The Darkness previews

Put aside the clunky movements of your character, the average graphics and the linear storyline (go from a to b to c and shoot some guys along the way who appear from no where) and you still have a pretty average game. My expectations where low as soon as I heard who was making the game, and my expectations have been met, but no more… When I used to read the comics back in the day I always dreamt about a Darkness game and all the cool possibilities. This game tries to tackle them with functional Darklings, the Darkness shield, and some nice ‘heart eating’ animations, but it falls very shy of what I would have liked to see. What happened to the darkness from ‘The Darkness’? I have the gamma right down in an attempt to make it a little more eerie, but even then, the lack of any real shadow gives the impression of being in a spooky fun park rather than the mob-infested back streets of where-ever. The array of weapons is limited, and non-functional – the pistols are by far the most effective in your arsenal. The AI is quite good in that people/opponents duck behind cover and might stand or crouch or vary their stance as they shoot at you – but this gives you the opportunity to run up to them and not use any bullets in an execution move far too frequently.

I really hope Marc Silvestri is disappointed with the effort put into the game. It's basically Kingpin on tranquilizers…

This game is ok, the story is quite good but get a bit weird near the end. The movements are clunky, the weapons are limited and the AI of the darlings is horrible.

Muiltplayer is CRAP, the testers didn't test it with normal bandwidth speeds, so even on the fastest Internet plan that yo ucan get in NZ for home uses (8mb download 1mb upload) I still was not able to play muiltplayer with 2 freaking people, the lag was so bad it made it unplayable. They are SUPPOSED to be patchin git this month.

It is obvious that this game is a PORT from the Xbox 360, often when playing things like “Achievement achieved” poped up.

The unlock-ables are very good, you get comics, art work, videos scripts etc. A lot of the unlock-ables are related to muiltyplayer so I haven't unlocked all of them.

POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD

I frequently encounted bugs, for instance when you see the TV where uncle pauly leaves his messgae for you. IF you shoot it before he has finished specking then the bomb wont go off and you will be stuck walking around untile you either die or rest the game.

END SPOLIER

I emailed the preident of the the developer and complaiend about the game, his responce was basically, “we will do better next time”. Unfortunately I wont be buying anythingf by this developer ever again.

This game is awesome. After reading reviews about it on IGN.com I was a bit sceptical at first. The open scene does look like it could cut a diamond, It has that many jagged edges in it but overall I rate this game. The game play is great once you learn to master the controls. It has great little side mission that you can complete so you don't always have to focus on the main plot. Plenty to keep you entertained. The weird thing about these side missions is the fact that you help people. If you have read the comics you would understand that Jackie is a good person, Just don't piss him off.

The only thing that a think lets it down is the having to wait for it to load when ever you enter or exit the subways. That aside this is a must buy for anyone.

Just got my hands on a copy of this game after a long wait...... even before it was released in store :-)

Some disappointments in the graphics, especially in the first level as you are driven through the tunnel – blockiness around car and characters limbs.

Some very nice shadow effects, not to mention the blood spatters. Can see why the censor took a while to decide that it was R18 for NZ.

Cant wait to get stuck in and have my turn – once my teenage sons have had a good bash…

The Darkness is a wonderfully gruesome adventure. There are some truly dark and even shocking moments in the story. There's a twist at the end of the first chapter that shook me a bit. And though the story does lose its way and makes little sense towards the end, it's still a fun ride. It's too bad that the AI and gameplay mechanics couldn't be smoothed out a bit more to match the impressive visual presentation. The PlayStation 3 version is virtually identical to the 360, other than the occasional aliasing issues and sporadic slowdown.

There's a lot to like about The Darkness, even if it doesn't fully come together in the end. With so few gaming options in the summer, this is certainly a title worth buying. Just don't expect a revolutionary experience. (IGN)