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Fun and fun but don't expect good replayability.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: July 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is very fun and violent. The first time through was a thrill. The second time through i was able to pay attention to small details and enjoyed it again. Now it's going on my shelf and will probably never be played again.

Falls way short of the hype

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: December 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

In a year completely saturated with incredible first person shooters, The Darkness falls short as a very bland title with little to offer. The mechanics and graphics are good, but nothing revolutionary or even unique. Basically, the gimmick of this game is that you are a man exiled by the mafia who can control demons. A novel concept, but it is more burdensome than useful. You will constantly be shooting out light bulbs to use these abilities which is not very entertaining. The A.I. is sub-par as is the convoluted story line. Level design and enemies are very mundane: a clear sign that more money was spent advertising on this game than making it. The box shots may look great, but do not buy this game for somebody unless you hate them. Games like BioShock, Call of Duty 4, and Halo are far greater values for the money.

Tedium defined.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: December 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Clunky controls, bad interface, boring story, one dimensional stereotypical characters. Nothing about this game is compelling or original. Is this the best the gaming industry has to offer?

Mafia/Sci-Fi ... what?!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Interesting description of Mafia/Sci-fi, but its so true! This game is so awesome! Use your weapons to kill people, one of your four darkness powers to kill people, or summon one of your four darklings to do the dirty work for you! And eating the dead guy's heart to gain a higher darkness level is the best! You have your main mission plus other side missions that you can complete in the meantime.
Only negative is that the online play is very glitchy which can ruin your planned execution moves!
But bottom line:
Great graphics, great storyline, a must play period.

Join "The Darkness"

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

"The Darkness," from the studio that brought Xbox fans "The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay," is a first-person shooter based on the dark comic book series of the same name. And like the aforementioned "Riddick," it further proves that these guys know what makes a cool video game adaptation.

You assume the role of Jackie Estacado, adopted nephew of Mafia boss Paulie Franchetti, as he reaches his 21st birthday and stumbles blindly into the dark destiny of his family line. The opening sequence is a knockout, and thrusts you headlong into the gritty world of organized crime in this fictional version of New York City. The ensuing police chase, car crash, and demise of your companions, a couple of Mafia thugs, is by itself worth the price of admission.

Jackie soon finds himself on the receiving end of his Uncle Paulie's wrath, which brings him into contact with an evil entity known as The Darkness. This demonic parasite latches itself to Jackie, and simultaneously aids and defies him in his quest for revenge -- a quest with many shocking twists and turns that I dare not spoil in this review.

The first-person gunplay of "The Darkness" is itself quite extraordinary. Shooting people is rarely this satisfying, thanks to copious amounts of gore, better-than-average rag doll physics, and a satisfying real world arsenal that never grows stale. But Jackie's Darkness powers certainly add the icing to this already tasty cake, allowing him to sprout serpentine tentacles that devour the hearts of his foes (for the purpose of leveling up Darkness powers)... and that's just the beginning. Other Darkness abilities allow you to impale your foes and swing them wildly around at the end of a glistening appendage, creep across the floor as a serpent and put a hole through an unsuspecting victim, and open up black holes that devour several enemies at once. It's all extremely gratifying, and provides ample means to destroy the opposition.

Some Darkness abilities are less compelling than others, however. The Darkness Guns, for instance, rarely serve a useful purpose, while the aforementioned black holes act as overpowered grenades, and can sometimes shift the balance too far in the player's favor. Nonetheless, in a game where just shooting guys would be great, these alternatives do their part in further distinguishing the gameplay and making you feel like a real, bona fide bad@$$ with a sick, sadistic evil streak.

Of course, the game isn't complete without the ability to summon Darklings -- funny gremlin-like beasties that will back you up in a pinch. With multiple varities, such as Gunners (equipped with massive chain guns), Berserkers (who ambush opponents and cut them down to size), and Kamikazes (they go BOOM!), things don't ever seem to get old.

Production values are great across the board, from the near-flawless sound effects to the strength of the visuals, which depict a grimy New York City connected by subway tunnels and desolate streets under a sky of seemingly endless night. Maybe the streets are too desolate, point of fact, given that the City That Never Sleeps seems to be very asleep indeed, but it all adds to chilling atmosphere.

The game takes a stab at the slightly open-ended nature of "Butcher Bay," but doesn't quite nail it. This also results in lots and lots of walking between key action setpieces, and backtracking is never all that fun in any game. This game's attempts at non-linearity come across as tacked on, if anything, and will only do it for those who desperately want to drag out the experience.

Despite a strong, compelling storyline, the Mafia element of "The Darkness" never met a cliche it didn't like. The Godfather meets Goodfellas dialog can be groan-inducing at times, especially all references to "respect." There was a better way to handle this material, but this is a mere nitpick at worst.

"The Darkness" is one of the best games available on the Xbox 360, bottom line. Do yourselves a favor and join the dark side.

