2K seems to be able to do no wrong. With a list of hit games that seem to be piling up faster then the national debit, The Darkness is no exception. The Darkness is probably the second best shooter on the PS3 right now (Rainbow Six: Vegas is hands down in my mind the best shooter) if the game had a stronger multi player experience it would be that much closer to first place. But The Darkness offers some game play features that not common to most first person shooter games which makes it a very interesting game and help it to stand out above the rest.
In case you have been stranded on a desert island somewhere and have never heard of this game, here is a quick summary of the plot. It is based on a comic book series for starters. You are a hitman for the mob. And this is the night of your twenty first birthday. You are sent on a job, and there everything kind of goes down the crapper so to speak. Your uncle Paulie is not to excited to have a younger and more ambitious member in the family. So he decided to take you out of the picture before you get any big ideas of moving up the corporate ladder quicker. If only he had made his decision just one day earlier, because tonight you are endowed with a mysterious set of powers that you will use to exact your revenge for his unfaithfulness.
One other thing that makes this game stand out above the rest is the attention to detail. Small things like being able to stand behind a wall and have one gun softening up your targets while the other is held close to the wall ready for you to jump out and two guns a blazing. The great textures, facial details, and of course the multiple close up and personal kills. This is a real treat for the action adventure nut in all of us. If Jackie is able to sneak up behind and get close to an enemy when you pull the trigger you will be treated to a wild and crazy cut scene of Jackie performing some insane gun play to send that enemy to sleep forever.
First the darkness powers add a whole new dimension to the game. Instead of running around and pulling the trigger quicker then the AI, the user is able to earn ‘Darkness powers’ to assist in the carnage. The player starts with vicious eel like arms that stretch out to perform stealth kills and consume victim’s hearts. As the Player consumes hearts, additional darkness powers and spawnable darklings are earned. There are four Darkness powers and four Darklings that are available all with their own unique abilities. From a Stabbing tentacle to the ability to spawn a dark hole, there is some unpleasant demise mechanism that will suit the desire of almost any player. A little hint from me to you, if you charge into a room and try to kill all the enemies but they wipe the floor with you, chances are the developers intended you to use Darkness power to help you though this point in the game.
The side quests also add a new dimension to the game. Helping out the less fortunate and down trodden of the world is a pleasant break from killing off the hired Goons sent by your uncle Paulie to whack you.
Another interesting aspect of the PS3 version of the game is the Accomplishments system. For those of you who also indulge in gaming on the Microsoft Xbox 360 platform this will seem vaguely familiar to the Achievement system (and as a side note Accomplishments on the PS3 are almost identical to the Achievements on the Xbox 360). I am hoping that Sony has let 2K in on some of the secrets of the Sony Home Trophy system, and that when Home launches all these accomplishments in The Darkness may just populate a whole bunch of trophies into your Playstation Network Home trophy case. One can at least hope!
There were a couple of things about the game that made me think, huh! First there were two instances where the screen was just black for the better part of 60 seconds. I was just about to get up and reboot the PS3 when all of a sudden a loading bar appeared at the bottom of the screen and I moved on to the next level. Normally there is some little cut scene of Jackie handling or firing a gun. The second thing that I found disappointing was you could not go through and replay specific levels. If you missed one of the accomplishments you would have to go through the entire game. Maybe a patch in the future will help fix this. To all of you out there who like to get all the unlockables and finish the game one hundred percent, you may want to find a walk through or a cheat guide and make sure you get all accomplishments done the first time through.
The multi player aspect of the game is OK, nothing really exciting here which is kind of sad. Running around as a Darkling is kind of fun but on the PS3 I did not see many people playing the multi player. Next, when ever you climb up a ladder in the game, the game play switches to cut scene of Jackie climbing the ladder. Obviously the developers did not want to listen to the fans complain about floating up a ladder (cough – Shadow Run – cough).
The game is definitely a cut above your normal first person shooter and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the shooter genre of games, but also gamers who like action RPG game play may really get into this title. The game is with out a doubt a rental. And with the different game play modes you could definitely have a great deal of fun replaying missions using sheer firepower and next time use darkness powers and see which works better. If you just recently finished up a game and are looking to start a new game this would be a great game to buy. If you are in the middle of a game right now, there is probably no need to rush right out and buy it but next time you are game shopping definitely consider this one. To all the renters out there I would bump this little bad boy right to the top of the queue.
Enjoy and look for Ryan’s review of the Xbox 360 version of the game. Look for that in a week or so. Also I believe we both will be writing a separate review each about the differences between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.
Read my first impressions of the game, click here.
