This review contains spoilers
The Darkness is a faux-immersive sim/first person shooter developed by Starbreeze Studios based on The Darkness comic series and created using the same engine and similar styled gameplay as The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay/Assault on Dark Athena. I still need to play those games but I originally sat down and played this game because at one point I played The Darkness 2 on the Xbox 360. Having loved that game's "Supernatural mobster killing aesthetic". I decided I wanted to pick up the first game when I was younger, and having picked up and played this game I can safely say I FUCKING LOVED IT. Is it as tight controlling as the second one? No. But I love the story, I love the gameplay despite it's janks and truth be told this game is in my Top 20 at the very least. Let me explain:
The Story is about a mobster named Jackie Estacado who with two of his mobster buddies go to assassinate a construction foreman or something at one of Paulie's sites. Now Paulie Franchetti is both the don of the family as well as Jackie's adoptive father, whom adopted Jackie when he was an orphan to raise him up as a hitman in his family. Things go awry as both the police and other construction guys try to shoot the trio of hitmen. Jackie's friend die, and Jackie himself shoots his way to where the target is supposedly located only to find a trap from Uncle Paulie himself: A bomb strapped to the corpse of the target. Turns out Uncle Paulie wanted you dead in his weird sociopathic paranoia for "criticizing the way you do business" and he attempts to kill you. Now, it's Jackie's 21st birthday and he's not pleased, but he gets an extra surprise: an ancient power named "The Darkness" possesses Jackie and helps him slaughter his way through mafia hitmen left and right. With revenge in mind, Jackie decides to hit Paulie and his buddy, Police Captain Eddie Shrote where it hurts, their pockets. However there's one things that could throw a wrench in it: Jackie's girlfriend Jenny, the love of his life. What I really love about the story other than the excuse to massacre mobsters is that their love for each other, though awkward on Jackie's end feels real and in the short time you get to know Jenny you love her instantly and want her to stay alive with Jackie. In the short time you have together you could even choose to sit together on the couch in her apartment and watch To Kill A Mockingbird all the way through in a nice sentimental moment. Too bad Paulie and Eddie Shrote later blow up the orphanage where you two used to live at but then blow out your girlfriend's brains in front of you while your held back by the Darkness itself. It turns out to the surprise of no one The Darkness is an evil little manipulative bastard; but you don't swear revenge and go after the killers. No, Jackie can't live without Jenny and just shoots himself. He wakes up in a World War 1 hellscape where he shoots his way to a town and learns of The Darkness's history; it's as old as time itself, and bonded itself to Jackie's family via his ancestor Anthony Estacado during World War 1. You're encouraged to get the Darkness Guns before coming back to him and being pointed in the direction of the castle where The Darkness lives. It turns out that The Darkness is keeping Jackie alive in some sort of incubation period as he slowly heals him back alive. When Jackie comes to, he's back in New York City and it's determined that Eddie Shrote needs to die. Mobsters point him towards Shrote's apartment and after failing the hit, Jackie raids an abandoned Turkish Bath used by Shrote's corrupt police force to host Illicit goods. Jackie massacres his cops and steals a briefcase, and after consulting with mobster Butcher Joyce, they plant a bomb and set a deal within Trinity Church to assassinate Shrote. It's obviously an ambush and goes both predictably wrong and right. Jackie is hit with flashbangs and is strapped to a chair and tortured with a power drill before he uses the Darkness to blow up the briefcase and kill Eddie and his guys, but before he does he hears them talking about "Mother of God". He's now back in World War 1, and he raids the castle with Anthony to help Jackie confront the Darkness. Anthony dies, musing that The Darkness is as evil as it is because it went insane due to the evil and misdeeds of humanity. From there you sit in four chairs to rip The Darkness out painfully before embracing it once again in a strange form of control over it. However it presents a conundrum, the more you kill, the closer it gets to taking control of your soul. Jackie wakes back up and after consulting the other mobsters learns what "Mother of God" is: a boat used by Paulie's superiors, the Chicago Mafia Families, to smuggle drugs in and out of New York. Calling the boat over, he assaults the drug boat and takes it over causing Paulie to flee to the safety of his lighthouse mansion in fear of being killed by the Chicago families for being seen as a liability. Jackie assaults the mansion during a hinted at Solar Eclipse and lets the Darkness take control, slaughtering everyone in his wake before he offs the fat bastard who murdered his girlfriend. He finally wakes up in a dream, where he talks to Jenny one last time as they say goodbye to each other before it finally fades to black. My feelings on the plot is basically one word: Wow. I love it, it's fucking sad and moving, in a sense poetic, definitely beautiful in my opinion. This game's plot moved me, and unlike the whole cult thing in the second game this game strictly stays with the mafioso murder stuff and some of my favorite video game enemies are Italian guys with the names of Joey and Dino in see through socks eating spaghetti while bitching about the good old days. It balances both of these well in a game that's not too long but not too short and to me personally makes it an experience I will come back to time and time again, and I still feel the relationship between Jackie and Jenny is one of the best depictions of an actual human relationship, if not the best ever in my opinion.
