The Darkness is a game developed by 2K Games for Xbox 360 and PS3 based on a comic book series of the same name, the player takes on the role of Jakie Estacado, a hitman for the New York Mafia, who ironically was targeted for assassination on the eve of his 21st birthday by “uncle” Paulie, the don of the Mafia. From there it only gets from bad to worse, he finds that his body is host to a demon known as The Darkness, a spirit driven insane by being alive for thousands of years, which has been passed down through his family for generations. The demon gives Jackie an array of supernatural powers which are then used all in the name of finding and killing Paulie.
The story is well driven with a terrific plot, always pushing you to find out what will happen next and never disappoints. At times The Darkness will rely a little on comic book storyline to fill in the blanks, but nothing that impairs the playability of the game.
Gameplay wise this game is pretty linear, if not entirely, and pretty short to boot. But considering this, 2K have managed to fit a lot into the 6-8 hours of gameplay available. This includes a lot of killing with Jackie’s demon buddies, some of which spend most of their time surrounding your character and giving menacing looks.
The graphics in this game are brilliant and that’s the only word for it, the demons are dark, gloomy and expertly textured and everything in New York, from the subway to the docks are perfect, gritty and dangerous. There are some minor frame rate issues when a lot is going on, but once again it’s hardly worth mentioning. Once the player gets to the Otherworld, a place with a world war two setting and home The Darkness itself, the atmosphere changes completely. New York is replaced with a barren landscape as far as the eye can see, once Jackie gets out of the trenches, there’s no telling which direction to go. There are horrifying statues made from corpses and enemies all around. In all, Players can really get the feeling that they are in hell.
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To sum it all up, this game has some flaws, but if you can learn to look past it, you can really see some gold shining through.
Filed under: Reviews
