XBOX 360 - REVIEW - THE DARKNESS

A highly hyped release all the way back from when the 360 first launched, The Darkness is a FPS which despite it's positives found itself overshadowed (excuse the pun) by other such grade A++ titles in its year of release such as COD4, Orange Box & Bioshock.

The Darkness is a game based on a comic published by MadCow Productions. Although somewhat of an obscure comic title when compared to it's Marvel or DC brethren, it's a story that transcribes well into a video game experience.

As main protagonist Jackie Estucado, you find yourself in downtown New York on the day of your 21st birthday. As everyone regularly does on celebrating this milestone in ones life, Jackie happens to be in the process of performing a hit for the mob (who also happen to be his adopted family). Needless to say, it's not long before events all go tits up and Jackie is left to figure out what went wrong and why he's now found himself top on his families hit-list.

For the first hour or so the game plays like any other FPS shooter you may have fumbled with the last 5 years or so. Backgrounds are nicely rendered, lighting effects give the game a very creepy atmosphere and the delivery of the voice acting is suitably Brooklyn-esque, brilliantly delivered and very definitely M-Rated.

The game first strikes you as being incredibly brutal in it's imagery, almost straight after the intro sequence you find yourself engaged in conversation with a friend who just so happens to have his shins protruding from his legs after a rather nasty car accident. That's not to mention a previous ex-colleague who a few minutes prior had a rather nasty collision between his head and incoming traffic.

So okay, it's yet another run of the mill gory FPS you may be thinking at this point, big deal. Well, the games real pièce de résistance is still to come. Jackie being a bit of a goth type (a moot point that I'll raise later) just so happens to have a curse bestowed on him which is known as the 'Darkness' - clue in the title.

The Darkness (superbly voiced by Mike Patton) acts as a creepy as hell living manifestation that resides inside Jackie's soul. Emerging as a two headed tentacle monster which protrudes from out Estucados spine. It can rip enemy hearts straight out their chests, sliver undetected through ventilation grills for stealth kills, provide protection as a meat shield and many other further abilities that unlock during the progress of your game.

Darkness ability is certainly a lot of fun to play with. While maybe not as technically impressive as say HL2's gravity gun from a physics stand point, impaling a mobster through his chest, flinging him aside and then watching your two tentacle heads fight over who gets to eat the inner organs afterwards doesn't get old neither does it get repetitive.

On-top of all the regular abilities you'll also acquire the power to summon Imp like creatures which can perform abilities for you such as laying down suppressive fire or acting as kamikaze bombers. While the AI on these creatures isn't the best in the business, they'll get you out of a pinch and the one-liners and actions they'll come out with (such as taking a piss over a dead enemy) are quite amusing and add a touch of humour to a very grim game.

The strategic element in using your darkness power in combat lays within the dark itself. Step into any light source and smoke plumes out of you and your energy bar quickly starts to sap away. So to make the most out of a combat situation you'll find yourself Splinter Cell style shooting out light sources and lurking deep in the levels shadows. This mechanic mixes the game up somewhat and stops it from becoming a 2 dimensional turkey shoot, without your darkness shield ability you'll find it doesn't take long for you to be gunned down by the enemies fire as a perfect example.

So while still a FPS at heart, the combat system certainly alleviates it from being anything "run of the mill". Continuing throughout the game, the adult tone of the story gets ever darker and ever more disturbing including a tour through a hellish WW1 dream sequence with sobbing quadriplegic soldiers, having to perform your own suicide while watching yourself in a mirror and at one point having a cordless drill pushed into your skull in a torture sequence which resonates through your controller. Needless to say it's an 18+ rated game and with good reason, some of the sequences are quite simply ghoulish.

Horrors aside, the story also has touching moments. Visiting your girlfriends apartment and offering you the choice to sit and watch TV with her (in real time) being one of them. It definitely works to the effect of grounding you back to reality around some quite unbelievable circumstances occurring to Jackie.

It's a fairly sized 12-15 hour game, and many times it'll give you optional things to do outside the linear story path. Finding hidden phone numbers, helping strangers you bump into on the underground network or boosting your darkness power by eating more hearts, there's always motivation to explore your surroundings either way.

For all the games positives their are also a fair number of negatives;

The games weaponry is almost certainly one of the biggest gripes. You set off from the outset dual wielding pistols, and while the ammo capacity isn't as big as the assault rifles and such that you find later in the game, their accuracy is almost second to none. This gives you little to no incentive to ever swap out for anything other than these pistols. Automatic weaponry sprays wildly all over the place and your darkness abilities can usually overcome anything you can't simply headshot from a distance. Staying with offensive ability, another game damaging problem is once you acquire an ability named 'black hole'. This is overwhelmingly powerful and while you'll have to wait a minute or so for it to recharge any group of enemies can be dealt with minimum of fuss by throwing one of these nearby, negating any challenge from that moment onwards.

As far as story goes The Darkness is perhaps more harmed by the comic book roots that it tries to stick so closely by. Jackie is just not a believable character for the setting that he's in, a 21 year old long haired goth, trench-coat and all who looks and sounds more like he's in his early 30's. Why is someone like that hanging around with 'old-way' mafia types sporting fedora hats n'all? It just doesn't fit or make a lot of sense. That isn't to say that the story doesn't work on any level at all, just that you have to zone into 'comic mode' to get away with some of its eccentricities.

