Review: The Darkness

[Fragony]

Cool title for PS3 and 360.

You are a mafia hitman that gets the coolest birthday present ever, The Darkness, an ancient evil power with heart-devouring tentacles. You will soon find out that it isn't exactly there because it likes you so much, you are merely it's puppet and it has a way making you understand that.

This is not really a shooter, it is more of an adventure game with poor shooting sequences. All I can say is, screw gameplay. The AI is sadly completily braindead, they should have hired the good people that wrote the AI for Fear, would have been a perfect game. Alas, can't have it all. What we do get is a extremily moody and at times harrowing experience, yes experience not a game, gameplay sucks, with a great story and a great cast and a downright sick villain. The real star of the show however is New York. Not since Max Payne and Deus-ex did I visit such a well realised Hell's Kitchen, it feels complete.

Well, what do you get to do, you get to shoot a lot of lights early in the game, The Darkness doesn't apreciate light and you need the dark to summon it's powers. These powers are cool but make the game easy, especially creeping dark (scouting thingie) is so easily exploited that the game presents no challenge at all, the AI doesn't know how to deal with it and you can mob up entire rooms without ever being in danger, pity. Later you get a tentacle that allows you to impale people and move objects, it also detroys any lightsource within it's reach. This mia muca's, is cool. Last and least you can summon a black hole, making the being an unstoppable possesed hitman thingie even easier. Entire rooms are swept clean, very cool to look at.

Everything is cool to look at, nothing is very fun to do. When you get up close and personal you can perform an execution move, which, is awesome to look at. Again, not very fun. Soooooooooooooooooooooo, do I recommend this, oh yes. It's a flawed gem that feels rushed and unpollished, but you won't easily forget it, especially a few detours to the trenches of WW1 that are downright hellish. Seeing is believing.

Frag says 7,5/10 but it's a good 7,5/10

[Blodrast]

Tentacles sound way wicked
Too bad it doesn't come out for the PC as well...
Thanks for the review :)

[Bob the Insane]

Good review...

This is a average shooter lifted by a good story and some great Gfx (for a console.. )

As for the execution move thing, sounds cool, but you rarely get close enough to use it...

I loved the ammo collection concept with the pistols... You don't collect ammo, collect the pistols of your foes, use them and when they are empty, throw them away and draw another...