Retro Review: The Darkness

<p><strong>Back in 2007&comma; there was a shift in the FPS genre and many games released felt uninspiring and weak in execution&period; I reviewed one of my favourites that came out a year prior&comma; Prey is one of the finest corridor shooters in the last generation&period; Then came The Darkness&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Inspired by the Top Cow comic series of the same name and brought to us by the super talented Starbreeze studios&semi; the guys who brought us the awesome Chronicles of Riddick&colon; Escape from Butcher Bay&period; As a comic to video game adaption back in 2007&comma; it was met with universal praise&period; Now&comma; after 11 years I ask if like Prey&comma; has The Darkness aged well&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;download&period;xbox&period;com&sol;content&sol;images&sol;66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802545407ee&sol;1033&sol;screenlg1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Image from The Darkness" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"562" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Darkness&comma; Starbreeze Studios<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<h2>Plot<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The Darkness is centred on Jackie Estacado&comma; a mafia hitman celebrating his 21<sup>st<&sol;sup> birthday in style with a hit going wrong&comma; his psychopath Mob-boss uncle betraying him and a supernatural force overtaking his body for reasons unknown&period; Nice&excl; So Jackie is fighting not only the mafia&comma; corrupted police officers&comma; and his mental uncle but also a powerful force which has manifested as a supernatural creature with tentacles and a hunger for human hearts&period; Jackie must use his demonic abilities in order to defeat his uncle and the mafia to ensure his own survival and that of his loved one&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This adaption presents a gripping story that embodies the dark humour&comma; intense drama and compelling themes of the comics perfectly&period; There are plenty of interesting themes&comma; enthralling twists and an underlying tragic overtone that really is heart-breaking&period; Many of the elements are made much more effective due to some great voice acting and the visual style&comma; with one or two exceptions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Voice acting<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Firstly there’s the problem with Jackie&period; Kirk Acevedo is a decent actor but not a very good voice actor as he spews lifeless and emotionless readings that make Jackie more of a moody goth than a hardened mafia Hitman like in the comics&period; Brian Bloom’s performance in the sequel was much more fitting and one that utilises the presence of The Darkness&period; Kirk Acevedo performance seems massively disinterested in The Darkness&comma; the horrendous situation&comma; the violence and everything else in-between&period; One key scene sees Jackie attempt to break through his emotional barrier and it comes off as unintentionally funny and massively ham-fisted overall due to the poor animations of Jackie&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;download&period;xbox&period;com&sol;content&sol;images&sol;66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802545407ee&sol;1033&sol;screenlg3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Image from The Darkness" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"562" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Darkness&comma; Starbreeze Studios<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>But the standout performance is Mike Patton who is perfect in the role of The Darkness&period; His voice is perfect and I wish this guy did more voice acting in gaming&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Graphics<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>While The Darkness is a fairly decent looking game even by current standards&comma; many of the character models look downright lifeless&period; This is a problem Starbreeze have on a regular basis when developing their character models&period; It’s inconsistent as some look&comma; move and animate well while the other 50&percnt; look&comma; move and animate like petrified wood &lpar;Beavis and Butthead reference there&rpar;&period; The lip syncing can be awful at times&comma; hardly moving when people speak &lpar;Jackie’s is the worst&rpar; and you can go lengthy durations where characters don’t even blink&period; This is a problem as it’s extremely off-putting and draws way too much attention when the camera does a close-up&period; All these faults distract from the excellent character interactions and the great work that’s actually here&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Gameplay<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>But while StarBreeze are known for designing games around a compelling narrative&comma; they are also renowned for their interesting frameworks in FPs titles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;download&period;xbox&period;com&sol;content&sol;images&sol;66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802545407ee&sol;1033&sol;screenlg6&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Image from The Darkness" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"562" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Darkness&comma; Starbreeze Studios<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Shooting mechanics are pretty refined but there’s a couple of issues which really hold this back from greatness&period; Again like the aesthetics&comma; the shooting is inconsistent&period; For example&comma; shooting objects such as light bulbs point blank with a shotgun might have no effect&comma; but fire 20 feet away at an enemy and they’ll go down no problem&period; Enemy damage suffers from The Darkness’s inconsistent nature as you can again shoot an enemy in the face with a shotgun and after a short breather they’ll get back up&period; Matters are made worse when you realise the enemy AI is pretty unintelligent and the lack of variation in enemies makes most shootouts a little repetitive&period; Aside from these small issues&comma; the shooting can be very enjoyable&comma; with a great amount of intensity&comma; impact from firearms and small touches like the finishers make combat more entertaining&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What also helped The Darkness overcome its mechanical flaws are the great set pieces which really have stood the test of time&period; Moments like the opening car chase&comma; Restaurant shootout with the SWAT team&comma; WW1 stages and the underground tunnels homing a deranged cult are sparks of light in a dark room&period; The Darkness has some exhilarating action and then there are other moments which will bore the pants of anyone&period; It’s a shame that the Darkness itself and the powers you wield don’t become prominent until the latter half of the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It’s not until you come back from the first WW1 segment that the Darkness becomes more prominent and useful for the second half&period; While not as engaging or varied as the sequel’s Darkness mechanics&comma; there are some highlights of the Blackhole being the most damaging and spectacular in action&period; These powers&comma; however&comma; don’t save the game from its biggest problem&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;download&period;xbox&period;com&sol;content&sol;images&sol;66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802545407ee&sol;1033&sol;screenlg2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Image from The Darkness" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"562" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Darkness&comma; Starbreeze Studios<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<h2>Pacing<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>What causes the main problem for The Darkness and its pacing are the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;open world” segments and what you do within these areas&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The subway hub world and the world&comma; in general&comma; is just dull&comma; lifeless and a drag to traverse&period; Various side quests just amount to tedious fetch quests&comma; kill quests and the worst one which involves you picking up coins off a live subway track for an old ladies amusement&period; Yeah&comma; this was a major low point for the game&period;  But these don’t amount to the piss poor end where Jackie fights his way to his Uncle Paul’s island mansion for the last big battle to be a crappy cutscene and ending on a flat&comma; single-note style execution&period; Then it’s a 10-second ending and that’s it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Conclusion<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The best way I can describe The Darkness as inconsistent&period; Starbreeze are a talented bunch of guys who make compelling first-person shooters with interesting themes and settings&comma; but can also miss out on the smaller details&period; There are some great elements at play with a well written story&comma; great performances &lpar;for the most part&rpar;&comma; excellent action and nicely refined shooting mechanics&period; These are however held back by the poor performances&comma; some awful animations&comma; broken sense of aiming&comma; dull open world segments and the underwhelming use of The Darkness for the first half&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>While there are some shining moments in The Darkness&comma; just expect some underwhelming and baffling design choices that ruin the flow and let this down overall&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;