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The Darkness by Starbreeze

We are talking about the game here of course, not the band. The Darkness is yet another example of a great title that was overlooked by many gamers. It came out this past summer, but I’m going to guess that too many people were awaiting the release of BioShock to pay attention to this one. But since BioShock is not an alt-control friendly game, and The Darkness is (Southpaw and Legacy are available, of course), we here at Alt-Controls.com are going to give it the recognition it deserves.

The Darkness is an FPS game where you play as Jackie Estacado, a young mafia hit man who discovers that he has some odd powers. The source of these powers is a strange entity known as The Darkness. This being is as old as time itself, and must manifest itself in a ‘host’ to survive. It is passed on to a new host upon conception and lays dormant for 21 years. Luckily for us, the game so happens to start on (yes, you guessed it) Jackie’s 21st birthday. But there won’t be any celebrating for Jackie. Not only is his curse revealed, but the head of the mob (his uncle Paulie) has decided to put a hit out on him. This just ticks Jackie off. So you spend the rest of the game sticking it to Paulie and trying to avenge the death of your girlfriend who is taken out right in front of you by Paulie himself.

If it seems like the story is a huge part of this game, you would be correct. The Darkness is a rich, cinematic experience. But never to the point where you think you’re doing too much watching and not enough shooting. There is great balance.

If you’re looking for an intense shooting experience reminiscent of Gears or the Call of Duty series, you won’t get that here. What you will get is a cerebral, engrossing game that really pulls you into the experience. Memorable characters and a great plot line really make this game worthwhile. The Darkness is voiced by Mike Patton of Faith No More fame, and truly takes center stage as an important character/element in the game.

As far as game play is concerned, it’s not the most frantic FPS ever made. But with the rich storyline and fantastic graphics & artwork, you’ll want to play through to the end. Your Darkness powers are useful in some areas, and awkward in others. You can also summon Darklings. These are odd little creatures that help Jackie out. Sometimes they’re helpful, and other times, they just seem to be a distraction. Jackie’s execution moves are a lot of fun though. Get in close range of an enemy and pull the left & right trigger together to begin a predetermined, gory assassination sequence that varies depending on your weapon and the angle you approach from.

You’re not going to play the Darkness over and over, but overall, it’s a fun game that should not be missed. There are a ton of side missions that keep the replay value up, but after a couple times playing through, you will likely be done with it for a while. It’s a great game to play around Halloween though. And a decent shooter with alt-controls will always get the nod from us.

*Image courtesy of ripten.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 7:49 am and is filed under 2Three Recommends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.