Product Description

The Darkness is a gritty, first-person, action-adventure game with a horror twist. On mafia hitman Jackie Estacado's 21st birthday, the awesome and terrible powers of the Darkness awaken within him.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1525 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Take 2
• Released on: 2007-06-28
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• ESRB Rating: Adults Only
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Multilingual
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

Manufacturer's Description:
The Darkness video game is based on TopCow's cult comic hit of the same name that was written by famed comic-book author, Paul Jenkins, and co-created by famed comic-book artist, Marc Silvestri. The story for The Darkness video game was also written in collaboration with Paul Jenkins.

The Darkness is a gritty, first-person, action-adventure game with a horror twist. On mafia hitman Jackie Estacado's 21st birthday, the awesome and terrible powers of the Darkness awaken within him allowing Jackie to wreak havoc on his enemies. In the game, players experience extremely intense and immersive cinematic action. Players will have an array of dark and other-worldly powers available, including cannibalizing the corpses of slain victims and transforming them into Darklings - impish demonites that commit unspeakable acts.

Amazon.co.uk Review

Developer Starbreeze Studios seem to have found a niche for themselves creating top notch video games based on licensing tie-ins that hardly anyone has ever heard of. The Chronicles of Riddick may have been a film flop but the game was one of the best first person shooters on the original Xbox. This follow-up is based on an obscure comic book about a Mafia hitman with the rather handy ability to conjure up the eponymous Darkness – source of seemingly unlimited demonic power.

To some degree the game can be played like a standard first person shooter, with main character Jackie Estacado proving a dab hand with a wide variety of standard pistols, machine guns and shotguns. The Darkness powers though are obviously the game’s real draw, with the ability to use super strong tentacles to fling around objects in the impressively interactive game world or act as a shield or even spy camera. The most interesting of the Darkness abilities though is summoning special imps called darklings. These come in twenty different types, from interrogator to kamikaze to decoy, and ensure there’s always more than one way to tackle any obstacle.

The only problem with the Darkness as a power is that it doesn’t work in strong light, which is where the need for more traditional weaponry comes in – especially when shooting out lights to get your demonic groove back on. The graphics are superb (The Chronicles of Riddick still looks better than many low end 360 games) and despite its obscure origins the Darkness itself turns out to be the most interesting thing to happen to first person shooters in years.
Harrison Dent

Customer Reviews

AMAZING
Unlike the other review currently listed, I've actually just finished playing and completing The Darkness. Let me first make one very important point - I've never, ever, felt compelled after purchasing any product to go online and write a review. I always wondered why people bothered. Maybe if it's really good or really bad and you want to warn the public sure, but never if it's mediocre. But this game, The Darkness, makes me want to sit every single person I know down, give them a controller, and MAKE them play it because it's one of those things that you just feel is SO good that everyone should have the joy of experiencing it.

I watched the gametrailers review before I bought it and whilst they were positive, they weren't sure about the controls. Let me set the record straight, they are numerous ways of customising the speed, precision, acceleration and accuracy of the control system. Get the sensitivity right, turn off auto-aim and lower the 'free look' option and you can get it just perfect - so much so that even when I had the bigger guns later in the game, I always favoured the pistols because if you get a headshot, they go down, accurate, satisfying. The graphics are simply the BEST I have ever seen in a first person shooter with NO EXCEPTIONS. Gears of War looked amazing, this is in a different realm of realism - you'll be blown away. The voice acting and motion captured movement of the characters is faultless. But if there's one thing that makes this game stand out as one of the best games I have ever played, it's the story and the way it evolves with you. From the intro to the credits, you move with the story, enveloped in its twists, highs and lows. It really makes you feel like you're controlling the anger and emotion of the main character - experience it for yourself.

Can't comment on the multiplayer - that's not why I bought it. There are so many multiplayer deathmatch games out there, none of them as good as the Halo experience and few with a solid single player, so it's great to have a brilliant single player game on the market.

My only criticism is that sometimes it can be annoying travelling between destinations for those impatient amongst us, but in the grand scheme of things, if you plan what you're doing at each location, it doesn't effect your enjoyment of the game one bit.

In sum - BUY THIS NOW. I'm a videogame enthusiast, I have good taste, I don't buy rubbish and I don't get excited about a game unless it's really good 'cause normally I don't have the time to sit and play. So a game has to be good to get me to sacrifice everything else - The Darkness was it. Became obsessed, completed it, now want a sequel. I only hope Starbreeze Studios read this review and get on with Part 2!

