Gaming The Darkness

[silpheedpilot]

[COLOR=DarkSlateGray][SIZE=1]Whoooweee. Now THIS is a game. First it was a comic, and now its a game based of the comic almost to the letter. The ways things happen are swapped up and Jackie Estacado, the main character of both the comic and the game, look different while utilizing The Darkness powers but all in all the game shows you how the comics went down nearly 10 years ago.

A quick over-view for those of you who don't plan on playing this or don't know much about it and would like to know...

You play Jackie Estacado, a hitman in the mafia, and some bad things happen with a money exchange and your dear ol' uncle wants you dead for it. This happens to be your 21st birthday and also happens to be the day that every first-born in your family tree is given The Darkness powers but it seems like given is a strong word because its more like 'thrust upon'.

Anyway, down to the nitty gritty. The combat. Everyone knows that first person shooters are known for their visceral combat and this is no exception but it takes it to the next level with sweet close quarters instant-kills like a swift shot to the head or a knee to the stomach followed by a bullet to the back of the skull and they're all animated very nicely.

Another quirk that really works with this game is how you wield pistols. When your gun is empty, Jackie simply drops it and pulls another from his collection and you continue firing. Its all really fluid.

The story is whats really keeping me engaged. Its like a novel you just can't put down because you wanna get to the next part to see what happens to Jackie or to see what happens that effects the game world as a whole.

Unfortunately, other than saying you can devour the hearts of your enemies, summon these awesome gremlin Darklings and generally have all sorts of cool powers at your disposal while using The Darkness, I can't really delve into it because thats what keeps the whole game tied together.

Either way, as a review this game gets a 9/10 on the single player front while a retarded 3/10 on the multi-player aspect. There are better multi-player games out there and this is not one of them. Run of the mill.

Anyone else done played this awesome game yet?[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Guest The Blue Jihad]

That gets a hell yes from the beast.

At first the dual wielding/reload system was iffy--as was the combat--but then everything clicked. And now I honestly totally love the reload system. It feels so much more organic than carrying around ammunition to reload whenever.

After "getting" the nuances of the reloading, the earlier parts of the game made sense to me. At first I wondered why the hell I was running out of ammo so quickly (especially in the [spoiler]church graveyard gunfight[/spoiler]).

But once you understand the weapons system, you immediately understand that The Darkness is NO normal FPS, and your Gears/Halo "reload your gun after every shot" mentality [I]will[/I] get you killed here.

Now I love the combat, but I think what I enjoy the most is the bittersweet love story. There's something incredibly profound in [spoiler]the brief birthday party at Jenny's.[/spoiler] I mean...[spoiler]Christ, it's just beautiful. Jenny is sleeping in your arms on her couch, while you're watching [I]To Kill A Mockingbird[/I]...a film which is arguably one of the most poignant pieces of cinema when it comes to themes of duty and love...and that theme of duty and love is extraordinarily potent in that scene.[/spoiler]

I don't think I can properly put this into words right now, because I'm still in awe of how expertly the scene is conceived and executed. I will say this, though:

This is the stuff that actual cinema needs to get back in touch with...and if the right director is chosen...The Darkness needs to become a feature film. As horror-centric as it is, as dark and disturbing as it gets...it could be our generation's The Graduate, I swear.

[Semjaza]

I shall be renting this puppy. I've been looking forward to it, but like most FPS games I know I'll finish it in like 8 hours and I'll barely touch the multiplayer. Yay for Gamefly.

By the way, if you want that 2K Sports Darkling (he uses a 2K Sports bat) you can put this number into a phone early on in the game: 555-4263. Screw pre-ordering at Gamestop.

What would be really funny is if someone picked up if you dialed 867-5309. I know if I was developing a game I'd stick it in there.

[Jeebs]

[COLOR="DarkRed"]I really liked this game when I first played it. The story and presentation are great and the Darkness powers are pretty awesome. The problem is that after playing it three times (twice on easy, once on hard) I can't really find a reason to play again. The encounters just seem too repetitive. You fight pretty much the same guys over and over again.

Also, the Creeping Dark makes most of the game very easy. Most of the time the enemies won't rush you, so you can just hide and use it to take everyone out. [spoiler]On the mission where you have to kill the boat captain, you don't even have to set foot on the boat; you can just send your Creeping Dark in to do the job.[/spoiler] And there's no real penalty to doing this, other than being vulnerable for a short time, but as I said, enemies hardly rush. I know I could just not use it, but I shouldn't have to hold back just to make the game harder. The developers should have made Creeping Dark less powerful or made enemies smart enough to avoid it easier.

