The Darkness PS3/X360 - Review
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RRP: £44.99
Out 29 June (X360) 20 July (PS3)
Buy X360 for £34.98 >>
Buy PS3 for £34.98 >>
If there are two things you don’t expect to see put together it’s the mafia and demons from the underworld. Each seems scary and powerful enough on their own without combining forces. However, comic books rarely play the subtlety card on their superheroes. The Darkness is a game based on the comic and gives you the chance to play as cool anti-hero Jackie Estacado.
Jackie is a mob hit-man and for his 21st birthday his boss and uncle, Paulie, sends him a bunch of bad guys to whack him. You’ll start off trying to evade Paulie’s thugs in what starts off as a straightforward first-person-shooter, but it’s not long before you start developing the powers of The Darkness, a parasitic demon that slowly takes over you. As you try to get back at the mobsters and protect your loved ones from them, The Darkness gives you a little help along the way.
The Darkness depends on shadow for its power, so you’ll spend much of the game shooting out lights to allow use of your four demonic abilities. There’s Creeping Dark, where you use snake-like tentacles to slither out from your body and move ahead to see what’s round the corner or squeeze into tight spaces. You can use Demon Arm to knock out lights and enemies before eating their hearts to increase your powers. Using your Darkness Guns will save you ammo, and Black Hole sucks in all enemies in its path. You can also call on little Darkling creatures to aid you – they’ll run off to kill enemies and knock out lights further ahead of you.
With large and open areas to play in there’s plenty to keep you going. The online mode is a bit sparse and suffers from lag issues, but the single player is excellent fun if not as deep as it could have been.
8/10
Review by Kirsten Kearney
