The Darkness on 360..dirt!!!

DamoBrad

The Darkness
First Person Shooter (FPS)
Developed by StarBreeze Studions
Cert : 18
Release date : OuT NoW



Brief:

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(quoted from back of box)

A cold blooded mafia hitman becomes even more deadly when a terrifying inheritence is forced upon him on the eve of his 21st birthday. Possessed by "The Darkness", Jackie Estacado discovers he weilds a terrible power which can destroy his enemies without mercy, but... this exhilarating force comes at a price - The Darkness has a malevolent agenda all of its own...

"Experience intense cinematic action in this gritty first-person-shooter with a horror twist"

"use the awesome and terrible powers of The Darkness to devour, impale or implode your foes"

"blast your way through the dark and seedy underbelly of New York City"

(end Quote)


Storyline:

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The game opens up wit a rather beautifully amazing visual cinematic intro depicting the basis of the whole story in reali sexy graphics. You are Jackie Estacado and you have just woken up in the back of a speeding convertible after a busted a money collection job wit the mafia which is under the control of your Uncle Paulie. The money collection deal has gone horribly wrong and you (Jackie Estacado) your two buddies are attempting to speed away from the scene wit Uncle Paulie's top pocket crooked cops of NYPD quickly chasin behind you. Your car ploughs through contruction site filled wit Irish workers weildin automatic weapons. Suddenly one of your partners gets his head bashed off some on coming traffic and becomes allergic to life and lies limp and lifeless upon the front seat. You're tossed a shotgun to help defend the car from incoming fire, Your character kicks the dead body out of the car and pops into the front seat and you take control trying to defend any oncoming fire...until... The car crashes.
From here You and your accomplice have a brief conversation and from here the story begins...

As the story unfolds, Your Uncle Paulie, the leader of the crime family, has gone on a Wobbler and put a hit out on you. So in turn to make matters worse for him you decide to take out his money making bussiness and henchmen. But... Uncle Paulie hits back and sends some goons out to pick up Jenny, Jackie's girlfriend and the only person that really matters to him in the game.

Most of the game is based around being in the dark and using your Darkness powers to their fullest extent. Furthermore The DArkness, whilst not only being the title... (yes i'm clever) also happens to be the name of the demon festering inside of you. Which at brief moments within the game talks to you giving instructions, encouagements, random sinister comments and putting humanity down.
Keeping your Darkness powers booming strong can be quite awkward and tiring at times. To keep your Darkness powers up to full whack you need to stay in the dark, destroying lights or taking out power units upon walls helps this but can be annoying at times. The torment of this can be that light can become a far greater enemy than the hitmen blasting bullets at you. Very very often you will find yourself walking into a room and spending time and ammo taking out all the lights, while ignoring the potshots being taken by enemies filling your body with nice lead presents of joy. Although as your powers increase you can summon little demons to help you in your missions. one such little demon can scurry ahead and take out lights which can be helpful... at times.

There is a massive underground subway station which is how you travel from destination to destination to progress through your story and complete side missions. Sadly this is also an area in the game where his guns and powers aren't accessible. You seemingly can't kill the innocent, Jackie can choose to do some good deeds though. These side missions are mostly based upon "find or kill missions". These are a little pointless but can prolong playin by a few hours but ultimately i found it very repeative. One side mission involves a squabble between a couple and she comes to you for help in speakin to her boyfriend and getting her apartment key back... pointful how?... not only are you a hitman.. but you're also a dogsbody to other characters.

During the games Jackie Estacado also travels to Otherworld, a nightmarish realm of hell in which World War one never ends. Zombie soldiers torture and kill the lost souls of American soldiers. It's wonderfully twisted, plus the world also features the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. But.. sadly, within this Hellish realm.. things can become very very disorientating. At moments lightening flashes and yes i know its for atmospherioc mood but can be reali reali annoying because it blind the player and kinda floods the screen in bright white light and whence it clears up you could be facing a number of enemies which have already riddiled your poor body in bullets long before you had even seen them. I spent many moments screaming at the screen.

