The Darkness (Xbox 360)
By:
D_Litch
I remember the night of my 21st birthday, that was the first time I died
From the first scene of
The Darkness, you will find yourself enthralled. You are Jackie Estacado, a Mafia hitman celebrating his 21st birthday, but he has major problems – aside from being a mafia hitman. His "Uncle" Paulie has decided he doesn't like his services, and decides to kill Jackie, but all does not go as planned. Jackie survives the attempt on his life and finds himself in a cemetery bathroom, pinned down by Mafia gunmen, he then discovers something different. A voice in his head known only as "The Darkness" begins to take over his actions and manifests itself in the form of two Demon heads growing out of Jackie's back. The Darkness makes swift work of the Mafia goons, and Jackie finds himself partially in control of these supernatural powers. What's a man to do when he has demon heads and tentacles growing out of his back? The only logical thing of course, seek revenge on the bastard that did this to him.
Enough back story, let's break this beast down.
General Gameplay
The game play breaks down into two parts: The times you are not using your Darkness powers, and the times you are. As you would imagine, the latter is a lot more fun than the former. You have 4 main demon powers: a Black Hole, which sucks everything in sight into its hellish vacuum; a remote controllable demon head know as the Creeping Dark; a Demon Arm capable of piercing everything from barrels to SWAT teams; and satanic weapons known as Darkness Guns which are mega-powerful but also drain your Darkness energy (the fuel that burns this game's fire) which you acquire from, you guessed it, being in the dark. The shooting action is above average and Riddick-esque, and the weapons are your run-of-the-mill FPS suspects. The supernatural powers are what makes the action in
The Darkness so much fun, but if you find yourself in a gun battle expect to have a lot of fun as well.
Tech Specs
The Darkness is a nice looking game, almost beautiful. The little effects such as the "wet" look of the Demon Heads, or the intense detail of the guns, really makes the game feel more real. This title also has some of the best motion capture ever. From the reactions people have to being shot in different parts of the body, to the almost scary facial animation, this game moves like a true champ.
The audio is no slouch either. The score is excellent, and the voice acting is some of the best in a video game ever. The sounds of New York are realistic and all the weapons sound as they should. This is game is worthy of a high-end sound-system.
Game Rage
This game isn't very frustrating, except for in multiplayer, but I'll get to that later. Aside from a few isolated glitches in some of the side-missions, the game is pretty stable. The difficulty feels right on Normal, and Hard is a noticeable step-up. All the Demon Powers work seamlessly, and glitches involving "questionable" deaths are non-existent.
Butt Groove
This game will hook you in within the first 10 minutes you play. It will take most people about 10-12 hours to beat the game, but that feels about right. The side-missions are fun and mildly inventive, and the collectible hunting is a nice addition. You will be pulled in by the story, and your couch with be warm and groove-ridden by the time you finish your first play through.
Bedtime Rating
This title earns every bit of it's "M" rating. Not a game that you will want to play in front of kids, the elderly, or people who take offense to eating hearts. The Darklings (Demon helpers you can spawn throughout the game) are one of the main sources of graphic behavior. Their routines include, but are not limited to: Sawing off heads with handsaws, jack-hammering chests, and urinating on corpses. The language is also very mature. Imagine a combination of The Sopranos, mixed with a Quentin Tarantino movie. Yeah, it's pretty bad.
Achievements
The achievements are well thought out, but they are still kind of stale. You'll get half of them by just playing through once, the rest of the single player achievements can be had on a second play through. The multiplayer achievements will be more difficult, which brings us to…
Multiplayer
Horrible. That is the only way to describe the multiplayer. The game is littered with lag to the point that it’s broken, even with a stable host and a small room the game is still unplayable. The one match I
was able to play, I was completely lost and confused, which happens often, both in and out of games. The multiplayer not only feels tacked-on, it feels tacked-on with large rusty nails. This is primarily a single player game, and the developer made sure you wouldn't want to play anything else but that.
Category Ratings
General Gameplay
Tech Specs
Game Rage
Butt Groove
Bedtime Rating
Achievements
Multiplayer
Overall Couch Count: 4.5 out of 5
Oh man, the TV's in the game. I watched an episode of Popeye the last time I played!! 
