i love the Darkness!
my actually first reactions were very underwhelming, the shooting mechanisms are hard to get used to and i found this game hard (bare in mind i played in Hard difficulty). when the Darness powers come in play the game really leaps to another level and it's great to be in command of the different powers. The downside of the Darkness is that it will make the game quite easy, but it will definitely have its frustrating moments, specially in a certain boss fight and trying to control the crawling darkness can feel rough around the edges.
dialog is always interesting and your character is quite likeble, even if he's a thug. there are some time to spend in side quests if you'd like and they are worth to play, even if they'll require you to ride the metro quite a lot. Plenty of collectibles, guns and overall entertainment to have here. I been seeing this game in stores for way under $10, but dont think this is a budget or a bad game, its one of the best moments playing that i had in a while. the Darkness 2 just came out, and i hope it's just asgood as this one.