The Darkness Reviews \ Detail

Darkness Review - 8/10

The Darkness, something we all at one time or another fear. But this excellent supernatural first person shooter will challenge your fears of the dark and make you embrace it, or suffer the consequences.

This story of this game is based off the top cow comic of the same name (the darkness) and it follows the exploits of one Jackie Estacado a softly spoken mafia hit man. On his 21st birthday his “uncle” Paulie has decided that he doesn’t want Jackie around any more so arranges for him to be blown up, lucky for us Jackie isn’t about to be taken down so easily and escapes the explosion only to be chased down by Paulie’s goons this is when a demonic voice starts talking to Jackie and soon manifests it self by the was of large tentacles and two eel like heads sprouting from Jackie’s back. These give Jackie incredible powers such as impaling tentacles and creating black holes.
This is just the beginning though and Jackie soon sets of to find a way to stop Paulie for good.

Now for the break down of the game.
Graphics (6/10)
I carnt be a very good judge on this as I only have a crt tv (a nice one but still only running at 576i) but the graphics aren’t super incredible but they are adequate. The art work and atmosphere of all the environments is very impressive though with nothing looking out of place and it being very dark and foreboding also all the movie posters and graffiti on the subway walls are a great touch and are really well done. The one small gripe I have with the graphic quality mainly comes from the animation system. Witch at some points is really good and some times laughably bad though its mostly good witch makes the bad animations really stand out.
Sound (7/10)
The music in this game is tops with great action and also great atmospheric music. Also the voice acting is spot on even if the lip syncing for isn’t always.
Gameplay (8/10)
This is were the game really shines you can go about all most any task a number of different ways and still get the same out come. all the different darkness powers are great weather you want to run in to a group of enemies and impale them whilst shooting there heads off you can or maybe you want to send your eel like one of you eel like heads in solo and kill them all quickly and with stealth its up to you. The darkness powers are really great and make this game different from most FPS’s. there is also tones to do in the game with a large game world all connected by a working subway system with loads of small tasks to do for people witch unlocks extra content.
The only gripe I have with the gameplay is that some sections of the game are very hard and some are too easy the difficulty isn’t always constant. Also sometimes there is a lack of direction given but mostly you know were to go and exactly how to get there.

The one other thing I want to mention is ambiance and extra content. This game has a great feel to it with the subway system filled with people and things going on. Also if you go up to any TV in the game you can turn it on and there is 6 channels to watch from old pop eye cartoons to music videos its really great there is literally hours of video to watch if you want (I know I spent about an hour watching pop eye and flash Gordon the other night)

Also there is lots of secret “collectables” lying around the world and also obtained from doing side missions that are phone numbers that can be rang up at public phones to unlock extra content like top cow comics concept art and other stuff. Give the game a much bigger life span.

The Darkness is one excellent, polished and different first person shooter. The darkness powers are well implemented and feel great to use. With a great story and extra content galore if you are afraid of the dark then don’t be any more and embrace THE DARKNESS.

Submitted by longarms 07/11/2007 6

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More Info:

The Darkness

Other Reviews:

Darkness Review 11 Jul 2007 10

The Darkness 25 Aug 2007 4

Comments

Kudos: 2,898

Mates: 60

Shadowblade says:  

Just to add to the review slightly...

The game actually features a HUGE amount of fully viewable content via TVs... I think there is a total of 17 full movies as well as a huge number of cartoons and music clips... From what I heard the PS3 version has 3 more movies than the 360 version on the disc... (kinda makes sense, since Blu Ray can store more)

07/19/2007 @HOME...

Kudos: 3,614

Mates: 36

longarms says:  

oh no they are "good" like they arnt bad at all, but they just arnt great like they are above average but wont blow you away. exept for maby the opening sequence witch is realy cool.

07/18/2007 Central Coast (NSW)

Kudos: 2,317

Mates: 31

Chimeraguy says:  

Hey nice review Longarms!!!

It's made me kinda think about the graphics though I demand high quality graphics in games i play & going by what you have said, they dont sound too good

I'll rent the game out, it's safer that way

07/18/2007 PERTH

Kudos: 12,000

Mates: 189

callan5 says:  

Longarms you will absolutely love Sigma man.

I might check out The Darkness once i've finished with Sigma

07/15/2007 perth, WA

Kudos: 3,614

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longarms says:  

Well I probably wont play it again.(cause I’ll get sigma next week) but it is quite varied in the way you can go about things so I’d say you could play it twice and not be bored with it.
as for the darkness powers they work really well but once you get the black hole it can feel a little over powered but in a good way cause using it often takes away your darkness shield and you can die much easier. The only thing with the powers is it never explains them to you or tells you what they can do you just have to find out and experiment for your self.

07/15/2007 Central Coast (NSW)

Kudos: 4,153

Mates: 177

Bev says:  

Great review man!
Hows the lasting appeal in this game, would you play the campaign more than once? How are the controls like with the darkness powers?

07/15/2007 Adelaide, SA

Kudos: 3,984

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stonecold says:  

next-gen games are mean't to be played on HDTV's.
I disagree the graphics are sh!t HOT

07/12/2007 perth

Kudos: 5,783

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mateo1 says:  

sounds like a cool game, cnt wait to get it

great review too

07/11/2007 Brisbane, QLD {PSN = aimar120}

Kudos: 3,614

Mates: 36

longarms says:  

thanks man i still havent actualy finshed the game but i said id have the review done by yesterday so i thought i better do it today

07/11/2007 Central Coast (NSW)

Kudos: 12,000

Mates: 189

callan5 says:  

Excellent review Longarms man.

I agree with the visuals too, an LCD wouldnt make much difference either man, it just smoothens the visuals a little.

*I've seen the xbox 360 version on an LCD*

again, awesome review mate.

07/11/2007 perth, WA