The ending without giving any plot away is also rather disappointing, the journey as such is far greater than the sum of its parts with the exception of the 'hell' sequences which go on far too long and begin to come across as filler after a length of time rather than meaningful play.

The game also sports a multiplayer component, but it was never obviously intended to be a core component of the end user experience. It's about as in depth as say 'Prey' or any other non-military based shooters ever are; minimum features, minimum effort.

Overall the Darkness is in all accounts an enjoyable game and well worth picking up at a budget price as a weekend killer. While it didn't stand a hope in hell against titles such as COD4 & Bioshock at its release time, it definitely does plenty of things right in terms of it's presentation. It contains both a well scripted story, mature dialogue and offers a truly unique game mechanic which would be hard to replicate in any other similar FPS title.

Paw Rating: 3/5
Good: Gripping mature story, fantastic dialogue & voice acting, interesting game mechanics.

Bad: Poor weaponry, easy difficulty, repetitive, little replay, needless multiplayer.

XBOX360 - REVIEW - BIOSHOCK

Going into Bioshock uninitiated is a tough one.

Not only has it been plastered all over the gaming press both online & offline, it's also won some major acclaim from standard press due to (in most part) it's sublime graphical presentation.

Despite seemingly appearing from nowhere in-between all the heavy hitting new releases of 2007, thanks to Microsoft's substantial press machine and it being the 'spiritual successor' of System Shock the kids literally all went mad for it.

Judging by the amount of editions Bioshock was released in - one including a rather neat figurine. It'd seem an almost fool proof way to tell if a game is deemed important enough for future releases.

Back to the game itself, chances are (short of having your head stuck in the sand since early 2007) that you know at least a little about the wonders of Rapture - the games location.

While the immediate reaction to the hype is one of high expectation, a breath taking new gaming experience and essentially a benchmark to which all other 360 shooters should aspire to be. Once you've settled down with the game a few hours you start to realise that rather than just 'atmosphere' or 'gameplay' it's the unexpected surprises the game throws at you that makes the title stand up and violently grab your attention.

Depending on how much you bought into the hype surrounding the release, this factor has the unexpected side-effect of either making or severely damaging the whole experience for you.

While essentially at it's core the game is a FPS. It borrows heavily from the survival horror genre in creating suspense and atmosphere. With the assistance of the Unreal 3 engine there really is nothing quite like it out there. Rather than make you feel like an indestructible marine on a mission of destruction, the game does a seriously good job at making you feel vulnerable, confused and amazed at the situations that the game manages to throw at you.

The gameplay is a good length of around 15 hours, possibly more if you decide to explore the titles underwater city to it's full extent (collecting various items). The story itself is full of twists, turns, shocks and surprises and never seems to drag on too long. Also a great deal of character individuality is added in the form of game choices it allows you to make or not if you so decide.

Weapons you find feel suitable and while maybe not as in depth as the military based shooters out there, they still serve your needs well. The game also has a magic system (although presented as more scientific in nature) named plasmids. These also perform their job of making your progress through the game less of just a straight forward shooting grind and more a playground of your own invention.

The voice acting is of an extremely high standard as is the use of BG suspense music and sound effects to really scare the pants off you when need be. In the UK the game carries an 18+ age rating and probably with good reason. Some of the scenes you encounter can really be quite disturbing, yet in context they all fit the game environment perfectly. Little girls shoving needles into horribly deformed corpses, heck why not?

As a 360 title it's achievements are some of the best presented this year. The game rewards you for progress and for exploration & experimentation. It really is a shining example of what all games should do (instead of a blatant attempt to keep their multi-player servers busy ready for money grabbing expansion packs). Despite the huge amount of great things the game has going for it, there is some issues that detract from it's rating.

If you managed to avoid all press release videos, reviews, previews, achievement descriptions etc. and go into the Bioshock experience completely blind. I have no doubt that providing you're fairly competent with the concept of a first person perspective then this game will totally blow your mind. However, as was the case for myself. If you're aware (for example) of what abilities you'll command, what kind of people and creatures you'll face and even what moral situations you'll find yourself in. Then that's essentially the core of the games 'shock & surprise' value taken away from you.

It also contains no multi-player which while making sense also lessens it's already negligible amount of replay value. Finally, the game is also sadly far too easy. For a vast portion of the experience you'll find yourself immensely overpowered and combined with the inability to actually die-die, you can really fly through huge chunks of the game with little to no resistance.

Bad points aside however It looks impressive, it has cascades of atmosphere, plays fantastically and has a strong & competent storyline. It's a game that you should almost certainly play if not just to be able to give an opinion on the state of modern gaming and the direction it's travelling. However, (if at all possible) the less you know about the game the more you'll find that you get out it.

Paw Rating: 4/5

Good: Immersive Story, breath taking visuals, original premise, good achievement set-up.

Bad: Easy difficulty, Little replay, lacking online play.