Within the game you do have the great use of a map, but its the most useless aspect of the game. Its a picture and doesnt reali detail much to where you are or where you are going. Its as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.

The loadin video moments take away the aspect of the boring loadin screen which i did like..

There are some truly dark and even shocking moments in the story which are total eye candy..

there is the option of online xbox live multiplay, but that can also be very very annoying too. The maps are quite small and hazed with forboding feeling of claustrophobia. In a plus you do have the choice of playing as a human or as a beserker demon. Which has its advantages. But sadly it could benefit wit a more detailed user panel detailing ping and lag times to help wit connection problems. i logged out of many a deathmatch because of a brutal connection which included not being able to move or sluggish movement and trying do "anything" but getting killed quite a lot.. torment much??



wOt RoCkx & wOt Flops

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+ fantastic concept and original idea
+ execution kills totally kick ass
+ graphics rock
+ First gameplay was fantastic.. but slowly degraded over time
+ Hidden eggs (phone numbers, pieces of paper and storyline) are funny at times
+ the darklings are well funny wit sic twisted humour which adds to the comic humour..
+ the game concept and the overall idea rockx.. but sadly let down by sluggish play and even sillier side missions and controls...

- controls are brutal (moves too slow)
- awkward storyline at times (helpin your Aunt and finding a womans bracelet she lost)
- too much wandering about
- the creeper controls are reali sluggish and it feels like ur using a Snot tryin to manouver around the envioroment
- Otherworld. (Hell) levels are seriously annoyin especially when the lightenin flashes and makes the user snowblind
for a brief few seconds and whence the screen clears u could be facing six or so enemies which have already been fillin
u wit lead whilst u were blinded, and also makes u pretty disorientated
- the map is totally useless..
- no map direction help at all
- slow sluggish character movement adds to torment
- multiplay is very very dull & could do wit a more informative connection overlay, something which could detail the user
on the ping rates of the servers to combat lag and frustrated xbox live users..
- majority of the weapons are useless (sometimes its pretty hard to hit the broad side of a bus wit a pump action shotgun..
but the enemies can tack u from a far distance wit a pea shooter..you can also waste a lot of ammo shottin and hitting
nothing "Even" wit AutoAim on..
- predictive enemy tactics and patterns
- you cannot attack everyone.. why not?
- ultimately ridicilous side missions.. (gettin a girls apartment apartment key from her boyf because of a relationship
squabble.. wots that got to do wit killin the mafia)



Result..

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The Darkness is a fairly shallow FPS that never builds to any sort of spectacular finish.

Keep ur money and spend it on something more useful..

like a tyre iron...

My score : 55%


Reviewed by DamOn Bradley
{ pwnage }

Retr0gamer

I'm of the same opinion as yourself. It's a very well presented game with a great concept but the core game is deeply flawed and just not that much fun. I'm only playing it myself because I don't want to feel I wasted 55 stingers on it.

The main problem is the combat. The guns are awful and there is very little ammo available. The shotguns are less useful than the starting pea shooters. Also the weapons aren't anything special, in fact they are incredibly dull. You move way too slowly in the game. Darkness powers feel broken. The black hole doesn't always hit were you want it. Creeping dark gets stuck on debris and bodies and it can be annoying climbing walls. The dark tentacle power is useless except for the odd terrible puzzle involving moving crates and stuff.

Then there is the abysmal AI. The enemy AI is absolutely laughable at times. Rarely the enemy will take cover preferring to stand on the spot and shoot. They take half a lifetime to react to the creeping dark, you hear them shouting but they never react. The darklings have AI that is just as bad making them absolutely useless as well. They will get stuck in scenery and fire into the walls and scenery far more times than they actually cause any damage.

