The Darkness

Platform: Xbox 360
Company: 2K, Take-Two

Blood, guns and tentacles. No it's not the latest Hentai film, it's The Darkness, based on the comic by the same name, a creepy, frantic and very adult game. Kids, look away now.

Graphics:
Absolutely phenomenal graphics, the areas are breathtaking, set in New York you get to wander the streets and half the enjoyment is just taking in the surroundings. Light has been used very well in the game, not only is it part of the gameplay but it changes as it should in real life, if there is something blocking the light then it casts a realistic shadow, when you shoot the lights out, sparks and a few shards of glass fly from the lightsource. The detail on the characters is incredible, if you look intently at a character, you can see their muscles, wrinkles and even surface veins. As characters move their body parts move as a whole, hair sways and bobs with movement, even their limbs react realistically. The game is also very visceral, blood smearing on the surfaces and spraying from exit and tear wounds, when you shoot someone and then look at the body, you see clearly where you hit them, and depending on how you kill them their body is left in a different way.

Sound:
Amazing sound in the game, the character voices are well acted, the only bad thing is that it doesn't quite sync in with their lip movement, there are a variety of voice types in the game, but everyone with a name has their own unique voice and accent, the street-dwellers have a good few voice sets assigned to them though to keep it diverse. When you're dealing with the other-world elements of the game like the Darkness itself and the Darklings you can almost feel it from the voice, it's very creepy, almost like some form of serpent. The music provides a good atmosphere in the game too, normally the music is very slow and sombre, very relaxing to let you ease through wherever you're going. When the business hits the fan and bullets start flying the music kicks into fast-paced rock, even heavy metal at some points. When you come across a TV that you have control over you can switch between channels, most of them showing music videos from many different bands, which can be very entertaining to just sit and watch them.

Gameplay:
When I first started playing I was worried, it was the same old first-person shooter we've all played, granted there's some more interaction than most, you get to choose the conversation topic or the type of response you give in dialogue. The first thing I noticed that was different is that you have two pistols as your main weapon, but rather than have one aiming dot in the middle of the screen, there were two dots next to each other, the guns would have different targets depending which side of you was in cover. The main thing that was different about the game was when the Darkness was introduced, that blew the generic FPS games away. While you're in Darkness mode, you have two demon arms with you at all times that react to certain events, such as a dead body. Your vision will drastically change, enabling you to see clearly in dark areas, but causing any light source to become blurred and almost a pain to look at closely. You're given all number of new attacks in addition to a Darkness Shield, which triples your survivability while Darkness Mode is in effect.

Storyline:
Unfortunately this is where the game falls over somewhat, the storyline seems to be a little weak, most of it is just travelling to and fro and trying to find the one particular alley or door you're meant to go through to progress. The game provides you with a vast array of side-quests to indulge in, you don't have to do a single one of them, but you get some nice goodies if you do. But they're never treated as full-blown things to do, they're just small favours to help out people who need it, being a good guy at heart basically.

Overall scores:
Graphics 10/10
Sound 9/10
Gameplay 10/10
Storyline 5/10

Total 8/10

In conclusion this game should be a definite for any fans of FPS games at it brings a fresh breath of life to the genre, but it is definitely NOT for younger people, it is violent, it is gorey, and there is a LOT of swearing.

I hope you found this review helpful and informative