The Darkness Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Don't believe the negative hype surrounding this title, it is a spectacular Xbox 360 Next Generation release.
I'm not sure how close the game resembles the comic created by Top Cow, but there are many treats to be experienced both visually and game play wise in The Darkness.
Lets start with some of the positive aspects of this game:

Graphically, this game is absolutely stunning in its graphical beauty.
The dark gritty New York City streets really give off that "real-city" vibe.
Garbage litters the streets and the subway systems, graffiti covers practically every wall (and this graffiti looks like actually graffiti that you would see in real life).
So much detail has been put into the floors, ceilings, walls and in you general surroundings that it is very easy to get deeply immersed in The Darkness.
Following in true Next Gen graphic style, all the wood surfaces in the game look like real wood, metal resembles real metal, concrete looks amazingly realistic. You can see chips in paint, cracks and chips in the concrete - its literally stunning.
The Darkness relies on the use of shadows, and the lighting engine is superb. Light shines off of virtually every surface that would reflect light (including leather!). Every object casts a proper shadow.
Since you are in a city, there are lights everywhere and in order for your Darkness power to work or re-charge you need to be in the shadows.
Basically this mean taking out every light you come into contact with.

Character models look really good. Not as good as Gears of War models, but the characters look believable, most of the time body parts move like they should, clothes look somewhat realistic. Cloth looks amazing. The bodies still look a little clunky, but nothing major.
Face models are wonderfully detailed, you can see wrinkles and imperfections in the characters faces. Sometimes you can see facial expressions however not too often. The faces are probably the most detailed aspect on each character. The eyes in this game look full of life.

The darkness powers look awesome. Your character acquires two demonic serpent heads on either shoulder and they look amazing. Each darkness power is represented very well graphically.
Weapons look realistic, some of the most realistic depictions I have ever seen in a game.
On a side note, you get to learn where the darkness comes from.

The physics are downright cool. Everything seems to move as it should. With one of your darkness powers you can pick up objects and people and fling them around. This looks very cool and makes you feel like a real "force-to-be-reckoned-with".

Some claim that the story line in The Darkness is clich