Previews// The Darkness

Enter The Darkness

Posted 19 Feb 2007 19:47 by
Companies:
Games: Bioshock

The 'character' of The Darkness is the main device employed to elevate the game above the ranks of the average fps - it is actually a mysterious force that gives Jackie super-powers.

Grace elaborates: “On the stroke of midnight, on Jackie’s 21st birthday, you find yourself in a cemetery. This is the first time The Darkness shows itself. Now you get some superhero powers. At first, Jackie is host to The Darkness, but he doesn’t have much control over it. As you go through the game, you gain more control over it, though. To draw 'Darkness power', you need to hold down a button, and it sucks energy from the world around you.

"There are different Darkness powers, and we communicate with the player by showing two demon heads attached to Jackie – the length and colour of the tattoos on their heads show which power is selected, and how strong that power is. For example, orange signifies Creeping Dark, in which you can move to places Jackie can’t [via the snake-like demons]. In Darkness mode, Jackie gets a shield, so he can take three or four hits.

“Jackie can see in the dark – as you progress, that becomes a key element, because the AI can’t see in the dark. Then there are the Darklings – raised from the bodies of evil beings. These are rather like bigger gremlins, and add a touch of black comedy. We see them much like grenades are in other games – you can send them off with golf clubs or baseball bats and you can order them to do things, but you have no direct control over them.”

The Otherworld
While about two-thirds of the game takes place in New York, the other third is set in a bizarre place called the Otherworld. 2K’s Karl Unterholzer takes up the story: “It’s an alternative plane of existence – a place worse than hell. It’s also where The Darkness is from. It’s like a fucked-up World War I, but where the inhabitants don’t die – they just fight the war over and over again. The soldiers are like zombies: if they’re shot, they stay down for a few seconds, but then get up. The only way to stop them is to devour their souls. There are WWI-style weapons like pistols and rifles.”

As you progress through the Otherworld, you emerge from the trenches, go over the top into no-man’s land and eventually encounter Allied soldiers: “Who write anti-war poems, talk to you and explain the Otherworld. They are always getting blown up and sewing themselves back together.”

Multiplayer
As should be the case in this brave new next-gen world, Starbreeze and 2K Games haven’t neglected the multiplayer side of The Darkness. There are a welter of modes, including Death Match, Team Death Match, Capture The Flag and Survivor. And the Darklings play a prominent role – you can set up games with only humans, only Darklings, or shape-shifters, where you can switch between being human or Darkling.

I played Death Match, with the ability to shape-shift. When you transform into a Darkling, you can’t use weapons, but the Darklings are very quick, have an impressive melee attack and can climb up walls and ceilings as long as you hold the left trigger down.

Survivor mode features human-on-himan with the last human standing as the winner. The twist? To turn human, you have to kill a human as a Darkling.

The maps were pretty impressive: complex and decently sized interiors. 2K says there will be at least six maps when The Darkness ships, and it promises there will be plenty of downloadable content.

Anticipation
Undoubtedly, The Darkness is one of the weirdest and freakiest games you will ever play. There’s so much going on in it that when described, it sounds somewhat bewildering, but it is sufficiently well structured for you to keep up with the mayhem.

It looks great, the controls seem nicely fettled, the story elements are wonderfully convincing and you can guarantee that it will not lapse into repetitive corridor-shooting at any point. It will be with us on Xbox 360 and PS3 before the summer arrives -- and I for one can’t wait.
<< prev    1 -2-
Companies:
Games: Bioshock

Read More Like This


Comments

Posting of new comments is now locked for this page.