The Darkness - Xbox 360 Review

by James Fleming on June 25, 2007 at 6:32 pm

“I Believe In A Thing Called Blood”

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no…well actually, there’s a lot to fear in the shadows. Anyone whose had a run in with Jackie Estacado, the protagonist of Starbreeze Studio’s new first person shooter: The Darkness, is all too aware of this fact. And death seems to be the least of Jackie’s troubles. After all, there’s always hell to worry about.

Starbreeze studios, the team that put you on lock down in Butcher Bay with their Chronicles of Riddick entry, are back with their new horror, shooter, comic hybrid vehicle The Darkness. Anyone who has a special place for Riddick in their original XBOX repertoire will be happy to know that this new entry holds much of the magic that made that game great, not to mention a few new bells and whistles provided by the XBOX 360’s graphical power. And while the game isn’t by any means perfect, anyone who is looking for an immersing and style driven FPS won’t be disappointed.

Our story begins on the 21st birthday of Jackie Estacado. For most 21 year olds this would be an occasion celebrated with binge drinking, singing off-key karaoke, and culminate with being forcefully exited out of a strip club. But Jackie, Paulie Franchetti’s premier hitman, is not most 21 year olds. And before he gets a day older he’ll be thrown into a world of betrayal, revenge and mass murder. You’ll awaken in the back seat of a Cadillac as it careens through traffic upon entering a transit tunnel leading you into lower Manhattan. The car ride gives you your first taste of the excellent voice acting as you listen to your fellow Mafioso’s colorful Scorsese-esque banter as they crash into oncoming cars and instigate a high-tension police chase. Your destination: a hit. The car ride, like many other scenes found throughout the game, is seen through Jackie’s eyes.

After a brief bullet exchange with the cops and more than a few bumps in the road, you’ll arrive at Graves End Construction site and, after a brief chat with your bloodied comrade, be given your objectives which can be accessed at anytime by pressing the back button on your controller. You’ll notice the lack of an in-depth HUD (much like Riddick) right off the bat. This helps with the suspension of disbelief, and keeps you grounded in the world laid out before you. Once you pick up your pistols from your maimed cohort you’re ready to head into the site to seek out your mark. Jackie’s movements have some weight, which is nice.

Most FPS’s have you walking around at top speed like a floating head, but movement in The Darkness seems more based in reality. The weapons you start your journey with are a variety of pistols ranging from 45’s to 9mm’s and can be cycled through by using the left and right button on the directional pad. Pretty standard. As you progress through the game you will get your hands on the heavy hitters (shotguns, submachine guns, rifles, etc). But as you’ll learn from very early on your greatest weapon will be The Darkness itself.

What The Darkness is can be difficult to explain without giving too much away. You’ll first become aware of its presence when it’s blood curdling whispers lead you through the tutorial. From that moment you’ll be meant to question what The Darkness actually wants from Jackie, and what it’s relationship is with it’s new Italian American host. Once it manifests itself physically it will appear as two demon-headed tentacles protruding from either side of your body. This is where things start to get fun.

As you make your way through the waves of street thugs, police and Uncle Paulie’s henchmen The Darkness will give you the tools to dispose of them without mercy. Hitting the left bumper will first manifest the darkness, shielding you from gunfire while heightening your vision in poorly lit areas. It will also allow you to see gateways, which are the homes to the grotesque and comical Darklings. These little Gollum like demons are basically your minions. They’ll attack your enemies, create shadows and help give you breathing room in a firefight. There are four variations of Darkling (Berserker, Gunner, Kamikaze and Light killer), each sporting various advantages in any given situation.

Aside from the Darklings you’ll be able to use your tentacles themselves to your advantage. The Darkness offers you four different powers; all of which are executable with a quick press of the right bumper. The first power is that of Darkness Creep. Creep allows you to dispatch a tentacle through vents, holes and any other impossible to reach areas in order to unlock doors and flip switches. Darkness Arm juts one of the appendages out from you like a spear from hell. It can be used to move obstacles, impale enemies and break lights without wasting bullets. Darkness Guns are…well, guns. They use darkness power as their ammo and, if you steer clear of bright lights, give you an endless supply of rounds.

The final and most brutal ace up your sleeve is the Black hole. Once you unleash one of these cosmic bad boys, your enemies (and any light in its wake) will be engulfed by the nothingness. While quite powerful, the Black hole will consume all of your Darkness power, leaving you temporarily exposed. Darkness power can be regained by simply standing in the shadows. Increasing your overall Darkness meter is done by other means: eating human hearts. Walk over the corpses of your fallen enemies, press A and watch as the piranha like teeth borough their way into the ribcages of your foes faster than a cardiologist on crack. To answer your question: yes. This is as fun as it sounds.

From start to finish, the presentation found in The Darkness is top notch. From the barren trenches of “No Man’s Land” that you’ll survey looking for clues to your salvation to the dirty subways of Chinatown and The Lower East Side. The lighting and character models are crisp and make New York very believable. Overall, the graphics are a non-issue and accomplish what great graphics always strive for: to make the player feel that he/she is in that world. The voice acting absolutely shines in this title. Mike Patton’s (former lead singer of Faith No More) depiction of the Darkness is strong throughout, and Jackie’s monologues (which cleverly stand in for loading screens) are a nice touch. Even the act of collecting and dialing phone numbers in order to unlock extra content is done to avoid breaking the fourth wall.

While the Darkness is definitely a single player driven game, multiplayer has been tossed in. I do say tossed, because like many games in recent years it does feel as if it was put in to quench demand rather than to follow up on the creator’s vision. Capture the flag is available, as well as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Survivor. All are pretty straight forward and worth a look at some stage during your time with The Darkness. A nice little quirk is the ability to transform into a Darkling. As in single player they have the ability to climb, scurry and deliver powerful blows to enemies. But be careful. They are just as weak and you’ll risk being killed easily.

Multiplayer can be a nice distraction but it really won’t be causing any sleepless nights or premature breakups with your girlfriend. Another gripe I may have with The Darkness is that it doesn’t really seem all that difficult. Playing through on the default setting shouldn’t cause any real hiccups for seasoned players. And once you build up your Darkness meter and cast your first Black hole on an unsuspecting horde, you’ll realize that things are only going to get easier. Mind you this does send the “I feel like a badass” rating through the roof, but it would have been nice if the creators upped the challenge. Something that can be challenging, however, is ordering your Darkling minions to the correct locations. In some of the early stages I found myself repeatedly tapping the X button in attempt to get my Darkling from behind a bar, out a door and into the fray. This can be frustrating in the early levels because you rely on the Darklings due to your lack of ammo. But once you get about three quarters through the game you can basically walk right past those summoning gates without a second glance, since you can dish out far more pain than any of those little minions.

All in all The Darkness has all the ingredients for a great first person shooter. It’s style and shine really adds to its already tight gameplay and the story will keep you invested. The thing the Darkness does best is to make you feel that the characters are real. That they have lives outside of your sphere of influence. That’s what makes this game so satisfying and entertaining. That and the fact that you can consume a still beating human heart with the touch of a button…and when isn’t that fun?