The Darkness

While you may think a pack of coked-out rockstars bouncing off the walls screams credibility, the fact is that it's the game, not the band The Darkness that is true rock. You see Mike Patton (vocal genius from Faith No More/Mr Bungle/Fantomas/Tomahawk... hell the guy even does opera now) is 'the voice' of the Darkness. Now that is rock.

If this was "KreeseArena", that fact alone would make this game get a perfect score, but luckily for everyone concerned, it's not. So while Mike is pure genius in casting in his role as 'The Darkness' the possessed inhabitant of main character Jackie Estacado, he's arguably outshone by other stellar attributes of this game.

First up, Estacado's story. Jackie, an experienced hitman, gets a nasty surprise on his 21st birthday - demonic possession from a force known as The Darkness. And you thought your mates gaffer taping you to a telephone pole starkers was bad.

The good news (apart from having Mike Patton in your head) is that as a hitman, the ability to summon dark forces at your command comes in quite handy.

The bad news is that you need to skulk in the shadows to charge up said powers. Think of it as the anti-Splinter Cell. You lurk in the shadows in order to maximise your carnage potential, as opposed to achieving a low profile. Yes - The Darkness has come to save us all from countless hours of wondering if we're walking too fast and making too much noise.

The fact that you have Darkness powers entails a couple of direct consequences for you, the player. First up, when you're invoking said powers, suitably gothic and scary Darkness demon head thingies float at the periphery of your screen. Their appearance helps let you know which power you're using.

Secondly, said Darkness powers tend to reduce the reliance on traditional tools of the shooter. Sure you still get your precious firearms (pistols, shotguns and rifles), but it's your wacked out array of demonic abilities you'll be coming back for. Not that you can't get hold of demonically enhanced weapons of course and use up your Darkness power.

This range of powers is what will make or break The Darkness for punters. There's certainly some flexibility here. Everything from the wall climbing, ideal-for-sneak peek Creeping Dark ability (ideal for stealth kills of run-of-the-mill bad guys), through to the Demon Arm, which allows you to manipulate and hurl objects around. Not to mention being able to ram said tentacle/arm through things that annoy you. Like people. You also get a chance to throw out your own personal black hole. Fun, but not THE most fun you can have. That comes right below.


Guns and devil powers notwithstanding, the most enjoyment for gleeful action punters comes in the form of darklings. These demonic little imps come in a selection of flavours, and are guaranteed to put a spring in your step and a shiver up the spines of your foes. There's the practical Light Killers (no prizes for guessing what they do). The Kamikaze, which funnily enough blows himself up for the team. The Gunner, a chickadee with a chaingun (which looks hilarious in practice), and the personal favourite of all teens and guys who listen to metal, the Berserker, who are the imp equivalent of a food processor. They slice, they dice, they rend things limb from limb, and generally do their best to cause the OFLC headaches.

The Darkness' formula isn't reinventing the wheel here. Hit the shadows (or create some), soak up the Darkness power, and take out the next lot of bad guys. Yes, it ain't rocket science, but the formula will continue to work when it's executed this well for quite some time to come. A little initial hand holding quickly leads to the onus being squarely on you to portion out your powers for a given situation. And minor pathing issues with your tentacles aside, it hangs together well enough that it soon becomes reflex.

Your locations switch - you have the typical New York street environments which throw up plenty of variation and byplay themselves, and the hellish Otherworld, which will quickly strike a chord with fans of The Darkness comic, which delves into the history of The Darkness itself. As a diversion it doesn't quite work well - it interrupts your New York-based flow, and some punters will be left saying 'huh?".

Sure many times it will be obvious what to do, but there's enough opportunities for variation to make you feel like you have freedom to try new methods. Using the Demonic Arm to chuck stuff around is pretty diverting for a while as well. Old timers who remember Half Life 2 will be on familiar turf here, although you may feel let down by the lack of damage you can do. Deploying your darklings isn't too involved, but again is a chance to vary your approach - especially if you're finding progress hard trying the run and gun approach.

The smart cookies at Starbreeze AB once again deliver a graphically rich experience that does a great job of trading on the source material. Just like they did with The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (a game that was easily better than the movies it was themed from) Starbreeze take a comic book licence and turn into a compelling single player experience. However it's a tougher ask to impress punters with sensational imagery on Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 - Starbreeze AB wrung out magic with the old Xbox in Riddick, but we expect superior visuals on next gen platforms. So while The Darkness looks amazing - it's not a shock at how good the visuals are - we spoiled gamers expect no less.

If there's one stumbling block here, it's multiplayer - at least from a hardcore player's perspective. You can jump into the slimy skin of a darkling and can pelt around acrobatically, or take the weapons and durability found in human form and go to work that way. You can actually play ranked matches, but in reality it's fun for a while, but it's hard to imagine an online population of any significant proportion playing this by Christmas. Despite having deathmatch, survivor and capture the flag modes, there's just not enough depth to the play, unless Starbreeze elect to start pounding out the online addon packs over Xbox Live/the PlayStation Network. And if Riddick was anything to go by, this looks a doubtful prospect.

The Darkness is a slick solo experience. A terrific storyline that works really well on console format, and presentation that's without fault. Combine this story with a progressive rollout of powers and you'll keep plugging away for more than your money's worth here. While The Darkness isn't a balls-to-the-wall revolution like Gears of War, it ticks all the right boxes in the action department to make it a winner. Just don't expect the second coming in multiplayer.