Articles
By Q Dog Sah
Published: Jul. 9, 2007 11:23 PM
Back in the days of the original Xbox, Starbreeze Studio’s Chronicles of Riddick - Escape from Butcher Bay was one of the most critically acclaimed games to appear on the system. Unfortunately, it was also a game that was largely ignored by the general Xbox playing public. Still, it showed enough quality to get me excited about Starbreeze’s follow-up game for the Xbox 360, The Darkness.
For those unfamiliar with the Comic Book that the game is based on, the story revolves around a young New York mobster / hitman named Jackie Estacado. You take control of Jackie on the night of his 21st birthday, a night that Jackie will never forget. Without getting into too many specifics, The Darkness is a story about betrayal, revenge, love, loyalty and demonic possession.
At its heart, The Darkness is a FPS and anyone familiar with the genre will pick up this game in a flash. That being said, to lump The Darkness solely in the category of FPS would do this game an injustice. You see, Starbreeze have thrown in a fair bit of adventuring into the mix to create a game that would more accurately be explained as a first person action / adventure game. If you think Call of Duty combined with Doom 3 and Oblivion you’d be on the right track.
One major feature of The Darkness ties in directly with the name of the game, being in the dark. Very early on in the game, Jackie is bestowed with some awesome demonic powers courtesy of the creature that the game is named after – The Darkness. The Darkness takes the form of two giant snake-like creatures that hover over Jackie’s shoulders and sit in your peripheral vision. When you’re in Darkness Mode (“snakes out” as I like to call it) you gain special powers and weaponry in addition to your stock standard, conventional weaponry. The catch here is that these powers thrive on the dark, requiring you to spend most of the game in the shadows if you want to make the most of your demonic abilities.
In this way, Starbreeze have managed to turn the light / dark areas of the game into something more then just a way to hide yourself. Your powers are actually drawn from the shadows, spending too much time in the light drains your darkness energy and denies you access to your powers. Stand in the light with your snakes out and you will hear the creatures start to sizzle, warning you that your power is being drained. Conversely, when you’re in the shadows you will see the creatures suck in the darkness in long, black, smoky trails, whipping their heads around in ecstasy. This has a major impact on the way you play the game. I found myself being more concerned about shooting out the lights whenever I entered a new area, rather then the guys who were shooting at me. I came to see the light as my number one enemy, with all others being number two or lower.
The time spent shooting out the lights is all worth it in the end, as using your Darkness powers is the most satisfying part of playing this game. When in Darkness Mode, you always have the ability to see in the dark (Darkness Vision) and also a shield that protects you from a limited number of attacks (Darkness Shield). There are also 4 additional abilities you will learn as you progress through the game. There is the Creeping Dark, which allows you to send out a snake like scout that you control. This snake can perform stealth kills on enemies, take out lights, collect hard to reach items and allow you to covertly scout an area before you go there yourself. This is a great tool and a very unique concept, but is poorly implemented at times. The controls for this snake are frustratingly un-intuitive, particularly when climbing walls and moving around obstacles. Still, it is great when you’re out-numbered as you can just hide in the shadows and send it out to get your kills for you.
The next skill learned is the Demon Arm, which is essentially a melee attack that allows you so skewer enemies and take out lights without using precious ammo. It also allows you to pick up and throw large objects, such as cars or even other people. You next have the Darkness Guns, two fairly powerful pistols that use your Darkness Energy as ammo rather then bullets. Lastly, you have the power to end all powers, the Black Hole. This creates a vortex of dark energy that will suck in pretty much anything nearby. You will use this fairly extensively in the latter stages of the game, with the catch being that it uses up a lot of darkness energy leaving you vulnerable. It's best to cast this when you’re sure there will be no one around afterwards to shoot you in the back.
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