Developer: Starbreeze
Publisher: 2K Games
Rating Guide: How I Review Games

Review:

You are Jackie Estacado.  You’ve been killed.  You’ve been killed again.  You’ve been killed once more but you just can’t die.  Why?  The Darkness has you.  And I’ll say right now that not only does it have Jackie Estacado, the main character in the game, but it also has me.  Ladies and gentlemen say hello to this year’s first Untouchable of the Year candidate.

The minute The Darkness began, I knew something special was about to go down.  The opening sequence has you in the back of a car on an eventual car chase.  That’s all I can say or rather that’s all I will say.  You have to experience it and I don’t want to rob you of that.  Prepare for one hell of a journey that involves crime, revenge and crazy subway stories.

Gameplay, Graphics and Sound

The Darkness, based on the best-selling comic created by Top Cow, takes you on one man’s journey for redemption and delivers it smack dab in the middle of your lap.  Jackie Estacado is hunting down old Uncle Paulie Franchetti and crew for a variety of crimes including Jackie’s own death.  Paulie is the Don of the Franchetti family that took you in as a boy.  You’ll meet various criminals in the “mob family” to help you and at times to stop your mission.  Jackie is attempting to do all of this while at the same time trying to control the Darkness and not let it take control of him.  All of the elements for a great story are there and they’re done extremely well.  You have love, betrayal, vengeance and revenge all mixed up in one hell of a game.

You have a variety of guns and Darkness powers at your disposal.  You can dual wield weapons which makes both the Left and Right triggers your fire buttons.  (press the D-pad left/right to switch weapons)  I loved the way that you would pull your guns in different directions depending on what you’re aiming at.  If you run into a wall, you’ll pull your guns up.  If facing around the corner, you’ll adjust your guns automatically.  You’ll have to see it to understand but I loved the way it worked.  You didn’t shoot the same with every weapon.  Each weapon was different and it showed in Jackie’s handling of the different weapons.

Your aiming reticule is just a small red dot (or two).  I thought this would be a bad thing but it ended up being okay.  At times, all you have to do is get close to something and the auto-aim jumps in.  But shooting is only half the fun though as you have a variety of Execution Kills you can perform if you get close enough to the enemy.  You do this automatically with the Right Trigger when you’re close.  You also have melee attacks with the Left Trigger but this depends on the weapon you have.  All of this is at your disposal to get rid of the scum.  Pay attention to the screen because there’s no life bar.

But who really cares about the weapons right?  The game is called The Darkness for a reason.  The Left and Right bumper buttons control the Darkness inside you.  (up/down on the D-pad switches Darkness powers)  To trigger the Darkness, press the LB and for certain Darkness powers, you press RB. (or hold RB)  Each “Demon Head” has a color associated with it so you can identify which Darkness power is equipped.  Each one will devour the hearts of slain enemies by pressing the A button.  This replenishes Darkness power.  Sometimes the Demon Heads will fight for the heart…ripping it apart in front of you.  The more you devour, the higher your Darkness level goes.  Stay away from light sources as it drains you of your Darkness.  Keep in the shadows.  You can manifest the Darkness only in the shadows.

Along with having some kick ass tentacles (Demon Heads) to do justice with, Jackie can also summon Darklings from gateways.  This can only be done with the Darkness power enabled.  You have the power of creation.  When you see a gateway, simply approach it and press/hold LB.  You’ll have the option of summoning four different Darklings.  Berserker, Light Killer, Kamikaze or Gunner.  They each have their own specialty and they all have humor especially the Berserker.  I remember seeing them take a leak on an enemy.  Yes that’s right.  They urinated and made a joke about it while they were at it.

There are things to unlock in the game that come in the form of collectibles or letters.  You have to dial the number on the collectibles and mail the letters in order to unlock special things within the game like concept art or comics.  I must say that I had fun checking out the comics and reading them.  You can also spend a lot of time watching the in-game videos that show on the televisions throughout the game.  I don’t know if the movies are complete but it’s a lot of fun flipping channels and watching for a bit. 

The travel system is mainly done using the subway station.  You can get to various parts of the game via the subway.  You’ll either leave out of Fulton or Canal to get to your destination.   Stand on either side of the rail and the subway will come shortly.  There’s an information center to give you tips on how to get to each area so if you’re stuck, just call up the info center.  Make sure you speak to the various people walking around throughout the game both in the subway and during each mission.  The Darkness has some RPG elements in it so expect little side missions from time to time when speaking to specific people.  I loved this part of it because some of the side missions told parts of the story that filled in the blanks.

The most interesting thing about The Darkness is the atmosphere that it manages to create.  While you’ll hear tons of things about the gameplay and the visuals, the one thing that I took from this game is the atmosphere it created.  From the opening sequence to the skits during load times, I felt like I was Jackie.  Starbreeze did a magnificent job creating a dark, puzzling, filled-with-crime atmosphere that literally kept me on the edge afraid of what’s next.  But at the same time, it had me craving to finish the story.

Visually, The Darkness looks incredible.  The character models, the environments and the atmosphere were mixed near perfectly together.  The dialogue and musical score of the game were simply excellent.  During the load times as you progress to different areas, Jackie always does a monologue of sorts.  The music during these monologues is spot on.  It captures the feeling of this young 21-year old kid in this madness incredibly well.  The suspense it creates…the desperation it creates…it was done well.  I felt like a man with no option left but to kill Paulie.  Listen to the dialogue during this as it’s pretty entertaining.  Listen for the story about Jackie’s glasses being broken.

Xbox Live Extras

There is multiplayer in The Darkness for up to eight (8) players.  You have the standard Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag.  You also have Survivor Games in which you survive for as long as possible.  Last Darkling and Last Human are some interesting game modes.  If you’re the last human or darkling, you’re the winner.  Both races (Humans and Darklings) have different attributes so choose wisely when competing.  For instance, Darklings are faster while Humans are stronger.  What about the Darkness powers in multiplayer?  There are none.  (begin tears now)

I was happy to see that you can choose a room to enter depending on how good the connection is.  I entered a few rooms with different connection strengths but it didn’t seem to help at all with the spotty gameplay and lag.  The game design didn’t seem to suffer as the maps looked the part of the single campaign but the gameplay wasn’t so enjoyable.

Conclusion

The Darkness is a treat as soon as it starts.  I look for games with not only great stories but great ways to tell those stories and great ways to deliver them.  This one doesn’t disappoint.  I knew something was special when I didn’t skip through any of the cutscenes or Jackie’s monologues.  Even after they began repeating themselves, I watched and listened.  The multiplayer part of it may not have been what most will like, but being a single player guy I wasn’t bothered at all.  The Darkness has enough depth and atmosphere in its single campaign that I won’t mind playing it again.  As I mentioned when I began this review, say hello to an Untouchable of the Year candidate.  The Darkness came, saw and kicked ass!