Now the gameplay for some will be the main detriment and I can understand why. It feels a bit awkward sometimes, mostly with using the Darkness arm and trying to climb into certain spots. Speaking of Darkness arms, you have a certain number of powers: The Darkness arm allows you to control a little tentacle that can sneak around wherever you need to go, climbing on walls, ceilings and the like to either open up new path ways or murder people. You can also use your darkness arms to throw black holes that'll suck people up and kill them instantly, stab them violently or call upon "Darklings", which are little goblin creatures in certain spots to do a number of things from just attack them, blow them up, shoot at them with a minigun and etc. You'll also get Darkness Guns, which you can use to permanently kill people in the World War 1 dreams or if you have full Darkness power (from eating people's hearts, which you can use to get more of these abilities and upgrades of which I continued to do long after getting all the upgrades because the sound design is great) you can just shoot them with infinite ammo I think? Which reminds me, your main form of attack are normal firearms like dual wielding pistols and SMGs (which you just end up dropping one if they're empty), a shotgun, an M16/AK, and some other stuff I think? They're aren't that many types of weapons but I still think they're pretty good and pack a punch. Now while you're doing this, you also have to knock out any nearby light source or else your powers will retreat into you and you won't be able to heal until you get out. This leads to a tactical awareness of your settings which I like and when the gunplay comes together it comes together great, especially if you approach people up front and execute them in a cool animation. Again there's a little bit of jank here and there, and I don't blame anyone who doesn't like it but I personally feel that this system is superior to the second game's system. You can also explore the lower part of Manhattan via train stations and pathways while doing side quests for people. For the most part, there aren't any monetary rewards; doing these quests only lead to an achievement for doing them all and collectible phone numbers, which when put in a nearby pay phone you'll get for the most part a funny little voice line or two and a collectible concept art or something for the main menu. You can also find these in both the World War 1 Underworld as well. To finish off, there is certain interactivity with the enviornment. The romantic moment with Jenny earlier can choose to watch TV, in certain spots cartoons will play, you can turn on and off light sources and while this may not be the most interactive game (definitely not, I say Faux Immersive sim for a reason), you can still interact with the world in certain ways that while may be limited still bring a bit of character to it. In the sequel they would certainly restrict a lot of these elements which I personally view as a downgrade and a damn shame.
The Sound Design/graphic/everything else: The voice actors are great with The Darkness itself voiced by metal vocalist Mike Patton, and is the PERFECT choice to portray how evil yet cowardly the Darkness is; the range is phenomenal and I can't recommend enough. Jackie is of course another highlight, though not threatening I like the vulnerable awkwardness that Kirk Acevedo brings to the table (though I think I like The Darkness 2's characterization better but at the same time I'm not bothered in the slightest). Jenny is voiced by Lauren Ambrose who brings an innocence but tough vibe to her that I can't describe but I like. The other guys are voiced like Italian mobsters, and I think they do a fantastic job, especially Dwight Shultz who makes me hate Uncle Paulie more and more with each breath he takes. Everyone does a fantastic job, especially Gustaf Grefberg with the soundtrack, who mixes a bit of metal and orchestral music and it fits in perfectly with the vibe going on. Other areas of NY spring to life with heavily compressed music tracks that the guys doing breakdancing do in the Subway, with how George (one of the sidequesters) plays the Harmonica, I can't compliment the sound design enough; the actual world sound design is great from the weapons that sound punchy to the sound effects you get from when you violently rip out people's hearts to everything to be honest, everything's good. The only thing I could say looks strange is maybe the graphics? It does look a tad bit on the weird side, people's faces sometimes look a little too dead for my taste but for the most part I look past it. That being said, the Otherworld is fucking horrifying to be around and art wise is great, and the lighting is beautiful especially the last part killing Paulie where you look imposing standing over his soon to be corpse.
Now this game is a game I've played numerous times over the past decade or so that I've had it, and I recently watched a friend of mine play it on the hardest difficulty backwards compatible on Xbox One. To me that's the best place TO play it until it get's sold on PC (AGAIN PORT THE FUCKIN GAME JESUS, I will saw off a fuckin arm to get this game on Steam) but luckily you can play it on Emulator and I think runs well enough? I heard the PS3 version is a bit janky with frame rates but I'm not 100 percent sure because I didn't play it, and a friend of mine played it via PS3 emulator and said it ran great so I'm not sure. BUT what I will say is this game is a unique game, and I wish Starbreeze made more games like this. This game is in my Top 20 games at the least, and is worth a shot for anyone who wants to try it out; I sure as hell will and plan on playing it again real soon to get all the collectibles. I can't say enough good things about this game and all I want to do is ramble on more and more but I think I rambled on enough.
