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Good:
- The Darkness powers
- Character development
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Bad:
- Okay graphics and sound
- Occasional slowdowns
- Strict online requirements
- Weak weapons
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Rating : 7.5 / 10
Developer : Starbreeze Studios
Availability : PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
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When a boy becomes a man, turning 21, Jackie Estacado inherits a special gift to control The Darkness; what a great present that was.
Jackie’s uncle Paulie puts a hit on Jackie due to the moral differences between the two and while Jackie seeks out to put an end to Paulie’s crook ways and bring back the old ways of the mafia, he learns more about his gift and how to control it.
Mafia being mentioned, you will get a lot of coarse language in this game; as typical as it can be. But at times, it can be quite hilarious to listen to as expressions hit key on what characters are trying to say. Voicing is one of the better aspects in this game with great dialogues, story-telling, and acting.
Through the game, you will run into people who don’t talk, only make small statements like “You good?”, and during gun battles, you’ll hear the henchmen yell the same things over and over again, whether they are in a group or just the one person left screaming “He’s over here!”
But that’s not too bad as the overall sound in the game is great from the footsteps to gun shots and environments. It’s standard, but it works.
During fights, you will get heavy music playing showing the gruesome and roughness of the mafia, and during the quiet times like in the subway, you will get a slow depressing song; which is quite fitting given the circumstances that Jackie has been put into.
This formula continues with graphics also as textures are quite mixed. Models and objects are pretty good in terms of resolution and counts, but the textures applied are awful. Though there may be a fair amount of detailed put into the game, it isn’t clear and crisp. The textures are blurry and ugly. On characters, they are a little bit sharper, but you probably won’t notice it half the time as you run around eating the hearts out of everyone you shoot, and shooting them of course. Every now and again, you get will lips that move when talking, but most of the time it’s pretty stiff.
This is a first person shooter after all and it is very basic. Run, turn, shoot, do stuff. There’s no leaning and though you will see Jackie moving his hand around to get around obstacles, this isn’t necessarily any form of leaning as you’re still aiming the same spot; at least they took the consideration of adding the animation to do so.
The running is also a little slow and at times you wish he could run faster. Not because you’re trying to get away from the henchmen, but because you do a lot of running around to get from mission to mission.
What makes this special though is the ability to control The Darkness. You can use the Creeping Dark to crawl around and survey the area, collect things, and even kill off your enemies. You have the Demon Arm which you can use to impale your enemies or objects and carry them around. You later get Ancient Weapons which are guns using the energy of The Darkness as ammo, and finally, the Black Hole which will suck in everything near it.
I found crawling to be difficult at times as you try to orient yourself around objects.
As part of your dark powers, you can also summon Darklings from various spawn points. Berserkers will savagely run up to your enemies to stab them while Gunners are gun-ho crazy with firing their Gatling gun. Light Killers will destroy light sources they can find such as light bulbs and lamps to keep your dark powers up, and Kamikazes will run up and as the name implies, blow up and take whatever they can with them.
One problem I ran into however is that the Light Killers don’t always kill light sources and will stand there doing nothing.
Combining the use of your dark powers is a must in this game as the AI is clever enough to lean around objects to try and pick you off. This isn’t a huge problem since you can anticipate their moves, but the problem is how difficult it is to just kill them. Unless you make a headshot, the mafia can really take a beating; standard guns like pistols, machine guns, and shotguns are just too weak.
So all is well with a nice story and twist to the original comic series, but the next step is to take it online.
I have not been able to get online as you require NAT Type 1 or 2 and I currently have 3 and finding it difficult to fix.
Nonetheless, you have two classes; humans and Darklings. Where humans can use guns and can take a beating, Darklings can scurry along walls and ceilings and make huge leaps.
The game features typical Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag modes along with a new mode.
For the above modes, a Shapeshifter setting is possible to allow players to change between the classes at any time for their needs.
The new mode is Survivor where you survive for as long as you can, then there’s the spin off Last Human where the human player needs to survive for as long as they can. When killed, the killer will become the human to survive, and score points; only the human scores points.
Fans of the comic book series will appreciate the game, even if it diverts from the main plot a little. People who are new to the series may also enjoy the Mafia syndicate and story-developing game.
Although very simple and controls can feel a little clunky, The Darkness isn’t a bad game and certainly has its moments.
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