In The Darkness you take the role of fearless Mafia hitman Jackie Estacado. You are part of the famous Franchetti crime family, run by your evil cousin Paulie. On the eve of your 21^st birthday you are possessed by an evil power called The Darkness. This power allows you wreak terrible havoc on his enemies, but The Darkness also has a mind of its own.

The game is basically a modern day shoot-em up game with a supernatural / horror twist.  It takes place in a downbeat New York City where you can travel around areas as diverse as the Subway system, back alleys, docks and roof tops. Most buildings can be accessed so you can make your own route to a particular target or location.  

The game starts with a car chase opening sequence which sets the pace for what’s to come, within two minutes there is a decapitation and you have to shoot out of a speeding car at police and construction workers. From here on out you know your in for a treat.

Once the powers start to take hold Jackie has to come to terms with having the darkness living within him. He must adapt to his new powers and abilities. These include two snake like creatures that can creep off in dependably through open windows to kill people before you enter a room. You can also create a spinning black hole, which sucks people into the vortex never to be seen again. Although this sounds impressive it is a power that starts to taunt Jackie, he can here voices in his head and starts to see images of dead people wherever he goes.  The darkness eventually tries to take over Jackie’s body and make the two of them become one. Your powers weaken in the light so where ever you go you must shoot out the street lamps to stay in the shadows and keep your powers active.

You can also gain strength by eating the hearts of those you have killed. The more hearts you devour the more power you will gain. You will increase your darkness level by eating more and more hearts.

You have been given these powers for a reason, just running in a building with all guns blazing is rarely a successful plan and you end up having to replay the section using some of your Darkness powers. You can also be helped by an army of Darklings which you can summon to do your bidding, They can kill enemies and also open doors and help you out of tight spots.

There are four types of Darkling available, the Berserker can open doors and attack people with a knife, The gunner has a machine gun which he can gun enemies down. The Kamikaze is basically a walking bomb and the Light Killer walks around absorbing light.

When controlling Jackie the game play is excellent, you can shoot two pistols or SMG guns at once using both the left and right triggers. This is particularly helpful if you are faced with a group of enemies as you can take down people quicker with two guns, you also have shotguns and machine guns at your disposal in your fight for the New York City underworld.

The online multiplayer section of the game is enough to buy the game for alone. You can battle it out in a Human vs. Darkling battle or play Capture the Flag. You can have single player death match or play Team vs. Team. The only downside is that some games suffer from Lag which can be annoying but there has been talk of a patch to fix this sometime soon.

Although the Darkness had a lot of hype to live up to I think it has met all expectations. The graphics and sound are amazing and the game play is the same. It has a lot of reply value to get those last few achievements and the multiplayer is great fun.

Ben Mcfadden - Console-Central