The Darkness

The Darkness combines the best bits of mafia and war films, producing one complete, intriguing experience...Few licensed games go beyond the realms of their source material, but The Darkness does it in a fun, gritty and engaging way. [Issue#154, p.62]

The Darkness isn’t all that long and clocks in at about 10 hours, but it feels fresh the entire way through and doesn’t overstay its welcome.

It also feels like a more polished game, and the base mechanics work extremely well by the time you reach the end of the single-player campaign. It doesn't quite have "Riddick's" pacing, due to the open city that asks you to find your own way through, but it presents a better feeling of accomplishment and familiarity by the end.

The Darkness is brutal in its violence, language, and dark tone. [Aug 2007, p.70]

The Darkness is a meaty, emotional, visceral experience that few games will ever be able to match. Starbreeze's next-gen debut hits on some many levels that we're almost scared to think of what they'll do next.

I love it when I feel like a game has shown me something new. [Aug 2007, p.66]

It's rare to play an FPS with gameplay this creative and exciting. [Vol 3, Issue 2, p.54]

Interactive storytelling is rarely this good, and there are few game endings that make you sit back and think, “Man, what if I did this instead?” like this one does. For its amazing narrative and believability of characters, and the twisted joys that come from being a slave of a demon, The Darkness will keep you enthralled, even when the gameplay lags a little behind.

For all its drawbacks and shortcomings, this title makes good on its initial promise - seen right at the start - to deliver a unique and beautifully paced action quest. If only they would've built on the superb foundation just a bit more.

Part of The Darkness’s charm is its wealth of extravagant, often irrelevant detail.

The Darkness offers up just about everything we have come to desire in a FPS and has wrapped the package up nicely with a few neat touches of its own.

A remarkable action game that tells a compelling story from start to finish.

The Darkness is a deep FPS game, giving you a nice world to explore and great Darkness powers to use. The controls are a little sluggish, however, and the AI leaves a little bit to be desired.

A fantastic game with an engaging story that only manages to slip up towards the end.

It’s like a great amusement park ride: fun while it lasts. But peel off that shiny paint and pause the adrenaline rush and you see there are some core problems hiding in the shadows, like underlying structure and play that just don’t completely congeal. Even so, it’s a hell of a ride, and it’s hard not to be forgiving and embrace this darkness.

The Darkness is truly a brilliant ray of light during this otherwise abysmal summer gaming drought.

Its story is one of the most interesting and engaging stories (albeit dark) that I've ever seen in a video game.

Not without flaws, but dripping with atmosphere and filled with 'whoa' moments. [Aug 2007, p.74]

The game looks gorgeous, featuring dark, seedy locales and superb special effects. The gallons of blood. The tentacle detail. The characters. It's without question one of the best looking video games...That notwithstanding, it's not the deepest of adventures.

It's the closest thing we've seen to an HD-gen "Silent Hill," except that in The Darkness you get to play as that venerable franchise's ultimate evil monstrosity, Pyramid Head, clothed in the flesh of a mafia hit man.

Keeping the "set" locations small allows for some impressive and immersive detail--throw in quality script and voice acting, and the whole experience is compelling enough (and very well paced) to transcend its brief playtime. [Aug 2007, p.74]

It's a very intense game in more ways than one. There is gore galore and foul language liberally spoken. The story is solid and adds to the action of the game. But it maybe just too intense and spooky for some.

If you're looking for a tactical shooter or a horror game that makes you soil your pants then you should probably look elsewhere. But if you are happy with a cool first person shooter with a great gritty plot and some fun horror and supernatural elements then you'll be very happy that you plunged into The Darkness.

It's too bad that the AI and gameplay mechanics couldn't be smoothed out a bit more to match the impressive visual presentation.

There is a good game in here, but it's too bad that the AI and gameplay mechanics weren't as impressive as the deep story line.

The gorgeous visuals, incredible atmosphere, unique subject matter and immense production values are let down, and ultimately made redundant, by the abysmal pacing, sloppy design and criminal lack of length. [Aug 2007, p.60]

Despite offering a significantly compelling single-player story, there's little to keep you coming back once it's been completed.

Fans of the series are in the position of seeing a game that is an enhancement, rather than an exploitation, of its source material – and fans of the FPS have another good example of the genre to add to their busy schedules. [Aug 2007, p.86]

The handicapped shooting elements, the inconsequential mini-games, and the lack of connection between them will probably turn off diehard shooter fans. It’s not the biggest game, nor the most technical, but it is original—absurd and effective despite its faults.

The back-and-forth structure is tedious, and the narrative needed to be much more fleshed-out. Too bad great loading-screen treatments can't make up for overall shortcomings.

Most of the time this feels like a clutter of poorly executed ideas held together with little more than good intentions. [Aug 2007, p.96]

While Starbreeze have brought their customary expertise graphically, so many other aspects of The Darkness are sadly lacking.

The Darkness is an overreaching, frequently clumsy genre hybrid with moments of brilliance.