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(More customer reviews)Hey, Hey! Here's The Reverend again bringing you the ultimate review of Darkwatch.
Let's face it, there's nothing more honorable than kicking some dusty undead butt! What are these guys doing outside their graves anyway? What do they want from the world of the living? Especially with sky-high gas-prices these days? And why can't they eat French fries and Burgers like everybody else? Why does it have to be brains? And who has brains anyway in times of our failing education system?
The good news is that we won't need any brains to play this game!:-)And that's just what we need after a long day at work, isn't it? So, Darkwatch should be right up our alley, right? Well, yes and no... Let's do the cons first and then get to the pros:
The game puts you straight into the shoes of Jericho Cross, a train robber in the Old Wild West with a long and brutal criminal past. Whatever happened to the GOOD hero in computer games - we may wonder - but I guess morally positive game-heroes have inevitably died with the early 90s. Now, bad old Jericho robs the wrong train one day. Apparently THIS train belongs to a secret society called the DARKWATCH (hence the title) who hunt down vampires in an "unholy war" as the intro movie bluntly suggests. Despite the horrific gothic look of the train with all kinds of Christian and pagan symbols and tons of bloody remains of its former human freight (and what with the coffin-shaped doors and weird pointy spikes everywhere) Jericho still believes to have found a train transporting money, gold and other valuables and does not seem the least bit distracted by the occasional zombie that gets in his way (yup, the train is the first interactive level already). As you can see, Jericho is not the sharpest tool in the shed and neither is the storyline behind Darkwatch. Once infected by the vampiric-undead curse, Jericho gets used to his new state of body and mind quicker than a hippie to pot - there is just no drama involved in his becoming a vampire - neither is there much drama later on. The story is presented in extremely short, matter-of-fact cut-scenes (which might have been better and more seamlessly integrated had they used the in-game engine).
It's a shame that we don't get more information about Jericho Cross, the Darkwatch and some of the situations we encounter throughout the game. The meager story leaves you longing for more, much more - and DARKWATCH II won't be enough of an excuse to make up for it.
Another part where the game falls flat is in terms of its level design. First of, levels are much too short. It's almost like the game screams RIP-OFF! in this regard. You just feel like the level designers were under-staffed, under-paid, under-aged or simply under-excited to come up with more, much more. You get the feeling that you're not exploring whole areas or levels, but arenas in which you get to fight a gazillion undead until the next tiny area opens. What a great game this could have been if the action part had been more balanced with exploring and searching and maybe just the occasional tiny little puzzle or two? There are just too many levels where you're just getting into the fun a certain environment provides, just to find out that it's over after just 1-2 minutes. For example: +500 points for designing a super-cool level where a train has to be boarded (from horseback) and then cleared of enemies moving from one wagon to the next - with the foggy, moonlit landscape rushing by outside! -2000 points for letting us inspect only 4-5 tiny wagons, throwing a cut scene in our face and abruptly ending the level if it could have been so much fun exploring the whole darn thing just 10-15 more minutes!!! It's like ordering a fancy schmanzy pizza with 10 toppings and actually getting it - only catch: the pizza is just 1 inch wide!!! NUTS!!!
Another downside of DARKWATCH is the fact that the levels were apparently designed by some claustrophobics from western Nebraska. 90% of them take place in the great wide open: canyon after canyon, valley after valley, burning cityscape after cityscape. Yes, there are major buildings in the game like a church, a cathedral and an old ghost town. But do you actually get to go INSIDE these buildings and explore them? Not a whole lot! It's just plain sad when a cool level leads you down a slope across a cemetery to a big old abandoned church just to tell you in another cut scene that you will now be entering the crypts underneath (which will take you about 3 minutes to complete consisting of one catacomb-like room, a fighting arena and the same catacomb-room from before (as a mirror-imaged clone) to finish the level off!!!). Great! And after the crypt it's the obligatory canyons again... Here you thought you'd actually get to see and explore the church from the inside but the designers were too bored to actually bother with it. This happens a lot in the game!
And it's a shame because the actual atmosphere created by graphics and sounds is outstanding!
Yup, you heard me right. Here's the PRAISE part of the review. In terms visuals, audio and ACTION Darkwatch REALLY TOTALLY delivers like no other game out there. Think of it as being able to PLAY a movie like "From Dusk Till Dawn" or "Blade" and you get a good idea what the gameplay is like. You have a good range of weapons (guns, shotguns, rifles (sniper too)) which include wacky stuff like dynamite and a crossbow that actually shoots dynamite at enemies. And, boy, do they fly when you blow them to bits. The damage response it ultra-realistic thanks to the HAVOC ENGINE. Limbs come off one by one, heads roll around, bodies topple from buildings or over railings and go spinning through the air before landing on the floor in the exact position the topographic surroundings allow (if there's a bump or a wall they'll come to rest neatly against it in a realistic fashion).
Also nice is the fact that you can use every weapon as a melee weapon. So you can shoot, smack, shoot, smack as you please, dealing great damage to enemies close by.
Last but not least: you will gain a bunch of different powers, which are unfortunately not exactly vampiric (how about faster reflexes, partial invisibility etc.???) such as: Mystic Shield and chain-lightning. Bummer... they are o.k., but generally not too much fun to use.
Darkwatch sure delivers non-stop action and is great fun the first or second time around (probably on the very same day you buy it), but in the long run this vampire won't have the teeth to keep you satisfied. Hey, if you get a good deal on it - you should definitely get it! Darkwatch may come in handy for those times after horror movies when you feel like it's time to take the action into your own hands and blow off steam!
It's not that Darkwatch is a bad game, at all. It just saddens you that despite slick graphics, awesome sound and action the whole thing seems cut short like a top-notch music video as compared to the full length concert you really wanted to see.
The Reverend
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DarkwatchProduct Description: Darkwatch: Curse of the West is cinematic 1st-person shooter action, as you become a vampire hunter fighting for survival in the Wild West. Explore a strange new version of the West, where you'll grind your enemies for fuel, wear their skin as a cloak and build weapons designed for mass murder. Online multiplayer capability with unique maps and original game modes
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