The AI was a bit stupid as well. As I said, the enemies usually stay back and wait for you to come to them. Also, the Darklings hardly listen to me, which made them pretty useless, other than being distractions.

I also found myself rarely using normal guns, other than the pistols and assault rifle.

The loading screens and having to go back and forth repeatedly through the subways became very annoying. The cutscenes didn't help after I had seen the same ones over and over again.[/COLOR]

[Guest The Blue Jihad]

Uh, Jeebs...I think you need to spend less time on Easy and more time on Hard. haha

You get utterly punished for using the Creeping Dark on harder difficulties. You can get a few kills with it, yeah, and the hearts recharge your Darkness energy, but the A.I. is definitely not dumb enough for you to survive on the hearts alone. Once they spot the head, they'll start shooting, and very frequently hit you, especially on Hard. Light drains your energy too quickly for continuous stalking, too.

On Easy, the game is, well, Easy, almost to a fault.

But on Medium to Hard...the game cranks that s--t up.

I only had a few problems with the Darklings. Generally they were pretty solid.

I recall a few times the Gunner darkling took care of an entire room of SWAT members without me even telling him to do anything. I busted through a door (I believe it was in Shrote's apartment building), into the room with the open center and double-floors.

SWAT rushed me from the other side, then I suddenly hear a chaingun going off. I turn to see my underling's chaingun poking in from the hallway, laying waste to everything.

Good times.

[TheResplendent]

[FONT="Tahoma"]I'm definitely looking forward to playing this one. For a few months before the release dates, i've been trying to decide between Overlord and this game, and all things i've seen and heard about up until now all tip the scale in The Darkness's favor. I won't be picking it up just yet since i'm waiting for my next paycheck, but when I do...I look forward to a lack of dissapointment :).[/FONT]

[Jeebs]

[quote name='The Blue Jihad']Uh, Jeebs...I think you need to spend less time on Easy and more time on Hard. haha

You get utterly punished for using the Creeping Dark on harder difficulties. You can get a few kills with it, yeah, and the hearts recharge your Darkness energy, but the A.I. is definitely not dumb enough for you to survive on the hearts alone. Once they spot the head, they'll start shooting, and very frequently hit you, especially on Hard. Light drains your energy too quickly for continuous stalking, too.[/QUOTE]
[COLOR="DarkRed"]I beat the game on hard, and it just didn't seem much more difficult. You die quicker, and the enemies do have better accuracy (against the Creeping Dark as well), but they were still generally pushovers. Most of the time I could clear out the next area with Creeping Dark. If it got hit, all I had to do was send it back in. About 80% of the time I would succeed in a few tries. Even if I didn't, I would at least take a few down.

I really liked this game at first, but you can only stab the same mobster/cop/[spoiler]German soldier[/spoiler] with a Demon Arm so many times before it just becomes boring. When I was playing it, I couldn't put it down. But now that I have put it down, I can't pick it back up.[/COLOR]

[Guest The Blue Jihad]

[quote name='Jeebs'][COLOR=DarkRed]Most of the time I could clear out the next area with Creeping Dark. If it got hit, all I had to do was send it back in. About 80% of the time I would succeed in a few tries. Even if I didn't, I would at least take a few down.[/COLOR][/quote]

...that's so time-consuming, though. lol. Reading that, I wonder if it's the game itself that bored you, or just using Creeping Dark so much in such a large area.

Plus, even on Hard, the [spoiler]boat sequence[/spoiler] isn't all that difficult in a straight-up firefight, because you tend to only have one or two enemies every few rooms.

[Kenshin DX]

The Darkness was mediocre. The controls were such a pain although I blame that really on the layout of the PS3 controller. The fighting is alright no new ground has been covered and the the Darkness power are cool but you are always better of with a gun. There were some really annoying parts that took away from the experience like having to use Creeper to unlock doors or destroy lights every 3 seconds. The story was great however and it gave you some great FP moments like Half Life 2 did. For instance [spoiler] The darkness restaring you and having to watch Jenny die was genius.[/spoiler]. The narrative was also suprebly done. Graphics were also truly astonishing when you shot someone in the face you would see the holes. The executions were also genius I never got bored of pulling them off.

As a FPS it's decent. From a story and presentation standpoint its fing brilliant.