The Darkness Review Thread

Joy. Another one of my cynical and overtly critical reviews. Lets get to work so I can go to bed; I have work tomorrow. Joy.

Graphics
The graphics are done very well. The first person view is done well, and you actually feel as if you're looking through the eyes of protagonist Jackie Estacado, a mafia hitman who was betrayed by his "Uncle" Paulie. I don't have any problems with the graphics department. Think "Chronicles of Riddick" infused with newer technology and you're on the right track. And by no means is that a bad thing.

Gameplay
The game overall handles very well. The Xbox360 controller does an admirable job working the controls. I do have a few gripes though. I realize that Darkness powers need darkness, but they're too finicky. The light system in the game is innovative, but it's picky. Even a sliver of light shining on you is enough to slowly sap your Darkness energy. Darkness powers get increasingly violent and impressive as the game progresses, culminating a power so awesome I almost exploded when I first experienced it. And don't bitch about spoilers. It's the premise of the damn game. There aren't really any huge boss fights, so even the hardest of enemies can take at most a few bullets, which makes it realistic. Similarly, Jackie can only take so much lead before he gets severely damaged without the Darkness. A few gripes of mine were the lack of any minimap or icon in the corners of my screen, and with the size of these areas, doing missions was cumbersome at times. Fighting feels frantic and adrenaline fueled, and is very brutal and visceral. But nothing quite beats the joy of dual-fisting submachine guns and mowing down an entire group of guys in a single sustained burst of glory. minor spoiler The fight with the Darkness is also very confusing. The procedure for beating the Darkness can be obtained by pming me.spoiler over

Story
(Allegedly) following the comics which I have never read (but am now interested in...) it follows Jackie in his struggle to kill his "Uncle" Paulie. Just play the damn game. The story is pretty self-explanatory, and because of that, I can't tell much more about the game at the risk of spoiling storylines. You travel to different places in a depressingly empty New York, and you also fight in a hellish version of World War I.

Characters
The characters are memorable and unique in their own ways. My favorite guys were Butcher and Jimmy the Grape. Everyone has their own personality and style to fit that personality. George Handel is fun too, and he'll blow you a tune on his harmonica if you help him.

Final Thoughts
Overall, The Darkness is a well polished game, but if you're not into multiplayer like me, you'll find that the game is short on content, much like Escape From Butcher Bay before it. I actually found EFBB a bit more entertaining than this, but EFBB is a pair of Paul Bunyan-esque shoes to fill. The Darkness is like a hot blonde chick: Pretty, fun for a fast ride, but empty when it's all said done.

Final Score: B-
Pretty and fun
Great gameplay elements
Violent and realistic gunfights
Memorable Characters
Way too short
Linear
Weird ending
Not enough incentive for a second run though

Edited by (in order): Sticky, Sticky

The Darkness was definitely a great game. Grade A material from, in my imho, one of the experts in FPS gameplay. It definitely did have that Riddick feel, in a way that it left my retinas bleeding due to how much focus goes into the light sources (and because I don't have an HDTV so the font, like on every game on the new consoles, is hard to read because it gets blurry from the hi-res). The story was fantastic, the music was beautiful, the characters were very memorable (especially the main character, Jackie Estacado, who will make you thank the developers for making such a badass lead) -- it was a very complete package that is worth everyone's time and money. Hell, you even get full layouts of the comics from The Darkness and Witchblade, among others, to read over to catch up on the events between and after the game's storyline itself.

As far as the map problem Sticky addressed is concerned, most areas have maps displayed on boards, which also shows off just how great the textures are, that you can look at a billboard and find these papers with small print and read what's on there, no problem. If they did have a minimap or whatever, it would definitely detract from the presentation in many different ways, especially the cinematic feel. You have to remember that Escape from Butcher Bay also didn't have anything on the screen into you whipped out your weapons and started shooting (like in this game), so much of the production that went into this game is sort of that style -- flair, if you will -- that Starbreeze is known for, even the linear layout.

Another exciting thing to point out that Dimension Films (the guys behind movies like The Crow, the Scream movies, etc.) picked up the rights to make The Darkness into a film. Now, this isn't what I'd call a game-to-movie adaptation, because this was obviously quite a popular comic book series beforehand. I can't wait to see what they come up with.

I heard that AI is among the most stupid lines, coming out of cover, not realising you are actually there and so on. Another thing is the core gameplay. Run and gun may be fun for the retarded, but I want to do something else by level 7 than still smacking all the lights out.
Also what is this WWI thing? Why do they have Nazis in WWI? There is this one "Kaiser Wilhelm" Character, but the others look like WWII Nazis. Always convenient for any developer to put in some germans, err sorry nazis. Game developers know no difference...

why do you cherish mediocrity? this will be forgotten in 2 weeks, Chroniks of Riddick will stay topside.

