Estacado, who spends his time as a contract killer for the francetti family in a make believe New York. But on the night of Jackie's 21st birthday something strange happens to him and he starts seeing something know as the darkness which eventually takes hold of him, and allows him to use it to his advantage. Throughout the game you'll play through the streets of (make believe) new york, to the depths of the subways, and even follow the psychological world of hell, portrayed as world war I. Along the story line, you will find different weapons, different powers (after you let the darkness take hold of your body) and the ability to summon small demons to your fight at your side, which are also know as darklings.
The game play itself can get a bit repetitive at times, but offers a wide variety of different scenarios which allow you to experiment and combine certain weapons/powers in the game. The story may be considered the best part about this game by those who love it. Regardless of the background described above, it feels like you're watching a movie rather than playing a video game (which in my opinion hasn't been accomplished by many recent video games). The game is made up of many dark aesthetic environments, and situations which really help to understand what the darkness is. It also feels good to play as the bad guy once in a while. Between tearing people limb from limb, and devouring there bodies, the Darkness has enough to offer to keep the player occupied.
On to the ratings.
Video: 6/10 using the starbreeze engine, the game looks good for it's time. The real time frame rate can tend to lag behind a bit, but nothing which will defer you from loving each second of the carnage.
Sound: 8/10 Using the voice of Kirk Acevedo (HBO's Band of Brothers, Oz) playing jackie, and Mike Patton as the Creepy Malevolent voice of the Darkness, the game has a great way of setting the mood in association with what's going on within the storyline. The deep and rich sound of the violins throughout the game, really helps to add that sense of genuine chaos.
Gameplay: 7/10 As I mentioned above, the gameplay can seem like the same thing over and over but doesn't overplay the fact that you, non the less, have a diverse array of weapons to cause havoc with. The strongest part of the game play is making you feel like you are Jackie, and does a great job with the character development throughout the levels.
Online: 1/10 The MP for this game is horrendous. Any more than 4 people playing in the same game at one time, and the severs can't seem to handle it. Still possible to boost the online achievements in though. I played this game almost a year and a half ago and it still wasen't patched then, so I don't imagine it is now. Regardless, grab a friend and go nuts on the multiplayer achievements. (They take some time but are not hard at all to get)
Overall: 7/10
This game has a lot to offer to those who are looking for the genre that it fits under (it's own). If you enjoy games that really make an effort to immerse the player into the storyline, making them want more, then this is the game for you. If you're looking for some quick achievements with a decent story line then I would also recommend picking this up for 5$ off ebay of gamestop. In the end it is a great game which can be enjoyed if you give it a chance. The only real downside to this game is the multiplayer, and the outdated graphics. Aside from that, I thought it was a great game.
If you can think of anyways for me to improve this review, please message me, or say why in the comments. Thanks for reading!
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Me7axas
76,600
TA Score for this game: 1,169
Posted on 21 May 12 at 22:47, Edited on 01 June 12 at 19:50 |
This review has 7 positive votes and 2 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
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Flying down the tunnel and into the city Jackie glances around at the gritty, graffiti covered concrete that engulfs the car. Two Italian stereotypes banter back and forth as he sits in the back and loads a shotgun. After a high-speed chase (and crash) with the cops, Jackie Estacado climbs out of the wreckage to go whack the construction site foreman under Uncle Paulie’s orders. Appropriately remarked by Jackie just before the opening action-cinematic comes to a close: “like I said, classic”.
The Darkness features the trials and tribulations of young Jackie Estacado. After years of service and being groomed by the Franchetti crime family, Uncle Paulie (the current head) has decided to ice Jackie. After watching his girlfriend get murdered by Paulie and the dirty police chief, Jackie sets out to murder both of them. There were plenty of points in the story where I sat back and grinned, even laughed at the situation or dialogue between the characters. One of the huge pulls for The Darkness was the excellent voice acting and character concepts; A brooding young gun out to exact his revenge, the ‘cleaner’ named Butcher whose built like a bag of bagels. An old timer by the name of Jimmy the Grape and, a whole slew of other characters that sound like they look and fit right into the story perfectly. Another one of the more powerful aspects of the story was actually the loading-screens that served as little windows into Jackie’s twisted psyche.
After a while the names and the missions began to get a little humorous, when Enzo asked me to go steal some junk from Frankie “Noses” Tieri I couldn’t help but laugh. By the end of the game the Italian mobsters were a little too much for me to handle, but it was also what made the game and story so awesomely compelling. I haven’t gotten many opportunities to go visit my Aunt Sarah whose packing serious heat or go burn a potential grass for the family. I haven’t gone on a murderous rampage in the name of my dead girlfriend and I certainly haven’t used evil satanic powers to spill blood in the streets of New York. The innovative originality of the concept is what sets The Darkness apart from other games, along with being able to watch old black and whites like To Kill A Mockingbird on televisions scattered throughout the city.
