Author: Adrian
From: Engadine, New South Wales
5 Dec 2007 06:33:47
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Give in to the DARK
The Darkness. XBOX 360 & PS3
I has been a while since a game has done something a little different and done it well, it’s always hard for developers to cater to most people’s tastes and still offer a complete but well rounded game.
Having been looking forward to this game for a while before release tends to mean that I would be harder to impress, and the lack of word out about the game, it’s hard to think that The Darkness will make much of a wave in the gaming world. Having said that, this game has left 9 out of 10 people telling me “ZOMG, DARKNESS IS AWESOME!!!!”, and every time I would reply “I told you”.
You play though as Jackie Estecado, an Italian lad just turning 21. Without giving to much away, spoiling the story and revelations you get through out the game’s fantastic story line, the “Darkness” is like a creature of dark power who posses you, but lays dormant within you, and then only revealing itself to you when you turn 21. Jackie ends up getting caught in the middle of some blunder doing a mafia job for his uncle Paulie, who is now out to get Jackie… get him to suffer and die. However, just having turned 21, he now has a new ally to wage a one man war against his uncle Paulie and his goons, all while still fighting a war within himself to maintain his superiority and control over the darkness that dwells within him. The story is deep enough to get you emotionally involved, so if you like game with a bit of depth, and a story to keep you motivated right though to the end, “The Darkness” will not disappoint.
Graphically The Darkness has a very well rounded look, although some things that you generally wouldn’t pay much attention too have been neglected, so if you’re someone like me who likes to check out things like the road to see how good it looks, don’t expect too much. However if your like the other half of me who likes to run up to someone straight in the face and blow a foe’s brains out using something I’ve never seen, but oh sooo cool, are the mafia style execution kills. When you get right up to places and people your expected to approach, texturing is lovely, faces are well rounded, lamp posts are well curved, nothing seems to have been moulded out of small cubes and shapes, but rather everything individually crafted, giving things like all the cars and building all a unique look, keeping every corner and turn though the game fresh, and not like you’ve seen that same object before. Some of your enemies are exactly the same but in all honestly there is such a good variety of faces and clothing that you probably wouldn’t even notice (well you will now that I have mentioned it, sorry about that). All in all, the atmosphere is literally perfect, the mood, the lighting, everything works for the time and place, and the soundtrack worked well not to draw attention away from the game or story itself, while still providing the adequate atmosphere to create what was literally the perfect stage for the performance.
Now finally to the game play. The game is very fluent, as level loading is seamless with the story, and doesn’t jolt you from one spot to the other using stupid pull out, (the common, oh great you done this but this just happened at such n’ such, then you get practically dropped kicked from one place to another). The weapons all handle fantastically well and performance is stable and very consistent with each weapon as the weapon variety is well done also. The only thing I can nit pick on was controlling of the “Demon Arm” (one of the 4 dark abilities other than summoning Darklings). It was more like fighting with the control system to get it to put things where you want, even if it were just to pummel enemies with a car or dumpster bin. Unfortunately this did spoil it a bit for me but still wasn’t a major factor in the overall game’s playability. Weapons all perform well and consistently. The only other things I can pick on was running pace, I never felt like I was actually running, it always seemed like a really fast paced walk, the other thing was multiplayer, I would say the multiplayer was wanting more at best. Good with friends, but quick to get over. It’s not the sort of thing multiplayer gamers crave, and make people want to keep a game to play after they’ve pulled single player game apart. Still a unique experience in itself, and may keep some people amused for long enough.
Overall the game was well finished and rounded, I hope to see a sequel.
80%
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