The Darkness - Starbreeze Studios AB - 360

[Azazel]

Yeah yeah, another average-to-shitty FPS game based on a comic that no-one has heard of. Once again, this game received decent-to-good (to very good - ie 9/10s) ratings from the gaming press, and it does try a few new things in the FPS genre. The story is actually OK in this one to start with (though cheesy), and it has some interesting cinematic moments, but it's not really worth your time. I started this 6 months or more ago - possibly last Christmas, back when I was trying to 100% everything I played and collect all the foozles to get all the achievements. I put it down as you do, and then forgot all about it, so going through my games again recently I thought "oh yeah, I should finish that thing".

So I've put a few hours in again over the last day or two, while installing things onto a PC , and gotten partway through Act 2, and, well, it's just not worth my time. The story is done reasonably well until it falls into WTF territory and the characters models are also decent to good looking without falling into the uncanny valley, but the main character is really sluggish to move, the shooting is not satisfying or especially responsive, and the Darkness powers are awkward and not especially fun to use either.

The map isn't especially helpful, and while, yes, the game is called The Darkness, and it's set in some kind of modern, dank New York, and some kind of WW1-Hell, it's just annoyingly dark and murky and everything is a bit too brown and annoying, especially since whatsisname moves as slow as a slug on tranquilisers.

It was an OK enough way to spend a couple of hours shooting light bulbs and the occasional enemy, but I don't have the time or interest to invest a few days into this game when I could be doing something else. I'd probably watch a well-edited YouTube video of the important plot points and conclusion/finale of the game to see what happens in the end (or browse a walkthrough), but it's not worth playing through.

You and I both have better games to play.

===

Don't Bother.

[UnSub]

I think that's a bit harsh. It had a more interesting narrative than a lot of FPSs and I didn't think the mechanics were that bad.

You will get sick of riding on the subway though.

[stu]

I will never play a game from a company called Starbreeze. Fairywinkle, maybe, but never Starbreeze.

[Azazel]

I think the story was the best part, to be quite honest. (until it got into WTF territory at least). Even so I'd like to see what happened without needing to actually play through the rest of it. The "Darkness" mechanics were also an interesting idea, though not very well executed. I couldn't exactly recommend in 2010/11 that anyone pay money to buy it or bother to play it, though, could I?

[Morfiend]

I actually really enjoyed The Darkness. Mike Patton as the voice of the Darkness was amazing. I played through the game 2 and a half times I think. The gameplay is nothing special, and once you get a specific power, most of the combat becomes trivial if you abuse it. I liked the story, and the "WTF" parts, and it actually makes sense if you play through to the end.

I also liked the whole darkness and light aspect, although, I wish it was a bit more pronounced in game as some times its hard to tell what the game considers being in darkness.

For me, this was one of the more interesting FPS games for console when it was released, as it was different from the slew of Halo clones. In 2010/2011, yeah its not fantastic, but I think it was released in like 2008, so thats to be expected. And again, I cant say enough good things about Mike Paton's voice work in this game.

[Azazel]

I think if someone remade it well, with better mechanics and improved movement it would be a good game. Unlike some other games from that period, it hasn't aged well unfortunately, and playing it now rather than then, I have to say it's not worth playing (now).

What I heard of Mike Patton's voice acting wasn't anything special, though. Either I didn't get far in enough to hear him be especially good, or we all just love Mike Patton a lot and are prescribing amazing to some pretty generic ebil voice acting. (I think he's great as well, but I hadn't heard anything amazing OMG MIKE PATTON!!1! from the game at the point I played to..)

[LK]

I found the narrative of the game to be compelling. It definitely did some things that I hadn't seen done before. They should have ditched the multiplayer though and focused resources on polishing the single player.

[UnSub]

There was talk of a sequel, but I'm gathering that is probably dead by now.

[LK]

Oh yes. The sequel possibilities were there but never materialized.

[UnSub]

There was talk of a sequel, but I'm gathering that is probably dead by now.

I was wrong, apparently: The Darkness 2. Different development studio though.