With poor sensitivity and gun controls, an inability to run and more Italian stereotypes than I could shake a stick at, the game would have worn awfully thin if it weren’t for the darkness. Throughout the campaign Jackie will acquire new abilities to aid him in his vengeful pursuit of Paulie. The darkness comes in four very exciting and very sick flavours:
CREEPING DARK—a stretch-Armstrong tentacle that can scale walls, unlock doors and murder enemies from afar
DEMON ARM—another tentacle that will automatically kills the lights and punch through people like wet tissue paper
DEMON GUNS—a set of guns with infinite ammo that can put a stop to even the undead
BLACK HOLE—the ability to create black holes. I’m not even kidding, fucking black holes!
In addition to these powers Jackie can summon demons called Darklings to perform his bidding. Whether it be gunning down the wicked for him or just running at them and blowing up kamikaze style attack, these little guys will mindlessly lay siege and can spawn from any summon location (of which there are many). With the darkness behind him, Jackie Estacado is almost invincible. But as soon as the lights spill onto the darkness, Estacado needs to seek the shade to give it a chance to recharge. The game makes it glaringly obvious that when the lights are on you are nothing more than a twenty-one year old Italian stereotype with a gun.
The Darkness offers challenge in both story and gameplay. Many of the tasks posed to you during combat will have their appropriate answer: a black hole will dispatch those four guys spilling out of that sedan; you should use the crawling tentacle to slip around this corner and murder the guard on patrol, etcetera. But as the story progresses you begin to think about the plot as well, asking yourself dozens of questions as you burn through anything that impedes your path. What is the darkness? How do I stop it? What happens if it consumes me? The game makes you think with both a tactical and an inquisitive mindset, allowing you to truly get invested in Jackie Estacado and the family. During two chapters of the campaign Jackie will play through world war two battle grounds, killing undead Nazis as he walks about. Its during these two chapters that you, as a player, begin to blur the line between Jackie and the darkness while you work through some of the most unsettling and horrific parts of the game.
With other games, I can often pin down why I am playing. I play Battlefield 3 for the multiplayer where as I play Heavy Rain for the story. The Darkness managed to hit that sweet spot between plot and gameplay where I wasn’t quite sure which aspect kept me playing. Perhaps the most thrilling aspect of the game was totally unleashing the darkness, experiencing that no-holds-barred feeling of total dominance. During one particular mission, I recall walking down a considerably lit corridor, shuffling through my powers until I got the red one, the demon arm. I slowly sauntered down the hall, breaking the lights with my slimy black tentacle as I went. Each few steps being accented by the loud, sharp popping of an incandescent blub. When I got to the end there was a man cowering in the corner. “Don’t, please don’t,” he cried, “I’m unarmed”. I didn’t care. I shoved the tentacle through his chest and flung him against the opposite wall. As he spluttered and fell dead, I towered over his now still body and set the darkness upon him, ripping into his chest and yanking out his heart. I watched as the two tentacles ripped it apart with their teeth and consumed it, like a sick and perverted take on Lady and the Tramp’s spaghetti-kiss. By the time I completed the game I had devoured over three hundred enemies, in fact, there was even an achievement for doing just that. It was only here, at the end of Estacado’s adventure that it dawned on me. I actually enjoyed murdering score after score of mobsters and eating their hearts to feed the darkness. The game has a funny way of steering you toward senselessly slaying people. If it allowed me to, I probably would have gone on a killing spree down in the subway as well. There comes a point where there is no Jackie Estacado anymore, only the darkness.
In short, the game was great fun and extremely engaging. Aside from a couple minor inconveniences, The Darkness gets top marks. The game seems to have aged well, still managing to offer a challenging and compelling experience. During a time where other action games were very linear and simple, The Darkness was (and still is) a refreshingly innovative game that combines a number of genres to forge an interesting and aesthetically cool product. Unfortunately with no one still playing the multiplayer for this game, I was unable to check it out. Almost serving as an antithesis to another excellent release of 2007—Bioshock— The Darkness is definitely in the top rung of comic book video games.
The Darkness: A
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grthink
20,451
TA Score for this game: 1,038
Posted on 05 March 09 at 01:07 |
This review has 15 positive votes and 19 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
A solid, well designed game, with some really good features. I'd have liked the powers that you accrue through the single player mission to be more... powerful, and a little more reliable. The other major pain about the single player missions is the speed at which you travel: if you're used to 'running' in FPS games, then you'll get frustrated by the swimming-in-treacle pace that you move at.
The other major, major flaw is the multiplayer, which a good percentage of the acheivements requires. When I logged on there were like, two other people in the lobby, and when we finally got a game going it was choppy and I dropped out out of frustration.
Hmm... this is all very negative. Plus points: Good graphics, above-par acting, a strong, surprising script, definitely worth a few ours of your time, at least.
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Blind 0ne
133,498
TA Score for this game: 989
Posted on 23 January 10 at 10:21, Edited on 23 January 10 at 23:00 |
This review has 7 positive votes and 13 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
The Darkness
I'm not going to pull any punches here or go on about the good points to try to appear credible. The Darkness is an awful game.
