Project Thursday

So you’ve finally turned 21. After years of patient waiting, it’s time to kick back, knock down your first (legal) drink, and have a laugh with your pals, right? Wrong. Not today; not for Jackie Estacado. You’re celebrating your birthday with a different liquid altogether; the kind that pumps through the veins of your enemies.

The Darkness (from the comic series bearing the same name) is the second game to come from developer Starbreeze Entertainment, following their critically acclaimed first-person shooter, the Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Sticking with what they know best, the Darkness maintains the first-person game perspective, but does it succeed in recreating the astounding visuals, captivating story, and raw brutality that made Riddick so much fun?

As up-and-coming mobster, Jackie Estacado, it’s your job to play the in-house hitman for your Uncle Pauly. Unfortunately for Jackie, something’s gone awry on your last job and now Pauly wants you, and everyone you love, very dead. It doesn’t help matters that the local police officials are all in Pauly’s pocket, meaning you’ve literally got an army after you.

How fortunate for you, however, that on this most harrowing of birthdays, you’ve been blessed (or cursed) with the powers of the Darkness. By staying out of the light and sticking to a lean diet of human hearts, you are granted immortality and a pair of bad ass, flesh eating tentacles. Tack on the fact that Jackie is already a skilled, professional killer, and now it’s you that’s chasing that army.

Right from the start, the Darkness grabs your attention and doesn’t let go. From the slick menu presentation, the excellent voiceover work, and the incredible first-person scripted story sequences, this game screams high production values. Without a doubt, next to top tier games like Gears of War and Bioshock, the Darkness is easily one of the best looking console games out on the market today.

Those points aside, the game is a first-person shooter at its heart, sporting the standard arsenal of weaponry, including pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, etc. Similar to Riddick, Jackie has some brutal, up-close execution moves at his disposal when you get within arms-reach of an enemy, which are almost always satisfying. How often do you get to kick someone to the ground and put two bullets into their face with the press of a single button?

Also similar to Riddick is the quest system in the Darkness. While the game is generally linear in nature with the main plot arc, there are a handful of optional side quests and secret areas for you to explore throughout the city. Since the game allows you to backtrack to any of the previous areas you’ve been to, it gives you a good amount of freedom without leaving you feeling like you’re lost in an enormous world.

Now while the gunplay is all well and good, what makes the game stand out among the crowd is the Darkness powers. I won’t lie; towards the early parts of the game, I was very frustrated with them. After seeing cutscene after cutscene of the Darkness literally tearing people apart in gloriously violent ways, I couldn’t help but feel weak and annoyed when it came down to the actual gameplay. Having to shoot out every damn light in every damn room just to keep my Darkness shield powered up enough to survive was enough to make me want to drown puppies. Sorry, but there were a lot of lights to shoot out.

Happily, this frustration doesn’t last very long. Once you’ve played a few hours in, the game gets increasingly better, coinciding with the increase in your Darkness powers. From summoning guns crafted by the Darkness itself, to opening black holes out of thin air, the gameplay elements become incredibly fun to experiment with as the Darkness progresses. I was especially fond of the whip-like tail Jackie receives that can be used to take out both lights and enemies in a very satisfying animation.

But mere weaponry isn’t all the Darkness grants Jackie. You’ll also have the ability to summon demons to your side, called Darklings. In theory, the premise of summoning the little devils to do your bidding sounds great. Unfortunately, while the Darklings are hilarious with their random one-liners and constant need to urinate on the dead bodies they pass by, they have the AI equivalent of a toilet seat. For example, the "light-killer" Darkling is tasked with (you guessed it) killing all the light sources you happen to come near. What actually happens though is he’ll stand about doing nothing until you are literally frying (and losing sweet Darkness juice) underneath it, making his existence rather useless. The problem only compounds itself when your hands are full in a firefight, and with the limited control the game gives you to send commands to your Darklings, the whole summoning system seems broken. Fortunately, the summoning isn’t really necessary to have an enjoyable experience, and they can at least act as cannon fodder to keep your enemies attention for a few brief moments, giving you time to catch your breath.

Multiplayer is a forgettable affair, unfortunately. The Darkness offers the standard fare of game types, from deathmatch to capture-the-flag to survivor. The only twist is that you can choose to shape shift from a human to a Darkling at will. While this should open the door up for some Aliens vs. Predator style gameplay, the Darklings again fail us here, as the idea isn’t anywhere near as fun as it sounds. To top it all, the whole multiplayer affair is hampered by horrible lag in more cases than not, throwing whatever fun that might be had right out the window. In short, stick to the single player experience.

Conclusion

Minor issues aside, the Darkness is a fantastic game that should be picked up immediately by any first-person shooter fan. Aside from some mediocre weaponry, lame Darkling AI, and forgettable multiplayer, there isn’t anything more to complain about.

It’s very rare that I find myself actually caring and feeling emotion for characters in a video game. Fortunately, the Darkness is one of those games that pulls it off. Without spoiling anything, the story will pull you in with its beautiful environs and well written and performed dialog, and the gameplay will leave you giddy while you eat the hearts of dead foes all while putting bullets into the live ones. Go get this one and help Jackie celebrate his birthday properly.