A lot more time in development would have seriously benefitted this game. As it is, it's just a great concept badly executed.

johnny_ultimate

I choose option (d) - Disagree.
The game is for flawed, for sure. The Otherworld levels are meh, the Darklings useless and the like.
But honestly, I very much enjoyed the game. I thought the virtual New York was excellently designed, and actually felt like a real place (especially the buzzing subway stations). The Darkness Powers were great fun to toy around with, especially towards the end. There were plenty of side missions, and the set pieces were terrific. The graphics were also among the very best Ive seen. The game built upon the Riddick formula, and dared to do something different with the FPS genre.

The game is not above criticism by any stretch, but for me, the flaws are fewer than the strength. It certainly does seem to have split opinion, though, so it's not something I would recommend without a try before buy.

Vic Vinegar

I agree with the last guy. The movement of the character was too slow, could've done with a run button or something. In general though i thought the game had lots of fresh ideas and kept me interested all way through, would defo recommend it to people. I didn't try the multiplayer so i can't comment but that was never gonna be great really anyway. Despite it's slight flaws i'd still give it 8.5 out of 10

Branoic

Finished this game last night and absolutely loved in. 80%

0ubliette

While its got its flaws, the darkness is one of the few games that manages to completely rise above all its issues and just be off the mother****!ng hook awesome!
The hell levels: Yes theyre not the best, gameplay wise, but theyre far from ****e. but the overall design and atmosphere of them is incredible. Case in point, the brit trenches. Theres such a hellish atmosphere there..the soldiers are all clearly losing thier minds, stitched together from bits of each toher, fighting a war neither side can ever win. Suicide corner, where a troop is reciting the poem 'into battle', and then proclaims 'itll all be over by christmas and whatnot!' then blows his brains out, but is alive again reciting poetry next time you walk past, condemned to keep comitting suicide over and over...some of the most amazing atmosphere ive ever come across ina video game.

The darkness powers: They have thier issues, but anyone who can complain about something that lets you impale an enemy on a massive tentacle while you blast away at other enemies with your free hand, well, they just plain suck.

The darklings: Crap ai yes, but the more you play the better you get at ordering them around, im pretty effective with them by now (on my 3rd paly through!)

But the best, is the story. Its well written, (for a simple revenge tale) EXTREMELY well acted, with some great character development. The ending is superb. Understated, minimalist, suits the game perfectly.
In case you cant tell, yes, i adore this game. Its definitely in my top games of the year so far. Like prey before it, its an fps that tries new things, some more successfully than others, yet its successes far outweigh its failings. Love it, love it, love it.

0ubliette

0ubliette wrote:

its successes far outweigh its failings. Love it, love it, love it.

I agree.

The Sparrow

I hated The Darkness and I was so excited to get it. I just didnt get the appeal of it and the controls seemed horrible and annoying. As for the Darkness powers, were they an innovative idea in the FPS genre? Yes. Did they utilise them well and make them interesting and useful? IMO No.

I played Prey just before The Darkness and I thought it was so much better. In Prey there were lots of innovations too but it felt like they translated innovative ideas into exciting gameplay features much better than The Darkness.

I traded in The Darkness after about a week of frustration trying to play it.

Retr0gamer

Have to say I really enjoyed Prey as well. It wasn't anything special but it was at least fun to play unlike the Darkness.

As for the darkness powers being innovative? Definitely not. We have seen similar done before only a lot better in FPS games as old as Clive Barkers Undying and Wheel of Time.

johnny_ultimate

I have no beef with Prey - it was a very fun game. My only issue was that it was a bit Doom3ish, what with very little variety to the corridors and what not (same could possibly be said of the Darkness, but there levels such as the Subway, docks, boat, the abandoned tunnel section and even the admittedly dull Otherworld did give some variety). But the portal effects were pretty mindblowing when they worked, and vertigo and inducing.

Id say I preferred the Darkness because it was longer and the actual fighting much more 'unique'. but they are both fine examples of the FPS.

Doodee

I dunno, i liked they're first album.

tman

0ubliette wrote:

But the best, is the story. Its well written, (for a simple revenge tale) EXTREMELY well acted, with some great character development. The ending is superb. Understated, minimalist, suits the game perfectly.
In case you cant tell, yes, i adore this game. Its definitely in my top games of the year so far. Like prey before it, its an fps that tries new things, some more successfully than others, yet its successes far outweigh its failings. Love it, love it, love it.