You play the roll of a Mafia killer with a Demon inside him. A Demon who lends you its power. On paper this sounds pretty fun but after about 30 minutes with the game you will realize otherwise. If you ever played Shenmu you will find it very similar as far as the slow game play and attempt at creating a 'real world environment". However. In The Darkness the world does not feel alive at all. There is no traffic in New York and the entire mafia hangs out in the Subway... yeah. The game is not very large however they compensate for this by making your move speed painfully slow. You walk, you cannot run.. you just walk. This means every time you make a mistake or are unsure where to go next you may spend a lot of time just walking around aimlessly. Of course this problem could be countered by including a map in the game, but no. No Map. The map provided simply tells you what area you are in. There are maps on the streets and you can call the transit service for direction but for the few times you find yourself unsure where to go or if you want to do side quests without the net.. get to walking.
But that's not really the bad part of the game. I mentioned earlier that the Darkness lends you its powers. I'm gonna go through them and rate their usefulness for you.
1. Darklings (Darklings are small summoned gremlin like creatures of which there are 4 varieties A Melee, A Gunner, A Suicidal Bomber and a Light Killer) Usefulness: 1/10 (less one instance where the suicide bomber needs to be used to make a hole in a wall these things are a waste of time, the gunner will almost always shoot into the wall and was not programed to look for 'Line of Sight' the Melee will help you at the very start if your having trouble getting used to the horrible aiming, the Light Killer only attacks lights he is in contact with so when sent ahead in an attempt to play smart he will just go to where you sent him break one or two lights then just stand there.
2. The Creeping Dark (A snake like demon who can slither through holes and kill people without them even seeing it coming while you hide somewhere in the shadows.) Usefulness: 9/10 (This power makes the entire game as easy as you want it to be, the snake demon will retract if exposed to too much light however it can also attack lights if you are quick. With its range being nearly infinite as long as its provided enough darkness this power makes the Hard difficulty pointless.)
3. Demon Arm (A sharp tentacle used to impale enemies and objects and toss them around from close range.) Usefulness: 1/10 (There are 2 parts in the game where you have to use your arm to move objects out of your way, besides that the Demon Arm is the equivalent of bringing a spear to a gun fight, it is however amusing as you get to impale people and toss them around or just hoist them in the air but effective, it is not.)
4. Darkness Guns (Two different handguns, the left shoots a concussion blast that knocks an enemy down, the right shoots.... ahh.. static or something) Usefulness: 3/10 (in a pinch or if you find yourself out of ammo these might be handy but the scatter fire of the right gun makes is less potent the the handgun you started the game with. The left gun is handy for knocking enemies down so you can get up close to them and execute or demon arm them if your just trying to get achievements.)
5. "Black Hole" (I'm not sure why it's called a Black Hole because itss nature is that of a vortex but whatever, this game is retarded so lets run with it.) Usefulness: 0/10 (It was not until I gained this power that I was absolutly certain that this game had been rushed in development. This skill is buggy and nearly broken. The "Black Hole" will use your Darkness up pretty quickly and will kill anyone within its line of sight within about a 3 meter radius. Like the Demon Arm there is no cross hair for the power. Use your gun cross hair to aim and fire.. oh but wait.. you didn't notice that little piece of wood on the floor in front of you and now the black hole is right in your face. Yes that's right, this power requires absolute line of sight, anything in your way like a dead body or some debris will render it completely incompetent. Useless. Kill the helicopter with it, get enough kills with it for the Darkness Master achievement then never use it again.
6. Normal Guns (Hand Guns, light machine guns an AK an M4 and two auto shotguns) Usefulness: 10/10 (If you for some reason were not looking for achievements you could in all truth just use guns for the entire game pick off every enemy from range and never experience even a moment of challenge in this game. The only problem is the awful aiming in the game which makes your cross hair sticky on enemies and lights and invalidates any actual video gaming skill you may in fact have. Lukily the right analog will switch you into 'careful aim' mode and allow you to fire your guns as if you had a brain of your own.)
Story
The story is good, cliche yet has the potential to keep you coming back. The voice acting as done very well and from time to time it can draw you into the game and make you forget about the money you just lost forever when buying/renting this train wreck of a game.
Sound
Some epic music and typical sounding gunfire. However the ambient sounds are all broken, or I should say non existent. In most modern games when an enemy is behind a wall or in a different room and makes noise/talks you can normally judge where they are or how close you are. Not in this game. You will often hear enemies yelling at you, and no matter how far away they are they will sound like they are standing right beside you. This is just another example of what happens when you rush what could have been a good game.
Online
The game placed a huge amount of its achievements in what is probably one of the worst multiplayer experiences ever conceived. Tiny maps, laggy game play and a shapeshifter mode which lets people kill you once and then hide on top of a building for 10 minutes until the game times out and they win. Horrible. Just horrible. No one plays this crap so you're gonna need to boost for the 1000.
Overall
No maps, Boring and slow game progression and a wanna be Spawn anti-hero are enough to have placed this game exactly where it should be. In a $9.99 bin at your local gaming store beside Turok
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