Reviewed: July 11, 2007
Reviewed by: Justin Nixon

Publisher
2K Games

Developer
Starbreeze AB

Released: June 25, 2007
Genre: FPS
Players: 1
Online: 2-8

9
9
9
10
9.2

Supported Features:

The premise of The Darkness is simple. You are Jackie Estacado, hitman for the Franchetti crime family. Your Uncle Paulie has a hit for you to make on your twenty-first birthday. It turns out that the hit was a setup all along and Uncle Paulie wasn’t planning on Jackie seeing his twenty-second birthday. After an explosion that should have killed Jackie leaves him without a scratch he starts to here dark voices in his head. Things get even more interesting when Jackie discovers that he has control of a mysterious dark power capable of evil things, or will the powers prove to have control of him?

What unravels from these humble beginnings can be called nothing less than a masterpiece of story telling. Between dealing with these evil powers, Jackie’s girlfriend Jenny, and Uncle Paulie the story never disappoints and never slows down. This game is an absolute rollercoaster of emotions from love to hate to remorse. Few other games produce such a wide array of emotions in the player as The Darkness does. You will find yourself completely enthralled into this compelling piece of art. I could write all day about this amazing story but I don’t want to ruin the experience for you.

Unlike other first-person shooters, though, the main aspect of this game is to stay in the darkness. This is critical to being successful. In the light you are a mortal man with a couple of 9mm’s but in the darkness you are so much more. The Darkness comes out of you making you capable of terrifyingly brutal carnage. So it is key to shoot every light in the game. This means that you may burn up more ammo on shooting light bulbs than you will on enemies. This can be a little tedious at times but the payoff is well worth it. The Darkness, when fully powered, is an unstoppable force.

The Darkness itself consists of four different powers and gives you an option to summon four types of Darklings, Berserker, Gunner, Kamikaze, and Lightkiller, to do your bidding. The Darkness powers range from a snake like extension that can crawl into vents or sneak up on unsuspecting enemies to a black hole that can suck up multiple enemies at once and then hurl them into air. The other two powers are a set of super-powerful darkness guns and an arm-like extension that you can use to move things or harpoon enemies.

The powers become especially fun toward the end where you feel like a god. You can walk into a room of 15 armed mobsters, shoot out the lights, holster your 9’s and physically destroy them all in a matter of seconds using the powers of the Darkness. If you prefer to keep your hands clean, you can summon one or more of the four types of Darklings, ranging from a Berserker to a Gunner, to ravage the room decimating everyone in their path. After everyone’s dead you can walk over their dead carcasses and command the Darkness to eat their hearts. You unlock items for eating hearts so why not take advantage of the situation.

This may sound like the greatest game ever but keep in mind that this is toward the end of the game. In the beginning you only have one Darkness power and can only summon the Berserker Darkling, which is basically a utility killer. Through the first 3-4 hours of the game you may be stuck with only one power, and the guns definitely don’t have the impact that you would like them to have.

Although the gameplay is isn’t as strong as the story, few games offer the level of interactivity as The Darkness does. Turn-styles at the sub-way actually turn so you can walk through them. Phones can be used to move along the story, side missions, or even bonuses. Other objects like boxes and barrels can be moved to reach higher points that you couldn’t reach otherwise or you can hurl them at your enemies as weapons.

Despite all of this environmental interaction, one of the more impressive aspects of The Darkness could actually be easily overlooked. The televisions found throughout the game can be tuned to multiple channels. This may sound like old news, but in The Darkness these channels broadcast full-length television episodes and even movies along with some music videos.

One of the movies that plays is The Man With The Golden Arm (1955) featuring Frank Sinatra. You won’t see just a clip of the movie; you’ll see the entire thing, in great quality too! You can watch an old episode of Flash Gordon in black and white if you want also. This may sound pointless, but when you think about the fact that Starbreeze actually included a few movies and TV shows into the game itself, it’s pretty impressive. The extra capacity of the Blu-Ray was used to include a few more movies and TV shows than you’ll find on the Xbox 360 version.

The Darkness does come with your standard set of multiplayer options for up to eight players. This set includes Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Survivor. The unique twist to these modes is the option to play as a darkling which adds a level of depth but doesn’t revolutionize online gaming by any means.

Starbreeze decided not to use the Sixaxis motion controls for any aspect of the game which may have been the smartest thing to do. At no point during the game did I find myself thinking, “This would have been cooler using motion-sensing.” The game just didn’t need it.

The story is easily one of the best ones in the last decade. The gameplay starts out slow, picks up at the end, but overall is still just average. At the same time the level of interactivity is some of the best in any game in a long time.

The Darkness, overall, is easily one of the best-looking PlayStation 3 titles to date. The character models are gorgeous and the environments are equally impressive. The amount of detail that has gone into each area is amazing. From the New York subway to the trenches of Hell, everything is perfectly detailed.

Shadows are absolutely flawless as well. In fact the strongest part of the visuals in The Darkness is unarguably the lighting. Few games have ever utilized the effects of light and dark as brilliantly as The Darkness. The fact that every light can be shot out adds a new level of detail to each area. You get to see how each area looks in the light complete with shadows and an immense amount of detail, and how it looks in pitch black where all you can see are the outlines of objects. It also doesn’t hurt that The Darkness supports 1080p, which makes the entire game look even more amazing.

The sound effects add to the atmosphere and are nearly perfect. The game takes place at night so most of the streets are empty and quiet, until all hell breaks loose. The sounds of guns blazing, desperate screams of pain, and the constant encouragement from the Darkness deliver an intense experience that should not be missed.