Summed up my thoughts nicely.
The ending is quite possibly my favourite from any game, and one that I'll definitely play through again just to see.
One of my games of the year so far, and quite possibly my favourite console FPS ever!
The pros most definitely outweigh the cons imo, 9/10

(there's a game reviews forum btw....)

Retr0gamer

Just finished it and it did absolutely nothing for me. The end wasn't all that great and it just showed how good the game could have been if the powers were handled properly.

As for the story, it was nothing special and very cliche.

Maximilian

It appears that the the OP's "g", "h" & "y" keys are in need of urgent repair.

tman

Maximilian wrote:

It appears that the the OP's "g", "h" & "y" keys are in need of urgent repair.

I bet he intended to put "gh3y" in the thread title but had to settle for "dirt" instead

Branoic

Strange how this game has divided people. I absolutely loved it, and on the other hand I thought Prey was the biggest load of boring gimmicky nonsense I'd ever played.

I think the last couple of lines in a review for the Darkness in the XBox 360 World mag sums up what I and a lot of the people who seem to like the game think:

"Rush into it and treat it like an FPS, and you'll be bitterly disappointed. Sit back, get involved, and learn to the play the game at the pace it dictates, and it's one of the most engaging adventures on the 360. {.....} And at the end, despite being short, it felt like events had reached a conclusion. No forced ending that feels of a hastily finished game: just a full stop at the end of a seriously good story."

DamoBrad

yes i see there are quite a lot of mixed opinions about The Darkness.. and yes i did admit it had its quirky and enjoyable moments... but overall gameplay was limited to slow sluggish movements and brutal A.I.

i was seriously let down by the fact that after the first few levels it got pretty boring and must admit i didn't complete the game.. because i got so bored wit it...

i'm plannin and gettin the Transformers game next.. should be good..

anyways..

if it moves.. shoot.. then.. SLAG ITS MOTHER!!!

Retr0gamer

DamoBrad wrote:

i'm plannin and gettin the Transformers game next.. should be good..

It should be great but instead it's the gaming equivalent of getting gang raped by diseased Daleks.

TheDoc

im juggling between my pc games, ds games forza and darkness and have to say i find it very entertaining. I find it annoying that enemies can hit you from a mile awaywith pea shooters but i think its a well entertaining game.

Its dark its sinister and has a good story.

I think it was well worth the purchase.

johnny_ultimate

Retr0gamer wrote:

It should be great but instead it's the gaming equivalent of getting gang raped by diseased Daleks.

More reviews should be this simple and self explanatory.
Although if you are looking for a good Transformers game there is a fine one on the PS2. A bit (i.e. very) difficult though: didn't get very far when I rented it at release

sweetie

so it's not as good as Riddick then?

Onearmedbandit

I rented this the week it came out and played it for about 3 days. Got to the part were your after the chief and got so bored of it i turned it off and brought it back 4 days early. Its a sh1te game bland controls/powers/weapons and a boring storyline unless you like the comic books. Theres no point in doing the side missions because all you get are collectibles and they are annoying to do anyway (like getting a guys mouth organ back for him off a bully in the subway). Overall id say 4/10 its boring, hard to get any fun out of and bland.

Gizzle

Retr0gamer wrote:

It should be great but instead it's the gaming equivalent of getting gang raped by diseased Daleks.

What diseases would Daleks contract? Rust?

Retr0gamer

There is a terrifying krang-esque creature underneath that cold steel. Anyway a dose of tetanus isnt the nicest thing to have.

Gran Hermano

I have to say I disagree with the OP 100%, I picked it up cheap
from Play-Asia and thought it was well worth the €40 I spent on it.
It's well presented with good acting, sound effects and interesting gameplay
and a decent story-line. It's not an FPS like a Tom Clancy game or Halo
but more of an interactive comic. I'd rate it overall as an 8/10 but
the audio, graphics are story are top-notch.