The most unique game you will play this gen
The Darkness. A game about a mobster who receives this terrible curse, "The Darkness". Plot: You play as the protagonist, Jackie Estacado. You are a hitman for a big mob family. On your 21st birthday you end up failing a mission you were sent out on, and are perceived as a traitor to the family. Of course one man cannot take on entire mob, so you inherit the Darkness. The darkness is a demon that takes control of your body. With it, you receive unbelievable power, which you can use against your foes. Your powers only work however, in the dark. So you will find yourself shooting lights around you quite often. The plot is a good one, and a deep one, which will keep you holding on to your seat the whole way through.
Gameplay: The gameplay in the Darkness I found to be very unique. You don't get a cross hair for shooting, instead just a laser point. This applies to all your guns. This makes it hard at times to get headshots. For example in other games, you aim a couple of inches away from someones head and the game will give you a head shot, but in this game, you have to shoot with the laser right on the persons face. Its more challenging, but more rewarding. For those that don't like this, there is an auto-aim option, which you can turn up or down.
At first, I found the movement to be awkward, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly. There are many things about the game that just stick out. For example, if you are wielding two pistols, and you come across a corner, you will automatically twist your pistols to peek around the corner to help you. As a character you can jump and crouch, etc. Also, the gameplay isn't too linear. Say if you have to go to a certain area, you wont have a map marked telling you where to go. You have to find it by yourself, by using maps in subway stations, on the streets, etc. This adds a bit of freedom to the gameplay, which is nice. Especially since you don't have to do each mission right after another. You can wonder off and help other civilians if they need it.
The darkness' power's is where the real fun is. You get a total of four different powers which you can use. You can take control of one of the heads and begin sliding along the ground, to sneak up on people, or reach objects that are unreachable to Jackie. You can use a Demon Arm, which is an arm that extends and break lights, lift cars, or..impale enemies. You can use Darkness guns, which are very powerful weapons to help with undead creatures. And you get a black hole. This black hole can be used to suck up enemies or obstacles, such as doors. All of these powers are fun to use, with the darkness guns being an exception. However, you can achieve total satisfaction through one means. The way to be completely happy, is when you eat a heart. Once you kill an enemy you have an option of eating their heart or not. If you do, one of the demon heads will rip into the victims chest and extract a nice juicy heart. The two heads sometimes fight for the heart, but it is the right head that always wins. The visuals and sounds of this process is what makes the event so satisfying. Dare I say it is as satisfying as chainsawing an enemy in Gears of War? (for those who have played Gears of War)
On top of these powers, you get options to summon little darklings to help you out on your adventure. You get four different kinds of darklings each with their own purpose and talents.
Graphics: One thing you will notice about this game is the amount of detail put into the visuals. The environments are very detailed and can look almost life-like at times. Half the time there is a cut scene, I don't know if it has finished or not, because the cut scenes look identical to the gameplay. However, there wasn't much detail put into the darkness itself. You can notice how the darkness sometimes passes through your arm or through cars, etc, which ruins the experience for you at times. However, the detail in the game is too great to give this game a rating lower than 9 in the graphics department.
Sound: The score was beautiful. However, tend to repeat often, which can get boring. But all the music is top notch and matches the mood.
Value: The game is a great game. It is short however. It will not take you more than 10-12 hours to beat this game once. There is multiplayer, but it feels broken due to the immense lag. It is extremely hard to play the online due to the issues. If there is a patch put out, I'm sure the multiplayer will be more enjoyable.
Side note: Instead of loading screens the game has a unique feature. Instead of "Loading" It shows you a cut scene of the protagonist sitting in a dark room, talking. What he talks about changes due to where you are entering. For example, if you enter a subway station, he mentions what he thinks of them, if you enter new area, he can tell you some background information. There are a great number of these cut scenes but towards the end of the game the cut scenes begin repeating.
All-in-all, this is a very unique game that was quite ambitious. With more time it could have been a remarkable game. It just needs some tweaks here and there. A great game nonetheless :)
Gameplay: The gameplay in the Darkness I found to be very unique. You don't get a cross hair for shooting, instead just a laser point. This applies to all your guns. This makes it hard at times to get headshots. For example in other games, you aim a couple of inches away from someones head and the game will give you a head shot, but in this game, you have to shoot with the laser right on the persons face. Its more challenging, but more rewarding. For those that don't like this, there is an auto-aim option, which you can turn up or down.
At first, I found the movement to be awkward, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly. There are many things about the game that just stick out. For example, if you are wielding two pistols, and you come across a corner, you will automatically twist your pistols to peek around the corner to help you. As a character you can jump and crouch, etc. Also, the gameplay isn't too linear. Say if you have to go to a certain area, you wont have a map marked telling you where to go. You have to find it by yourself, by using maps in subway stations, on the streets, etc. This adds a bit of freedom to the gameplay, which is nice. Especially since you don't have to do each mission right after another. You can wonder off and help other civilians if they need it.
The darkness' power's is where the real fun is. You get a total of four different powers which you can use. You can take control of one of the heads and begin sliding along the ground, to sneak up on people, or reach objects that are unreachable to Jackie. You can use a Demon Arm, which is an arm that extends and break lights, lift cars, or..impale enemies. You can use Darkness guns, which are very powerful weapons to help with undead creatures. And you get a black hole. This black hole can be used to suck up enemies or obstacles, such as doors. All of these powers are fun to use, with the darkness guns being an exception. However, you can achieve total satisfaction through one means. The way to be completely happy, is when you eat a heart. Once you kill an enemy you have an option of eating their heart or not. If you do, one of the demon heads will rip into the victims chest and extract a nice juicy heart. The two heads sometimes fight for the heart, but it is the right head that always wins. The visuals and sounds of this process is what makes the event so satisfying. Dare I say it is as satisfying as chainsawing an enemy in Gears of War? (for those who have played Gears of War)
On top of these powers, you get options to summon little darklings to help you out on your adventure. You get four different kinds of darklings each with their own purpose and talents.
Graphics: One thing you will notice about this game is the amount of detail put into the visuals. The environments are very detailed and can look almost life-like at times. Half the time there is a cut scene, I don't know if it has finished or not, because the cut scenes look identical to the gameplay. However, there wasn't much detail put into the darkness itself. You can notice how the darkness sometimes passes through your arm or through cars, etc, which ruins the experience for you at times. However, the detail in the game is too great to give this game a rating lower than 9 in the graphics department.
Sound: The score was beautiful. However, tend to repeat often, which can get boring. But all the music is top notch and matches the mood.
Value: The game is a great game. It is short however. It will not take you more than 10-12 hours to beat this game once. There is multiplayer, but it feels broken due to the immense lag. It is extremely hard to play the online due to the issues. If there is a patch put out, I'm sure the multiplayer will be more enjoyable.
Side note: Instead of loading screens the game has a unique feature. Instead of "Loading" It shows you a cut scene of the protagonist sitting in a dark room, talking. What he talks about changes due to where you are entering. For example, if you enter a subway station, he mentions what he thinks of them, if you enter new area, he can tell you some background information. There are a great number of these cut scenes but towards the end of the game the cut scenes begin repeating.
All-in-all, this is a very unique game that was quite ambitious. With more time it could have been a remarkable game. It just needs some tweaks here and there. A great game nonetheless :)
