It's not as good as The Chronicles of Riddick, but it's a superb first-person shooter in its own right.
So it's safe to say that The Darkness has a lot to live up to. And in many ways, it lives up to the hype and expectations. It falls short in a few areas, such as the enemy AI, but taken as a whole, The Darkness is one of the best first-person shooters on the XBox 360 and probably the best game released this summer so far.
Getting in to the depths of the gameplay is unnecessary, as the chances are you've read GameSpot's review or watched the video review so you know what it's all about. But I will touch on graphics and sound.
The game looks simply amazing. Its style is very similar to Riddick, but tops it in every way. The game's character models are superb, as is the level and geometry design. The textures are incredibly crisp and diverse, and the game runs at a consistent frame-rate.
The game sounds even better. The voice acting is some of the best to hit the 360 thus far. It's almost flawless. Additionally, the script is superbly written. Jackie stands out as the best voiced character, and as well as being a total hard-nut, he also has some lines which moved me in his sadness. The music is outstanding, particuarly the orchestrated music, but the rock music is also very good and both set the mood perfectly. The guns and SFX are as you'd expect. Riddick sounded awesome, and this is pretty much on par.
All in all, The Darkness is a game you should definitely buy if you're into shooting games, gory games, or are just curious to see if Starbreeze can create two excellent shooters in a row.