A Dark and Gritty romp through poorly built gunplay
Of the many games released on the last generation of consoles, few were as influential as The Chronicles of Riddick. The hard work of actor Vin Diesel and developer Starbreeze payed off with a game that remains one of the elite examples of a genre-bending first-person game. It's with little doubt, then, that Starbreeze's first current gen offering has been awaited with gaping, salivating jaws. For those interested, I will say right off the bat that The Darkness is not as good a game as Riddick was. In fact, if it weren't for the excellent presentation, The Darkness would most likely be set to the side as just another shooter. The Darkness is based on the comic series of the same name published by Top Cow and it uses it's license to the fullest. The game stars Jackie, a Mafia hitman whose boss (and uncle) turns on him on his 21st birthday. Luckily for Jackie, he survives the assassination attempt. Of course it would happen to be at that moment that Jackie is possessed by the demonic Darkness. The tentacle-shaped demon sprouts from Jackie's body and makes itself useful with a variety of attacks that help Jackie attain vengeance against his uncle. Of course there are many great twists to the story that I wont ruin here. Suffice to say that The Darkness is much more story oriented than your average shooter, and the story is written and told flawlessly.
Unlike the story, the gameplay of The Darkness is only so so. Since Jackie is protected by a literal shield of darkness it is important that he stay in the dark as much as possible, thus allowing the shield to recharge and his offensive abilities to ready. While it is interesting to have the super-human Darkness powers, it is annoying to have to shoot out every light in the entire game. This is especially apparent early on before you can take out lights with the Darkness' tentacle. In a game where ammo isn't always easy to come by, it is annoying having to waste it by shooting out lights. There was even one point in the game where I had to shoot someone through a door to enter a building. Unfortunately for me, I had wasted the last of my bullets on shooting out the lights outside. This forced me to travel throughout the game's open ended world, searching for some extra clip.
Unlike the story, the gameplay of The Darkness is only so so. Since Jackie is protected by a literal shield of darkness it is important that he stay in the dark as much as possible, thus allowing the shield to recharge and his offensive abilities to ready. While it is interesting to have the super-human Darkness powers, it is annoying to have to shoot out every light in the entire game. This is especially apparent early on before you can take out lights with the Darkness' tentacle. In a game where ammo isn't always easy to come by, it is annoying having to waste it by shooting out lights. There was even one point in the game where I had to shoot someone through a door to enter a building. Unfortunately for me, I had wasted the last of my bullets on shooting out the lights outside. This forced me to travel throughout the game's open ended world, searching for some extra clip.
Gunplay in The Darkness is only mentionable due to the soft lock feature that is automatically turned on when you start the game. The feature essentially points you reticule towards an opponent regardless of where you are actually aiming. While this is nice for beginners it can be difficult to get headshots as the lock targets the stomach area. You can adjust the soft lock to the level that you want, but it is confusing why the game couldn't employ an auto-aim feature similar to Halo's. Guns themselves sound appropriately powerful, although, other than Jackie's pistols, all the guns in the game are standard fair- an M4, AK 47, Uzi, etc. It isn't until halfway through the game that you get the Darkness guns. These guns use the power of the darkness to assault enemies. The guns aren't as powerful as some of the later human guns, and you can't use another Darkness ability when they are equipped, rendering them pretty useless.
Of course The Darkness wouldn't be anything if it weren't for the Darkness powers. These, though, can often be more frustrating than fun. The Creeping Dark allows you to shoot a Darkness head from your body and control it as it slithers through vents and stealthily takes out enemies. Two problems result though. First off, the power has a time limit on it, and at the lowest level it is woefully too short to make the ability of any real use. Secondly, when traveling indoors it can be confusing controlling the Darkness because it slithers up every surface it reaches and the camera isn't always helpful in showing you where you are. The second power is the Darkness arm. This can be used to lift heavy objects out of Jackie's way, impale foes, or smash lights. This is the power that will get the most use, simply because you wont want to waste ammo shooting lights. It's also fun impaling foes and throwing cars into opponents. Although most of your powers will improve as you devour dead enemies' hearts, the arm doesn't seem to change throughout the game. This is fine though, as the arm is perfectly effective from the beginning.
