Darkest of Days is a time-traveling FPS that will make you wonder if you traveled backwards in time to the late 90's.
But let us start on a more positive note. Darkest of Days mostly takes place in the Civil War and World War 1, both of which are time periods that have rarely been turned into FPS games before. And thanks to this game, you will probably see why. See, FPS games are all about shooting. Think about any popular FPS game and then recall what you do most. If you said anything other than shoot, you probably haven't played a true FPS before. That aside, the most important element of an FPS is shooting, so therefore, the act of shooting should be rewarding and exciting, otherwise the activity you engage in most often becomes tedious and boring, bringing the entire game down as a result.
Although there is nothing inherently wrong with shooting guns in Darkest of Days, you spend most of this game using ancient weapons that are simply no fun to shoot. Particularly in the Civil War levels, you spend most of your time reloading a muzzle-loaded musket, and although you manage to reload the gun amazingly quickly, it still takes a good 3 to 4 seconds to reload, a process you must repeat after each and every shot. In World War 1, you at least get a bolt-action rifle most of the time, but even that weapon takes a tedious amount of time to reload. Thankfully, the game features an upgrade system you can utilize between missions, and although there are a handful of different aspects of your guns you can upgrade, you would be a fool not to dump all your points into reload speed. Of course, even after fully upgrading this traits, you will spend more time reloading than actually firing, even if you manage to "actively reload" each shot (a concept clearly stolen from Gear of War), which speeds up the process of reloading by a small amount but makes you run the risk of jamming the weapon and taking even longer to reload.
Beyond the tedious nature of spending more time staring at your reloading indicator than actually shooting, you are also given the opportunity to witness some of the most brain-dead AI to ever appear in a game. Not only enemies, but allies as well will generally either stand in place, shooting at the wall, run around like lunatics with bees in their underwear, or simply stare at you, doing nothing at all. Although this can be comical at times, the enemies will still manage to kill you over and over again because you will face such overwhelming numbers of them, and when they do shoot at you, they tend to be incredibly good shots.
Beyond the tedious nature of constantly reloading and the lobotomized AI, you will have a hard time even looking at this game. Although I am known for my lack of regard for graphics in a game, these graphics are easily a decade old. The textures are flat, there are no lighting effects, the shadows are fuzzy, all the enemies and allies look identical, and the way characters move their mouths when they speak is so bad, they look less convincing than Charlie McCarthy. And don't worry, the sound effects are equally flat and make the guns sound about as threatening as firecrackers and the voice acting is so horrendous, I am convinced none of the voice actors had any ability to experience emotions at all and probably were unfamiliar with the language they were speaking.
So, taking into account the abysmal graphics, sounds, and voice acting, the brain-dead AI, and the constant and tedious reloading, you are left with a game that offers no discernible enjoyment for anyone, save the truly desperate gamer who loves anything that involves shooting, no matter how much they need to reload. And just think, I didn't even bother to mention how short the game is, the lack of any multiplayer modes, and the aggravating bugs and glitches. Take my advice and pass on this game. Even if it were absolutely free, there is no one on the planet who couldn't find a more enjoyable, or at least productive, way to spend their leisure time.