The Story is about a mobster named Jackie Estacado who with two of his mobster buddies go to assassinate a construction foreman or something at one of Paulie's sites. Now Paulie Franchetti is both the don of the family as well as Jackie's adoptive father, whom adopted Jackie when he was an orphan to raise him up as a hitman in his family. Things go awry as both the police and other construction guys try to shoot the trio of hitmen. Jackie's friend die, and Jackie himself shoots his way to where the target is supposedly located only to find a trap from Uncle Paulie himself: A bomb strapped to the corpse of the target. Turns out Uncle Paulie wanted you dead in his weird sociopathic paranoia for "criticizing the way you do business" and he attempts to kill you. Now, it's Jackie's 21st birthday and he's not pleased, but he gets an extra surprise: an ancient power named "The Darkness" possesses Jackie and helps him slaughter his way through mafia hitmen left and right. With revenge in mind, Jackie decides to hit Paulie and his buddy, Police Captain Eddie Shrote where it hurts, their pockets. However there's one things that could throw a wrench in it: Jackie's girlfriend Jenny, the love of his life. What I really love about the story other than the excuse to massacre mobsters is that their love for each other, though awkward on Jackie's end feels real and in the short time you get to know Jenny you love her instantly and want her to stay alive with Jackie. In the short time you have together you could even choose to sit together on the couch in her apartment and watch To Kill A Mockingbird all the way through in a nice sentimental moment. Too bad Paulie and Eddie Shrote later blow up the orphanage where you two used to live at but then blow out your girlfriend's brains in front of you while your held back by the Darkness itself. It turns out to the surprise of no one The Darkness is an evil little manipulative bastard; but you don't swear revenge and go after the killers. No, Jackie can't live without Jenny and just shoots himself. He wakes up in a World War 1 hellscape where he shoots his way to a town and learns of The Darkness's history; it's as old as time itself, and bonded itself to Jackie's family via his ancestor Anthony Estacado during World War 1. You're encouraged to get the Darkness Guns before coming back to him and being pointed in the direction of the castle where The Darkness lives. It turns out that The Darkness is keeping Jackie alive in some sort of incubation period as he slowly heals him back alive. When Jackie comes to, he's back in New York City and it's determined that Eddie Shrote needs to die. Mobsters point him towards Shrote's apartment and after failing the hit, Jackie raids an abandoned Turkish Bath used by Shrote's corrupt police force to host Illicit goods. Jackie massacres his cops and steals a briefcase, and after consulting with mobster Butcher Joyce, they plant a bomb and set a deal within Trinity Church to assassinate Shrote. It's obviously an ambush and goes both predictably wrong and right. Jackie is hit with flashbangs and is strapped to a chair and tortured with a power drill before he uses the Darkness to blow up the briefcase and kill Eddie and his guys, but before he does he hears them talking about "Mother of God". He's now back in World War 1, and he raids the castle with Anthony to help Jackie confront the Darkness. Anthony dies, musing that The Darkness is as evil as it is because it went insane due to the evil and misdeeds of humanity. From there you sit in four chairs to rip The Darkness out painfully before embracing it once again in a strange form of control over it. However it presents a conundrum, the more you kill, the closer it gets to taking control of your soul. Jackie wakes back up and after consulting the other mobsters learns what "Mother of God" is: a boat used by Paulie's superiors, the Chicago Mafia Families, to smuggle drugs in and out of New York. Calling the boat over, he assaults the drug boat and takes it over causing Paulie to flee to the safety of his lighthouse mansion in fear of being killed by the Chicago families for being seen as a liability. Jackie assaults the mansion during a hinted at Solar Eclipse and lets the Darkness take control, slaughtering everyone in his wake before he offs the fat bastard who murdered his girlfriend. He finally wakes up in a dream, where he talks to Jenny one last time as they say goodbye to each other before it finally fades to black. My feelings on the plot is basically one word: Wow. I love it, it's fucking sad and moving, in a sense poetic, definitely beautiful in my opinion. This game's plot moved me, and unlike the whole cult thing in the second game this game strictly stays with the mafioso murder stuff and some of my favorite video game enemies are Italian guys with the names of Joey and Dino in see through socks eating spaghetti while bitching about the good old days. It balances both of these well in a game that's not too long but not too short and to me personally makes it an experience I will come back to time and time again, and I still feel the relationship between Jackie and Jenny is one of the best depictions of an actual human relationship, if not the best ever in my opinion.