The Darkness: Best game so far this year!
Honestly, I've never had so much fun. The level of immersion and atmosphere in this game is unbelievable.

It starts with a dramatic car chase, which wouldn't be out of place in a mega-budget action movie. From there you can explore the subway station. Lights hum and flicker as you get near to them, people go about their own business, trains come and go, you can even use telephones, call customer services and even watch the TV, change channels, and watch entire films, cartoons and music videos. The level of realism will freak you out.

At the same time the game is so creepy. Ultra-realistic lighting makes the game almost photorealistic at times. The use of sound effects and eerie music, along with the voices of the darklings, will make your hairs stand on end.

The ultimate next-gen experience. If you have a 360, you really must get this game. If you don't, buy one today!

The Darkness - The Honest Review
Hi everyone this is my review of one of my favirate games on the 360 The Darkness. As usual ill go throgh, GAMEPLAY , GRAPHICS , and OVERALL verdict (No multi player this time :( (as i never played this online) so lets get down to it.

STORY:
The Darkness has you assume the role of Mafia hitman Jackie Estacado who was adopted by his mafia don uncle Paulie, The curse of the darkness (an ancient evil passed down the gene pool) dwells inside Jackie and all males in Jackies family (until the host is 21). So on the night of his 21st birthday Jackie and 2 mafia friends are sent on a hit for paulie which ends up being a set up after finding out his uncle paulie wants him dead Jackie turns on his former boss and sets out for revenge little does he know that the darkness is awakening inside him with its own evil intentions.

GAMEPLAY:
The Darkness is 2K games new horror themed FPS, at first Jackie is just a normal guy with normal abilities yawn boring right? NO Jackie does have some really good up close killing moves that can be satisfying to watch and easy to pull off simply stand close to an enemy and press RT.
Like most FPS games when Jackie takes damage all it takes is a little cover and he respawns his health
(same as gears of war when the red circle appears). Not long into the game Jackie finds himself with some pretty nasty powers (at first you get to use the creeping dark and summon a demon known as a Darkling from hell)
as you progress new abilities will be learnt and improved this is done by feeding the Darkness with the hearts of fallen enemies.

Jackie has the power to summon little demons called Darklings they come in 4 tyes each with their own personality and uses e.g. Gunner will assist Jackie with a huge mini gun if he is in a fire fight as you progress through the game more darklings are availible.

Fans of the comic are going to be in ecstacy here everything in the game is based on the comics and follows it very closely.

The Darkness is similar to the chronicles of riddick game in which Jackie can explore the new york subway and talk to people for side quests, this is'nt as great or successful as it could of been but its still a nice feature. The auto aim is great but abit annoying for shooting lights... yes lights the darkness takes damage if exposed to light but by feeding it shadows itll be fully recharged again.

GRAPHICS:
Everything in the Darkness is incredibly detailed from characters to surroundings, this game is deffinitly not for the faint hearted if you shoot somone in the head you'll see a huge hole in their face and gore spewing out and the heart eating animation is grusome but incredibly detailed. every actor/tress is motion captured for the extra realistic feel and no one looks the same
(in some cases the mafia hitmen cant look the same) but some of the actors look like they were mo capped by a manequin but thats not a bad thing this game has soooo many good points.
Even loading screens are detailed with Jackie sat in the middle of a room explaining whats going on and telling us breif memories about places and his past thses can be boring when repeated but the loading times are so quick you can skip them with the B button.


OVERALL:
The Darkness is a great well put together game with plenty of action and plot twists to keep you entertained the atmosphere is great and acting is solid. The games difficulty varies depending on preference i reccomend normal defficulty if you like a challenge, The games missions are well structured and sensible objectives the story line is absolutly brilliant.
For those who love fast run and gun games you probably wont be completely satisfied here considerin Jackies top speed seems to be more of a speed walking pace but the action in the gun fights should excuse this.
The Darkness is deffinitly worth buying as it has such a great story line and good gameplay , if your not really into games of this type then consider renting it it really is worth it unfortunatly i never got to play on live with this but ive been told the multi player is great playing as darkilngs and humans, this game will keep you entertained for hours on end.

Thanks for reading hope you find this helpful

by Jay *Sniper Wolf 1989*