The Darkness

"First person shooter with a great story, and some RPG elements? WIN."

Introduction :

The Darkness is a first person shooter by Starbreeze who did the excellent "The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay" The Darkness is based on the comic book with the same name. It follows the story of Jackie Estacado who gets possessed on his 21st birthday by a demonic force called The Darkness which slowly, but certain is trying to take over its host.

Story : 10/10 (Its actually a lot different than the comic though)
The story is superb. I haven't played a first person shooter with such a great story for a long time. You really start to care about these characters. You can feel what they are going through.*Cough* UNLIKE SOME OTHER FIRST PERSON SHOOTERS *COUGH* COUGH* I won't spoil it for you as it has some nice twists!

Graphics : 9/10
The graphics are very nice and detailed. Rip an enemies heart out and take a look at it. Lots of blood, a hole in the chest...When you look in the mirror and you run you can actually see Jackie's hair moving at a very realistic way. The subway also looks very realistic as its people. Basicly amazing and the graphics are among the best on the 360, currently! Two thumbs up!

AI: 8/10.
The AI is actually really good. Enemies take cover behind cars, buildings, etc. When I came to an enemy, he ran away shooting me, and started hiding behind in a corner. But the AI of the Darklings you can summon is truly great. (Darklings are little creatures that you can spawn at certain points in the game that help you out in the game. Taking out lights, giving you back up. You name it!) I was dying when four enemies were shooting me, I quickly summoned a little Berserker Darkling and he killed 3 of the enemies while I took out the lights to regain power, and than shot the last enemy. Great teamwork buddy! So the AI is really good.

Gameplay: 10/10
Another ten, eh? Didn't you look at those trailers are were like "Omg that looks so cool, I wanna rip a guy's heart out!" Of course, we all did. With a single press on the button you activate your Darkness powers (the two demon heads on your left and right) and you can unleash HELL on your enemies. You'll be able to rip through enemies chest with a tentacle pick them up and THROW them... You can activate a black hole and it sucks literally everything to it and it smacks the enemies around... You'll use your right demon head to bite the enemies... And as last you'll use weapons that use the Darkness power itself!

When your not unleashing hell on your enemies, you'll spend most of your time shooting lights out. (As the name suggests, darkness gives you more power) You'll also run around the subway talking to the realistic NPC'S, for information or sidequests (This is the little RPG element I mentioned) ...You'll also get to a place which is BASICLY hell (Its inside the mind of the Darkness...) World War I never ends in this place!! The gameplay is also one of the best aspects of the game. a ten out of ten!

Multiplayer: 7/10
You've got deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag. Very basic. You can also change as one of the little Darklings which is fun, but nothing spectacular or will make you go "WOW". There's also a gametype where one is a darkling and the rest of the players are human. The humans that get killed by the Darkling get "infected" and also change into the funny yet fast creature... Its good, but nothing amazing. The singleplayer is where this game is at!

Closing comments :
This review is getting long! That's because I absolutely love this game. Its refreshing and new, not just your common first person shooter. The story is exellent, the gameplay is superb, and the graphics are some of the best on the X-box 360 to date. It will take you around 8 to 10 hours to complete the main storyline. Which is not long you will say, but there's also lots of sidequests which make it up to 15 hours. And when your done with this game you will really want to start over, no not just for the achievements, but for the amazing story. And perhaps on a higher difficulty? And when you don't play it for a couple of months, you will remember the greatness of this game and restart playing it! I highly recommend this game for kicking ass with the Darkness powers, or for the amazing story. This game makes you care about NPC characters...You know they ain't real, and still you care about them. A TEN OUT OF TEN!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/05/07