Now the gameplay for some will be the main detriment and I can understand why. It feels a bit awkward sometimes, mostly with using the Darkness arm and trying to climb into certain spots. Speaking of Darkness arms, you have a certain number of powers: The Darkness arm allows you to control a little tentacle that can sneak around wherever you need to go, climbing on walls, ceilings and the like to either open up new path ways or murder people. You can also use your darkness arms to throw black holes that'll suck people up and kill them instantly, stab them violently or call upon "Darklings", which are little goblin creatures in certain spots to do a number of things from just attack them, blow them up, shoot at them with a minigun and etc. You'll also get Darkness Guns, which you can use to permanently kill people in the World War 1 dreams or if you have full Darkness power (from eating people's hearts, which you can use to get more of these abilities and upgrades of which I continued to do long after getting all the upgrades because the sound design is great) you can just shoot them with infinite ammo I think? Which reminds me, your main form of attack are normal firearms like dual wielding pistols and SMGs (which you just end up dropping one if they're empty), a shotgun, an M16/AK, and some other stuff I think? They're aren't that many types of weapons but I still think they're pretty good and pack a punch. Now while you're doing this, you also have to knock out any nearby light source or else your powers will retreat into you and you won't be able to heal until you get out. This leads to a tactical awareness of your settings which I like and when the gunplay comes together it comes together great, especially if you approach people up front and execute them in a cool animation. Again there's a little bit of jank here and there, and I don't blame anyone who doesn't like it but I personally feel that this system is superior to the second game's system. You can also explore the lower part of Manhattan via train stations and pathways while doing side quests for people. For the most part, there aren't any monetary rewards; doing these quests only lead to an achievement for doing them all and collectible phone numbers, which when put in a nearby pay phone you'll get for the most part a funny little voice line or two and a collectible concept art or something for the main menu. You can also find these in both the World War 1 Underworld as well. To finish off, there is certain interactivity with the enviornment. The romantic moment with Jenny earlier can choose to watch TV, in certain spots cartoons will play, you can turn on and off light sources and while this may not be the most interactive game (definitely not, I say Faux Immersive sim for a reason), you can still interact with the world in certain ways that while may be limited still bring a bit of character to it. In the sequel they would certainly restrict a lot of these elements which I personally view as a downgrade and a damn shame.
The Sound Design/graphic/everything else: The voice actors are great with The Darkness itself voiced by metal vocalist Mike Patton, and is the PERFECT choice to portray how evil yet cowardly the Darkness is; the range is phenomenal and I can't recommend enough. Jackie is of course another highlight, though not threatening I like the vulnerable awkwardness that Kirk Acevedo brings to the table (though I think I like The Darkness 2's characterization better but at the same time I'm not bothered in the slightest). Jenny is voiced by Lauren Ambrose who brings an innocence but tough vibe to her that I can't describe but I like. The other guys are voiced like Italian mobsters, and I think they do a fantastic job, especially Dwight Shultz who makes me hate Uncle Paulie more and more with each breath he takes. Everyone does a fantastic job, especially Gustaf Grefberg with the soundtrack, who mixes a bit of metal and orchestral music and it fits in perfectly with the vibe going on. Other areas of NY spring to life with heavily compressed music tracks that the guys doing breakdancing do in the Subway, with how George (one of the sidequesters) plays the Harmonica, I can't compliment the sound design enough; the actual world sound design is great from the weapons that sound punchy to the sound effects you get from when you violently rip out people's hearts to everything to be honest, everything's good. The only thing I could say looks strange is maybe the graphics? It does look a tad bit on the weird side, people's faces sometimes look a little too dead for my taste but for the most part I look past it. That being said, the Otherworld is fucking horrifying to be around and art wise is great, and the lighting is beautiful especially the last part killing Paulie where you look imposing standing over his soon to be corpse.
Now this game is a game I've played numerous times over the past decade or so that I've had it, and I recently watched a friend of mine play it on the hardest difficulty backwards compatible on Xbox One. To me that's the best place TO play it until it get's sold on PC (AGAIN PORT THE FUCKIN GAME JESUS, I will saw off a fuckin arm to get this game on Steam) but luckily you can play it on Emulator and I think runs well enough? I heard the PS3 version is a bit janky with frame rates but I'm not 100 percent sure because I didn't play it, and a friend of mine played it via PS3 emulator and said it ran great so I'm not sure. BUT what I will say is this game is a unique game, and I wish Starbreeze made more games like this. This game is in my Top 20 games at the least, and is worth a shot for anyone who wants to try it out; I sure as hell will and plan on playing it again real soon to get all the collectibles. I can't say enough good things about this game and all I want to do is ramble on more and more but I think I rambled on enough.