	The Darkness
	Developer: Starbreeze Publisher: 2K Games Release Date: Out Now Players: 1, 2-8 online	Words By:
The Darkness is a strange experience in more ways than one. Playing like a comic book come to life in a first person shooter (The Darkness is a best-selling comic book that was launched in 1996), it tools you with an arsenal of guns, makes you fight against an array of underworld low-lifes and crooks, and then sends you off killing demonic creatures in some weird netherworld – whilst bestowing you with supernatural powers that allow you to “summon” an ancient force with which you become virtually invincible... You play Jackie Estacado, a far-from-typical-looking Mafioso with his shoulder length black hair (but his hair is the least of his problems); on the night of his 21st birthday, Jackie is possessed by "The Darkness," an ancient demonic entity that gives you spectacular powers. I wasn’t quite clear what, maybe I wasn’t paying attention but you have done something to piss your “Uncle” Paulie off – not a good idea because he’s the Don of the mob. The rather strange and hard to swallow story, written by award-winning writer Paul Jenkins, follows Jackie and his fight with the Francetti mafia family. As the story unfolds it becomes more and more like a role playing game as you meet Jackie’s girlfriend, Jenny (again not your typical mafia squeeze with her jeans, t-shirt and lip piecing), and dozens of other characters that will either send you off to do tasks or just give you useful info. The slowish RPG-esque pace soon changes when you get in to some of the nastier confrontations though, and you’ll often need to use all of your weapons and powers to survive. Without spoiling any surprises too much these darkness powers need as little light as possible to work, so you soon find yourself shooting out every lightbulb you see. So the darker the better, and the darkness allows you to use roaming snake-like form (creeping dark) to explore, kill enemies and rip their hearts out. Or a tentacle (demon arm) to impale enemies or throw objects. Or there’s your darkness guns which are more powerful then any normal firearms you come across but use Darkness power. Or finally you can summon up a black hole to suck enemies (and any other objects in the immediate area that aren’t nailed down) in and spit them out in what is probably the game’s finest graphical moment. You can eventually also summon four different demons or “Darklings” to help you out (berserker, gunner, lightkiller or kamikaze bomber), although often lethal to any enemy they see they seem slow to react and often refuse to go where you want them too – typical demons huh? Their finest moments come when they zap lights for you, kamikaze kill a group of enemies or saw some poor guy’s neck and then pee on his dead body Developed by Starbreeze - the team behind the best-selling and critically acclaimed The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, The Darkness certainly looks good with highly detailed environments and well animated non-playable characters that give at least the main hubs of the game (the two subway stations) a feeling of a busy, living environment. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the streets of New York that Jackie gets to see during the game, even allowing for the fact that he’s only ever out at night the outdoor locations are sparsely populated at best, making you beg the question “where are all the people?” - but maybe they all saw Jackie and his Darklings coming… The multiplayer modes allow for 2-8 players, playing as either a selection of human characters or Darklings. You can either set a game up to play as Human or Darkling, or humans vs. Darklings, or have a “shapeshifter” mode so you can swap between the two types as you play. It’s all pretty straightforward run ‘n’ gun gameplay in what are smallish maps, but few of the elements I thought might make a cool Darkness multiplayer game are in here - because they simply wouldn’t work. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, CTF and Survivor don’t really alter the frantic gameplay heck of a lot, and you’ll either love it or hate it – enough said. Overall the game plays well, the bizarre plot will engage you, the shootouts/fights are fun and exciting and the game always looks good. Where it does fall down is with some typically RPG-ish to-ing and fro-ing just for the sake of some dumb fetch & carry task, and some locations consequently get overused. In fact, there seems to be a lot of padding here and there with rambling, stilted dialogue (despite some notable voice talent), collectable “phone numbers” to unlock extras, and clever but pointless TV programmes and movies to watch. The action is extremely violent and gory, but the controls never quite let you use all your weapons and abilities as fluently as demonstrated in cutscenes, which is a shame. Nevertheless entering an area and ripping a gang of hooligans to pieces never gets tiresome, and there are plenty of opportunities to perfect your demonic skills. A good game but not amazingly so, The Darkness will be highly enjoyable for fans of 360 launch title Condemned – it has a similar feel and pace to it.

Best Bits
- Some smartly detailed graphics and textures
- Darkness powers are fun to use
- Lots of guns, demons and gory deaths – Mum would love it
- Good ambient sound

Worst Bits
- A tad too much RPG and not enough action
- Some intrusive loading at every map border
- Controls don’t allow you to play fluently
- My darklings won’t do as they’re told – just like my kids


by: Diddly