The Darkness is a great FPS that tells a compelling story and looks fantastic. Too bad it's over too quickly.
The first thing that drew me into this game was the story. It's a very interesting tale about the main character, Jackie, who is a hit-man for the mob. His uncle is currently in charge of the business in their area. Jackie has a girlfriend and it's his 21st birthday. Then while on a hit, he finds out his uncle thinks he double crossed him and tries to blow him up. Then Jackie goes to get payback. It's a revenge tale that gets even more intense as the game moves along. Of course, I don't want to reveal spoilers.....but there was one moment where I actually wanted to kill the villain in the game myself!
Maybe the biggest draw of the game is the use of your Darkness powers. You see, early on in the game you are infested by some demon. This demon gives you great power, but it has it's own agenda. The powers are quite fun to use and by the end of the game I wasn't even using the actual guns in the game much anymore. In fact, by the end of the game you will feel very overpowered and it almost makes the climax too easy. And like I mentioned, the regular guns aren't very impressive. I know the main draw here is to use the Darkness powers, but the firearms that they give you are an average lot, at best.
So that's about the gist of the game. You can partake in some side missions, if you so choose. These will get you some unlockables that eventually unlock some achievements. But for the most part, you will be following along with the excellent story and killing a bunch of bad guys. It sounds simple, but there is so much meat in the story that you never feel like the game doesn't go anywhere. And a nice touch is the fact that you can build up your Darkness powers over time. After you kill an enemy, your demon can eat the heart of the victim right from his chest. If you collect enough of these hearts, you're Darkness powers level up. It's a fun thing for awhile, but I had my powers maxed out way too early on in the game. Don't get me wrong, you won't confuse this with some RPG-type of character progression. But I just thought I would mention it, as it does play a big part in the game and it gives you a little bit of incentive to kill every bad guy you see.
The graphics are incredible and the voice acting is even better. In fact, the whole presentation and visual style of the game is off the charts. It really immerses you into the game, and of course, that is essential when a game is trying to tell a great story. It's like playing a movie, which is never a bad thing. 'The Darkness' does have a multi-player mode, but it's not all that great. There are countless other FPS for the Xbox 360 that excel in that area WAY more than this game, so I can't really recommend spending too much time in that area.
'The Darkness' is one of the best FPS I have played for the consoles. The single player game is too short, but it's mostly because you don't want it to end. Just like their previous game ('The Chronicles Of Riddick') has crafted a unique and cinematic FPS that any fan of the genre owes it to themselves to check it out.