The Darkness

Jul 2, 2007

Last week, we did an Out of the Box on The Darkness that was largely positive, and after further testing we still maintain that this game is a smashing success. Still, that's based on a single-player focus, because the multiplayer is tragically flawed and mired in substandard lag. Even with the nearly unplayable multiplayer side, however, The Darkness remains a consummate example of the horror genre and could easily serve as the bar by which future games of its type are measured.

Face-bitingly Fantastic

From start to finish, The Darkness is drenched in an atmosphere of unmatched terror. While the original comic material contained some superhero-style elements (including The Darkness's janky costume), few of the cheesier elements have made their way into the game. This is excellent, and the mark of developer Starbreeze (creators of the critically acclaimed Chronicles of Riddick) can be seen in the dark and tortured feel of what is essentially an improved re-imagining of the character and story. The Jackie Estacado (the game's anti-hero protagonist) of this game is a darker and even more brutal rendition than we've ever seen before.

The gruesomely gritty nature of this new The Darkness comes through in a palpable sense of overwhelming dread juxtaposed with an awesome feeling of incredible power. While Jackie is slaved to the source of his disturbing abilities, he's also empowered by his eventual rebellion against an ancient supernatural demon that simultaneously supplies obscene amounts of power while bending him to its will. All of this comes across fantastically in the game, and you'll be forcibly made to feel every ounce of angst and anger at the sublimation of Jackie's will. This makes the single-player campaign a positively outstanding experience that will undoubtedly impact your psyche on multiple levels.

Dark Debacle

The only thing that really drags the game down is the tacked on-multiplayer. Of course, that's assuming that you even bother with it. You could easily skip playing The Darkness online and come out all the more satisfied with the game because of it. The nagging issues are mostly concerned with the grotesque amounts of lag on both the PS3 and 360 consoles.

It's a shame, because (similar to Shadowrun) there are some really intriguing innovations in The Darkness's multiplayer game. Transforming into a skittering Darkling at will is hilarious and serves as a sort of "travel form" during multiplayer. Unfortunately, the terminal latency problems are only exacerbated by the nimble little beasts and you'll frequently find yourself warping around maps with little actual control over where you end up. Of course, tactical targeting is rendered impossible when you've got half of your teammates and foes morphing into these little bastards, so the end result is a literal crapshoot as to whether you end up killing or being killed.

These issues are slightly worse on the PS3 due to the fact that the online structure doesn't provide key features like inviting friends to a match or voice chat. While these features exist on the 360, we can only assume that it's because every game includes these features on the 360 as a rule. Developer Starbreeze seems to have put in the minimal amount of work possible to provide a multiplayer component, and it shows in the woefully derelict online side of the game.

That said, we'll stick to the assertion that the excellent single-player game more than makes up for the sad state of the multiplayer. We doubt that anyone is going to buy The Darkness for online play (and if they do, maybe they should read videogame reviews before committing their precious cash). Essentially, the multiplayer is best swept under the rug and forgotten.

All that said, we love The Darkness and can easily recommend it to mature gamers everywhere as the definitive horror game of 2007. 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. It is highly unlikely that anyone that picks this game up will be disappointed with it, unless they are operating on the mistaken impression that there is a decent multiplayer game too.