The Darkness is FRESH!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I just wanted to say that the Darkness is an extremely well produced, well written, and fun to play game. The pacing and story keep you at the edge of your seat.

Violent, Bloody, and all the stuff I love. It reminded me of a First Person Max Payne, and thats a good thing.

I was not familiar with the Darkness comic, but I must say this game is one of my favorite games of the year so far. Hats off to the team that made it.

The Darkness - a near perfect game?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game was fantastically eerie, dark and totally captivating both in content and visual impact. Try playing it with the lights off! And just as much fun with others in the same room watching you go through the game. Everybody seems to get completely absorbed by it.

You find yourself walking around and becoming pretty taken by the graphics, scenery and the virtual reality people as much as the mission itself. Extremely realistic and at times disturbing in its hellish and dark representation! Highly impressive.

I found the game so close to being perfect, that I can hardly think of a criticism other than the fact the game ended! Imagine dark roads, streets/alleys with the glow of lamp lights, subways, trains stations, rooms and hallways, chuch yards/abandoned buildings. So much to investigate and the seedy and eerie atmosphere to go with it.

To me, this game is a MUST as any addition to your collection.

Fan of the Series

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

While I am a fan of both The Darkness and FPSes, but this game does neither very well. For an X360 game it isn't very polished. It feels more like an XBox original game, and while the story is decent, there are glitches. For example, while your walking across the dead area, you keep getting caught on nothing, over and over you get stuck on nothing and the goblins, don't get me started on how stupid the goblin AI is.

One of my main disappointments is the goblins. The goblin's AI isn't even as smart as the goblin AI in the game Overlord, although are sometimes useful when they have to be, but often the storyline seems to come up with excuses to use them. Most of the time they are used as cannon fodder or a distraction, but rarely do they ever do something that you shouldn't be able to do with your powers, or better yet, with your hands.

As the game progresses you get powers, but the game limits how and when you can use them, which is VERY frustrating. For example, you can use the dark arms to pick up cars, but you can't use them to smash down a flimsy wooden door.

I WAS really excited to play this game...emphasis on the was...=/

Darkness rocks. Being possessed is blessed.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Well i am here to say that i just finished The Darkness and i am impressed beyond words....... Never have i played a game where i could'nt put down the controller until now. I for one feel this game is ground breaking in its gameplay, presentation, and originality. 2K has out did them selves, once again. There also seems to be a lot of dissent between gamers that liked this title versus gamers that thought it was less than stellar. If you have been looking for a game that has something untried/new before now then you owe it to yourself to buy or at least rent this game, go ahead give it a try. If you follow the advise of the nay-sayers and follow the huge herd of sheep playing the same old tried and true cookie cutter games that have been rehashed a 100 dozen times with a 100 dozen different titles with the same generic hack and slash/wham bam thank you mam type game play then steer clear of this game, it's groundbreaking visuals and indepth game play will overwhelm you. And sadly my friends you will not know what you have missed.
The most excellent part, this is my opinion, was after witnessing the murder of your girl Genny. You turn around, look in a mirror, pull out your weapon and do your self...NOT!. You wake up in a hellish world still alive with the darkness telling you that you do not belong here, "here" is a W.W.1 battle field replete with trenches, Huns (Germans) and you. The world is dark with a blood color sky, when viewable through the clouds, you are behind enemy lines trying to complete a series of mini missions which will lead you to no mans land and eventually to the British, Canadians, Australians, and whom ever else make up this world of disbelief lines. Once your at the village take your time, look around, read the posters on the bombed out ruins of buildings, likewise in the beginning of the game, read the tomb stones, very beleiveable and chilling to say the least. The ambient mood of the game, the dark humor, the possession of your will and soul as well as the original score completes the overall package, but don't take my word for it, check it out yourself, you will be glad you did. I am a 49 year old gamer, i have played video games all my life back when mechanical pin-ball was the rage. Then we got Pong for Christmas, next Nintendo, and its been game on ever since and will be until i die. So with that being said i wouldn't steer you wrong, money is to hard to come by these days to foolishly waste it, so take my advise and rent it first, if it aint the best thing since sliced bread then take it back, no foul no harm. Remember, this is the same publisher (2K) that put out the critically acclaimed Bio Shock and we all know how freakin great that ride was. So .........GAME ON. Thanks.

Surprisingly Good

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game recently, used, for a bare bones price because I saw that it was a 2K Games release and I recently played through 2K Games' Bioshock (Which I also recommend). The storyline, characters, and overall gameplay for this title amazed me. Why didn't this get more media attention when it was released?

However, definitely not a title you'd want to buy for your 12 year old kid. If any game requires a Mature rating, it's this one. Not to say that it's so entirely vulgar that it's too much to play. It provides an awesome storyline, presenting tragedy in the form of Jackie Estacado's girlfriend Jenny. You won't regret making this buy.

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