One of the best singleplayer experiences on 360
I have been excited for this game since I saw the trailer showing off the story and it was so well crafted that I knew the game would also be just as well crafted. The Darkness's story is amazing you play as a member of the Franchetti crime family who is named Jackie Estacado. On his 21st birthday he gets powers from the darkness which include a tentacle that impales enemies to a black hole that sucks in everything around it enemies or objects. So the plot basically consists of getting revenge on your Uncle Paulie who sends a hit out on you on your 21st birthday. The story gets better and better the more you go on. Although the ending battle kinda annoyed me because you do alot of awesome stuff in cutscenes but you don't actually play them but they still integrate it in the storyline by explaining why you can't play it. So anyone should rent the game atleast because of the story.
The gameplay is pretty good too, it dosen't really beat the story but it still is fun. You get the regular assortment of weapons in modern day shooters like pistols and AK-47's and shotguns but the aiming system is pretty good because the crosshair is only a red dot or when your dual-wielding there is two dots but there is no hud at all so it really immerses you in the experience. The game uses a rechargeable health system like Call of Duty 2 or Rainbow Six Vegas although the game is still pretty hard even on normal because it takes quite a while for it to charge it up, it explains the rechargeable health system because the darkness protects you from bullets. The darkness powers really make this game original not exactly innovative since certain things that you do you can do in other games other than the black hole and demon arm. All together though the darkness's gameplay isn't the stand out part of the game it does it's job fine.
The graphics are amazing all of the character models are really detailed and also the enviroments are but they are pretty small. The gun models look good but I didn't really like how a pretty long line of smoke follows your gun after you shoot off a shot. The graphics though really make the game more immersive and you will spend time enjoying them because Jackie moves pretty slow. The sound is also really good, I was suprised at how good it was since the graphics were so good but all the gun sounds are good and devouring hearts sounds so brutal. The vocals are also another reason the sound is so good each person sounds authentic and the lip syncing is also awesome some people just feel real with their hand motions and such. There also is a guy who is alot like Jack Nicholson in a area called Grinders Lane.
Now theres also a multiplayer mode that is kinda fun but is really laggy but because of the variety of 2 completely different play styles since you can change from human to darkling [which are like little gremlins] in certain game modes it is kinda fun. Which are the same darkling's from the single player game and they control suprisingly well also they can climb on walls and jump a good amount of feet. The multiplayer feels really tacked on though but if they could release a update to fix the lag it could be a little bit more fun and the graphics are also the same in multiplayer as in singleplayer which is helps it a little bit.
All together though the darkness has one of the best storyline's on 360 and has pretty good gameplay to boot but the replay value isn't that good. I can't wait for The Darkness 2.