The next power is not really a power but a weapon- the afore-mentioned Darkness Guns. While the guns are supposed to be an all powerful weapon they seem to do only average damage, and the rocket like alt. fire has maybe a ten foot range making it useless in long range combat. And, like I said earlier, you can't use the Darkness arm while you are using the guns. This means you will have to alternate between shooting lights and shooting enemies which can easily result in death. Your final power is a black hole and it is an important feature in beating some of the later enemies that are protected by riot shields. It can take down multiple foes at a time, take out large swaths of lights and can even break holes in walls. The downside of the black hole is that it takes away all your darkness power. This means no shield to protect you from incoming fire. So you'll play a couple levels jumping out from behind cover hitting the black hole button and diving behind cover for a couple seconds waiting for it to recharge. While this is ok on normal difficulty, on hard, when enemies can take you out in one shot, it is often more of a risk than a benefit, meaning that you'll be using this power mostly against those few shield protected enemies and when you are facing a large group of enemies.
The next power is not really a power but a weapon- the afore-mentioned Darkness Guns. While the guns are supposed to be an all powerful weapon they seem to do only average damage, and the rocket like alt. fire has maybe a ten foot range making it useless in long range combat. And, like I said earlier, you can't use the Darkness arm while you are using the guns. This means you will have to alternate between shooting lights and shooting enemies which can easily result in death. Your final power is a black hole and it is an important feature in beating some of the later enemies that are protected by riot shields. It can take down multiple foes at a time, take out large swaths of lights and can even break holes in walls. The downside of the black hole is that it takes away all your darkness power. This means no shield to protect you from incoming fire. So you'll play a couple levels jumping out from behind cover hitting the black hole button and diving behind cover for a couple seconds waiting for it to recharge. While this is ok on normal difficulty, on hard, when enemies can take you out in one shot, it is often more of a risk than a benefit, meaning that you'll be using this power mostly against those few shield protected enemies and when you are facing a large group of enemies.
The final piece of the Darkness puzzle are the darklings- little goblin like creatures who attack enemies for you. While these beasts can be helpful at times, it isn't until the very last level that they become essential. Still, they are a humorous addition to the game, and it can be addictive collecting all of the costumes for them littered throughout the game. One thing that can't be argued about The Darkness is that it looks and sounds incredible. Featuring a fantastic and gritty vision of New York City, and some even gorier visions of Hell, The Darkness sure looks great. Textures are incredibly sharp- you can see the intricate details in Jackie's pistols. The lighting, of course, is excellent, especially the dark-enhancing vision The Darkness affords you. If there is any flaw with the graphics its the lip movement during speech, which is oddly understated. For a game that supposedly motion captured it's voice actors this problem is most puzzling. Of course this takes very little from the graphical package, and is made up with little touches like the graffiti in the subway and the excellent animation of The Darkness itself. In addition to looking cool, the voice acting behind the Darkness is great. In fact, all of the voice actors in the game do a superb job. I wouldn't hesitate to call this some of the best voice acting ever seen on the X360. Even more amazing than the voice acting is the music. The orchestral score is not only appropriate but also beautiful, haunting and powerful in its own right. The licensed songs are also well chosen. All in all the sound of this game is by far its highlight. There are few games around with the whole audio package, and this is one of them.
All told the Darkness doesn't play poorly. I had a fun time playing it, I just felt that there could have been so much more done with the game than what was delivered. While the presentation and story are excellent, the Darkness powers don't seem as cool to use as they should be. The gunplay is solid although its nothing special, and the lack of basic shooter mainstays like grenades lower its appeal. There aren't that many guns to play around with, and while they all feel unique amongst themselves, the feel of shooting an AK 47 has been done much better than this, even on the X360. I recommend playing this game if only for the great story and unique premise. Realize before going in though, that this game doesn't have the same depth as Riddick. Finally, the game isn't all that long- I beat it in only a couple days. There is a multiplayer component although my Live connection is down so I can't comment on it. There are very few reasons to replay this game unless you are a stickler for achievements and are attempting to find all of the bonus content in the game. The Darkness is best played if you keep your expectations low. I definitely recommend renting this game, as it will only last a weekend, but it will be a fun one.
All told the Darkness doesn't play poorly. I had a fun time playing it, I just felt that there could have been so much more done with the game than what was delivered. While the presentation and story are excellent, the Darkness powers don't seem as cool to use as they should be. The gunplay is solid although its nothing special, and the lack of basic shooter mainstays like grenades lower its appeal. There aren't that many guns to play around with, and while they all feel unique amongst themselves, the feel of shooting an AK 47 has been done much better than this, even on the X360. I recommend playing this game if only for the great story and unique premise. Realize before going in though, that this game doesn't have the same depth as Riddick. Finally, the game isn't all that long- I beat it in only a couple days. There is a multiplayer component although my Live connection is down so I can't comment on it. There are very few reasons to replay this game unless you are a stickler for achievements and are attempting to find all of the bonus content in the game. The Darkness is best played if you keep your expectations low. I definitely recommend renting this game, as it will only last a weekend, but it will be a fun one.
