The Darkness [X360]

Living in darkness isn't the only way to power your anti-hero. There's a very gruesome collection aspect to this game. To bolster your Darkness powers, you can devour the hearts of your victims. The more you eat, the stronger you become. It's a primal ritual as each kill leads to the sadistic ceremony of tearing out another heart. If only Nintendo had the balls to add this to Pokemon. Gotta eat 'em all.

Like Riddick, The Darkness has a few moments where the action dies down and you have a moment to breathe. In these instances, Estacado finds himself in the subway station, where his guns and powers aren't accessible. Instead of killing the innocent, Jackie can choose to do some good deeds. The sidequests are little more than fetch or kill missions, but they can extend the game by a good 2-3 hours if you're ambitious enough to complete them all. These side missions are where you can truly express your morality. You may need to collect an apartment key from a jilted boyfriend, for example. It's an easy enough thing to do through dialogue. But once you have the key, you also have the option to kill the poor man and eat his heart. Like I said before, you gotta eat 'em all, right?

You can also choose to wander the two sections of New York City that have been created. The level of detail in these areas is impressive, though the city itself amounts to only a few blocks. While it's usually nice to have an open exploration aspect, it's not particularly satisfying when the game world is this tiny. The limitation (along with the painfully slow movements of the lead character) is likely necessary to allow some of the attractive effects while keeping the framerate steady.

The most interesting place to visit in the Darkness isn't even on this plane of existence. In two instances during the campaign, Jackie travels to the Otherworld. This nightmarish realm is a version of hell in which World War I never ends. Zombie soldiers torture and kill the lost souls of American G.I.s. It's wonderfully twisted. And the world also features the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, though in forms that may surprise you. It would have been nice if more of these twisted and monstrous aspects had bled into New York, because the majority of The Darkness has you battling dim-witted humans who are little more than fodder for your new low-carb heart diet.

The single-player campaign ends with a bit of a thud. Rather than building to a climactic final battle, The Darkness is pretty much on an even keel from start to finish. The enemies never become more difficult. Starbreeze wanted to give gamers a sense of being the scariest mofo in the room by game's end. So by the time you have the Black Hole power, you are pretty much in charge. It's a great sensation to know you are going to waste everyone you see, but it doesn't work so well from a game standpoint. Without building to tougher challenges, the last few hours fall a bit flat. It doesn't help that the final level drops into a series of cutscenes showing you do some awesome things not possible when in control of Jackie Estacado.

But at least the single-player game will give you some satisfaction. It's certainly worth playing. The same can't be said of the multiplayer, which comes off as little more than an afterthought. Up to eight players can get in on the fun through System Link or over Xbox Live. Rather than having eight people playing as Estacado, gamers take on the role of mobsters or Darklings (or Darklings that morph into mobsters). The Darklings are fast and can leap incredible distances. But they aren't as strong as mobsters, who can also carry guns.

Only four multiplayer modes are included, with a little under a dozen maps total. You can play Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Survivor (one against all).

The maps are claustrophobic, which gives them a unique feel over the average FPS. But they aren't particularly well laid out. Of the modes, only CTF has really proven to be worth repeated plays. And that is mainly because the strengths and weaknesses of the humans/Darklings come into play throughout the experience.

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