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A lot of games fail to set themselves apart from the crowd. Often relying on the same old tried and tested game mechanics, these games, while offering an enjoyable experience, fall short of being memorable.
The Darkness doesn’t offer anything life changing in terms of gameplay. And his is not a bad thing either. It creates an instantly accessible game. What it brings to your lounge room is arguably the most important aspect of interactive entertainment (at least in my humble opinion), engaging story. So lets start with that.
Penned by Paul Jenkins, The Darkness’s story follows Jackie Estacado who on his 21st birthday is killed by his uncle Paulie. Lucky for Jackie the ageless entity know as the Darkness has manifested itself using Jackie as it’s host. Saving him from death, giving him access to the powers of the Darkness and possessing him with a deranged voice in his head. With out going into any spoilers, Jackie sets out to take down his uncle Paulie using his new powers bestowed on him. Little does Jackie realise, the darkness comes closer and closer to total possession with each horrifically violent murder.
Some of the powers of the Darkness include the Creeping Dark, the Demon Arm, and being able to summon different types of ma sadistic imps to do your bidding. The Berserker, as its name implies, rushes at the nearest enemy, cackling madly as he drives his barbed dagger repeatedly into his victims neck. The Gunner imp comes forth carrying a gattling cannon. Send him to the doorway leading to a room full of goons and he’ll splay copious amounts of lead. Then there is the Kamikaze… Have a guess what he gets up to. Lastly the Light Killer imp will take out nearby lights (duh) allowing you to harness the powers of the darkness. Very handy.
The Creeping Dark sends forth a snakelike tendril that can be used to scout ahead, open doors, retrieve keys and the like. But most importantly it can tear peoples faces off and eat out their hearts. I love it! While the Demon Arm whips forth and impails anyone foolish enough to get to close.
That’s enough about how it all works. The Darkness isn’t with out it’s flaws. But to be honest i couldn’t recall what those flaws were at time of writing. Probably because i really enjoyed playing through The Darkness. The Story while now revolutionary, is very well told. With top voice acting and characters oozing with stereotypical goodness The Darkness should be on your list of games to play.
One last thing. Those of you that saw that The Darkness was a short game were obviously just shooting your way through the game as quickly as you could. My advice, play slowly, enjoy the story and have a think about how you might want to approach any given situation. A lot of the reward comes from the glee of finding a different way to massacre your foes.
Anyway, i just got a new 42 inch true HD Plasma. So I’m off to play it again in high definition. I can taste the bloody revenge already.
