The Darkness

Review from Oracle and Oracle - Thursday, 12 July 2007 @ 9:54pm

After reading AJ’s review on Ridge Racer 6 and Brett’s review on some Japanese game that is apparently really good but will never see the light of day at my place, it got me thinking, maybe I should write a rap song about The Darkness.. or maybe I should just drink poison. Pffft, only weirdo’s from Perth and old men write poems about games... I prefer to poorly write my way out of a review.

Ok, so where are we? Ah yes, The Darkness. If you’ve read my early preview you would already know that the entire game is about a man named Jackie Estacado who is about to experience the worst 21st birthday in history. It all starts off by his Uncle Paulie playing a trick on Jackie and wanting him dead, oh and Jackie discovers that he has some awesome dark powers that he can use to help defeat his asshole of an uncle.

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The game starts off brilliantly, from the word go you're thrown into Jackie's world with a very big bang. And by bang I mean being chased by the cops in the Lincoln Tunnel, NY and then stumbling your way to China Town to meet the love of Jackie’s life, Jenny. Ahh, Jenny. If I were ever to marry a woman it would be her (oh, Bel too).

Jenny has gone down in my books as one of my favourite video game female characters. She is what helps connect you (the gamer) with Jackie. You understand why Jackie loves her so much and why he’ll do absolutely anything for her, and it breaks your heart to keep all this family mafia bull crap away from her. She’s so innocent, and when Jackie first walks into her new apartment is a gaming memory I shall never forget. As I was saying, the game does very well to bond you, Jackie and Jenny together which is why when things turn for the worst you really feel the hatred for Jackie’s uncle.. so much hate that you want to make a pizza pie out of Paulie.

The controls in the game feel a bit loose at first, but your head will get around it eventually. Nearly every weapon Jackie gets is dual wielded, so it does help sometimes that the game fully supports auto aim for both enemy and lights. Ahh, lights. Jackie’s greatest weakness, you’ll be shooting out more lights in the game than actual enemies. If you’re not in the dark, Jackie has no powers which means you’re as good as dead. Now would be a great time to mention what Darkness powers Jackie will be given along the way. Simple, there’s Creeping Dark which detaches from Jackie’s right demon arm and allows you to control it remotely. You’ll be able to crawl up walls, attach to ceilings and my favourite, murder anything you sneak up to.

You’ve also got Demon Arm, which is like using a whip to smack out lights and to pierce its way through human bodies. You’ll also be able to use it to move large objects to either protect yourself from enemy fire to or to simply move a rubbish can out of the way. Next is the Darkness Guns. I found myself using these guns more than anything else, these babies look like you’re holding ordinary dual pistols. Your right pistol acts like an automatic rifle while your left fires a disturbing shockwave-like-force to your enemy, knocking them down. And finally, and most likely your favourite too, the Black Hole. Charge this baby up and cast it absolutely anywhere, this vortex will suck anything near it, people, crates, lights, anything. And it is simply fun to use and twice as entertaining to watch.

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While Jackie has four darkness powers he can also summon Darklings. Darklings are little minions from Hell thirsty for blood. There are four types you can summon. Berserker - kills anything it sees by hacking their head off or by simply urinating on their body, Gunner – sets himself up from a great distance and will take fire at enemies with his mini gun, Kamikaze – runs up to objects/people and will detonate himself with no questions asked and finally LightKiller – he’ll be doing the dirty work for you by shooting out the lights surrounding Jackie.. well, he’ll try to. I found the AI for Lightkiller to be very annoying, he never worked properly.

One of my favourite things about The Darkness is the voice cast for the characters in the game. It adds more depth and feeling for the character, well done Starbreeze (if you haven’t yet recognised the developer’s name, these are the same guys who did Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, a classic on the original Xbox). The locations of the maps are the typical locations you’d find in New York. China Town, subway stations, wharfs, all put together very well to make the atmosphere even better to experience. It’s just a shame that after exploring these maps for a while you’ll soon feel claustrophobic, I never knew China Town only had four alleys =\

The animation and graphics in the game are indeed very well done, they nailed the whole ‘lights out’ look and the physics work smoothly. But couldn’t they improve the AI? I experienced plenty of stupid moments from the enemy that made both of us feel stupid.

Very sad things will happen to Jackie later in the game, I won’t tell you how but he’ll be making a few special appearances in Hell. It adds a twist to the story and more wtf moments too. I didn’t particularly enjoy being in Hell (well, der). What I meant to say is it wasn’t quite fun being there. Not only was it confusing but not very direct, you’ll get lost a few times.

After completing a few things in Hell the game starts to lack a bit, you can feel the story line grinding to a halt and spotting out which parts were thrown into the game for fillers. The single player game will take you no longer than a weekend to complete, it will be a fun weekend but you’ll be left nothing but the multiplayer. Ahh, the multiplayer, why must thee be so crap? Joining an online game is a mission mode within itself, I call it ‘Haha, F*ck you, you can see my server but you cannot join! Oh, what’s this? You joined my server? Welcome to Lagsville bitch! mode’, you get the picture.

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Although once you do make your way into an online game you’ll be able to play Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and Survival. There’s not much to explain about the modes because I’m sure we’ve all been there and done that before. If your pain in the ass of a host allows you to morph you’ll be able to switch between being a ganster and being a darkling while playing. Genius. I hope whoever came up with that idea gets a nice warm coffee in their face. Nothing like trying to shoot some laggy kid who keeps morphing every single second you get aim of him! ARGGH! It’s driving me crazy just thinking about it.

Oh, and you thought the single player maps were claustrophobic? You ain’t seen nothing yet, bab-bab-bab-bab-baby you aint seen nothing yet (baaawaaaa). Ok, on a serious note you’ll probably play the CTF mode a couple of times with your mates, just stay away from the tools, well, try to anyway.

Summary

If you’ve got nothing planned for an entire weekend, I would recommend picking up this title. Don’t get me wrong, The Darkness is a very amusing and fun game to play. You hardly experience FPS games these days that start off as good as this, it’s just a shame that the story drags on for a while and ends like it was rushed (I like fireworks thank you).

Pros

Creative Darkness powers add more strategy and fun to the game. Darklings are fun to have around while they keep you company in the dark. The voice overs in the game are fantastic, the loading screens keep you entertained, pretty visuals, lovely physics. I love you Jenny!

Cons

Darklings can be as stupid as hell sometimes, and so can the enemy AI. Being in Hell can be more of a drag than painful. Don’t get The Darkness for the multiplayer, it’s a joke that only a tool could get.