You obviously need to play it, because you pretty much misunderstood everything in the game.

it was a great game, had some flaws but no game is perfect, 8.5 out of 10 is an accurate review in my opinon, something developers should learn from this game is how to make a story driven game good

SinKing wrote: I heard

in other words "i havn't played this game but im going to bitch about how im not buying it on my favorite forum. harumph!"

why do you cherish mediocrity? this will be forgotten in 2 weeks, Chroniks of Riddick will stay topside.

See quote above. "i am not going to give this game my time, so i'll try to convince other people not to either!"

karuto wrote: and because I don't have an HDTV

should grab a vga adapter, and if your monitor doesn't have a vga-in you also need to get a vga female to female adapter.
Total cost, 45 bucks maybe for an HD quality picture, especially since the spring update fixed the washed-out vga problem

I love this game. I think it has the best sense of presentation I have ever seen in a video game. Jackie Estacado has quite a lot of depth for a FPS character and that is not something they got from the hackneyed comic book.

Groove_Champion wrote: should grab a vga adapter, and if your monitor doesn't have a vga-in you also need to get a vga female to female adapter.
Total cost, 45 bucks maybe for an HD quality picture, especially since the spring update fixed the washed-out vga problem

Yeah, I'm definitely considering it. I'm getting a new laptop next month, so I may try using that as a monitor for my 360 as well. It just kinda makes sense, since it will be at high resolution (1920x1080, actually). Thanks for the suggestion, though. I'll have to look out for VGA adapters.

Just make sure you buy the official Microsoft one. The off-brand ones, while a much much better deal, are pretty shit in terms of quality and don't improve the situation much.

One nice way to go would be with the new Pelican Cooler. Not only does it offer what is arguably the best cooling system for the 360, but it also has special hookups \ plugs for different outputs. Not sure if the VGA component is comparable with the Microsoft VGA Cable, though.

Edited by: JoeX111

JoeX111 wrote: Just make sure you buy the official Microsoft one.

I don't know, i bought the cheapest one target had and it has been beyond helpful since the loss of my roomates hdtv, no problems on the video side whatsoever

I use the pelican cooler on my 360 and ive had no problems with my 360 ever since.

Thanks for the Review, Sticky.
How short was it? Gears Of War Short or Quake 4 Short?

i give it a 9/10
graphics: amazing beautiful and fluid and nothing ever seems out of place. the first person is also fantastic. the game favors itself on on its realism of environments. so instead of hud radar you have to go to a street map. guns only show ammo when your running low. the level of your darkness power is shown by the number of eyes on your darkness tendrils and power level as well.

gameplay: though i had to turn the auto lock down alot and the sensitivity up, it felt fine fluid and fun. the execution system and well integrated first person mechanics was amazing and yes you can see the riddick origins. the ai is good, but at times is a little too passive

story: written with the quality of a film, it flows and engages you completely. the ww1 areas work extremely well and have a purpose and are fine due to their stylization. the ending is meant to show jackie losing himself and his control over the darkness. the story is essentially a modern crime vengeance drama, but he has to deal with the darkness as well. characters are expertly animated voiced and written. each have unique personalities until the end

about 12-14 hours long
the story does not follow the darkness comic which i have read, but instead retells the origin story. the original character from the comics was a one dimensional murderer who kills for nothing but pleasure. this game fully redefines the character, creating a sensitive but brutal character.

sin king - you have no clue as to what your talking about... so be quiet

bump:

demo is out on 360 and european PS3

Played really well on the PS3. I usually don't give console shooters a chance. Didn't have enough time to beat it. I rented Rainbow Six Vegas and totally forgot about Darkness, I only had a day to play it.

Two complaints. The normal mapping and what not was laughable at best. Secondly, tone the fucking bloom down! Not a single title has gotten this combination right, they over do the lighting, and the bump mapping and stuff looks like ass. I suppose the Unreal 3 engine is to blame for the current batch of weird graphics.

Vgcats.com

Edited by: usernamee

i've gotta agree on the bloom and annoying shadow-of-the-collosus-esque motion blur everytime you move

that and i can really not see myself getting this on the xbox, but perhaps on the pc. Shooting out lights with the really weak autoaim on thumbsticks just wasn't fun.

and i guess the xbox demo has been yanked for unknown reasons

Well, seeing as how light plays a very important part as the main fixture of the game itself and supposed to literally hurt your eyes if you stay in it too long, I think it's perfect.

yah an i loved the normal mapping in the darkness was not an unreal game, it was built off of starbreeze's proprietary graphics engine

Edited by: bugsport

Why would they pull the demo? I hope this plays out better for Starbreeze. Escape from Butcher Bay was a great title, but it didn't sell too strongly.

Darkness isn't selling too well on the PS3. On the 360, it was the best selling game for 4 weeks in the US, and has been for 2 weeks in Europe.

Oh yeah, and I never posted anything about this game running on the Unreal engine. I meant the U3 engine was to blame for excessive bloom and shitty shaders that seem oh-so-popular in the industry.

Edited by: usernamee