Embrace The Darkness...
The story revolves around Jackie Estacado, a mafia hitman who is betrayed by his former employer and adoptive father, "Uncle" Paulie, on the night of his 21st birthday. However, as the clock strikes midnight Jackie "inherits" demonic powers in the form of The Darkness, a being who offers Jackie the strength to seek revenge against Paulie. This revenge tail is very emotionally driven, and develops into so much more as The Darkness begins to gradually take control of Jackie. I highly recommend this game to anyone seeking a compelling story. Starbreeze has also done a great job with casting the voice work for the game. The characters seem very real and are voiced terrifically. For instance, Mike Patton (Faith No More) voices The Darkness itself brilliantly and his performance will send chills down your spine. Another thing I really liked was that during load times Jackie would recall past happenings or comment on characters and stuff like that, which seemed really awesome rather than staring at load screens.
Gameplay is very fun, containing a wide range of guns, with the addition of Darkness powers that you will acquire throughout the game, such as the ability to impale an enemy with the demon arm and throw them, summon a dark hole to suck in enemies, or The Darkness' ability to feast on the hearts of the corpses of your enemies to boost your powers- this never gets old. Also you can summon Darklings, little demons with quirky attitudes who will help you out in various ways and urinate on dead bodies. They add a touch of dark humor and are a welcome addition. With guns you are able to perform close up executions with many violent and slick looking animations. I found the guns fun to use due to the little details Starbreeze has added such as if you are near the edge of a corner you can point your gun around it and fire. As for AI, I found the AI on easy to be…well…easy, as enemies do not take cover as often and tend to run around a lot without firing too many shots. On the harder difficulties however, enemies will often hide from and take shots at you, but the game always makes you feel somewhat indestructible with your powers. You are given an extra shield while The Darkness is active, and as such you must shoot out or stab lights with the demon arm so you can energize your darkness energy in shadows. On the hardest difficulty without this shield, you will die after taking a few bullets. Hidden collectables are scattered throughout the game that unlock bonus content, such as concept art and comics.
As for graphics, Starbreeze has done an amazing job. The textures and lighting look excellent and make the world look very real and immersive. The characters also look really great. The world is filled with so many little details, such as graffiti, faded paint on walls, etc. Also, bullet holes, stab wounds, and such remain on bodies after battles. The Darkness sounds very creepy and the guns sound great.
My only complaint is that the multiplayer mode seems tacked on. It comes with your standard, deathmatch and capture the flag modes, but adds in the ability to play as darklings. In my experience it was very laggy unplayable.
Overall, I recommend this game to anyone seeking a great dark-themed action game with a gripping story. To complete the single player mode it took me 14+ hours, but I have replayed it over many times. The Darkness has become an instant favorite of mine.