The Darkness - SA ETA 29 June

[Ruslan74]

First review from 1UP (http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3160484) who gave it a 9/10 :



It's this concept of creating shadows and moving into them to fill up your powers that determines the flow of the game. If you see a door up ahead, you're going to want to take out all the lights near the doorway to prepare. By the time you earn the black hole ability late in the game, you feel like a total badass walking into a room -- step inside, point at a group of enemies, and shoot the hole their way to watch them flail around helplessly. But once you use up all of your Darkness power, you have to wait and refuel in the shadows; even though there are plenty of chaotic scenarios, it never gets to the point where the game breaks. You can also use this power to spawn Darklings -- demonic critters that attack on your behalf -- from various points in the environment, so you can prepare a nice little team before entering some of the more challenging areas.


Now I am torn between DiRT & The Darkness. Sigh.

[Noodle]

Not to mention Overlord comes out same day :eek:

[doobiwan]

29th of June is a busy day for evil ;)

[Ruslan74]

Review from Eurogamer (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=78377) :




I'm facing a bit of a dilemma, dear readers. You see, beloved colleague Rob Fahey got a bit carried away when he wrote the first impressions piece of The Darkness. He liked it so much, he not only played it all the way through (all 15 hours), but he detailed almost every interesting feature in-depth, told us about the excellent narrative and back-story, the tentacle-waving combat, and the darkness powers and summed up by saying the game was a "fascinating prospect" that any fan of first-person shooters or horror games should buy. Lucky for us we don't pay by the hour.

So what's left for me to say other than slap a deservingly high score on the end and expand on the online multiplayer side of the game? Fortunately for you, review fans, a fair bit.

There are things about The Darkness that will have you gurning with frothing appreciation and leave you in no doubt that Starbreeze is among the most talented developers in the world. Its ability to consistently inject new life into a resolutely tired genre shouldn't be underestimated. Just as Starbreeze managed with The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, the pacing's exquisite in that the game twists and turns in new directions just when it's required.

As soon as you settle into a groove, a new darkness power unlocks and offers a new dimension to the gameplay, or a new type of darkling is made available to you. Far from being yet another corridor shooter to yawn your way through, it's a game that gives you a great deal of choice, and no set solution to get there. For example, rather like how FEAR gave players the option of whether to use time-slowing abilities or not (and an Achievement for those who didn't use them), The Darkness has a similar dynamic. The fact it's not a mandatory requirement opens up the gameplay variety considerably.

In my case, I preferred to use the more stealthy Creeping Dark ability. Sending out one of your tentacles slithering ahead on a scouting mission, it lets you creep up on unsuspecting sentries, snap your slavering jaws in their shocked face and rip their still beating hearts out in a flash. Other players might prefer more traditional options such as using the regular tactical rifles and dual pistols and test themselves that way, or try and sneak up on enemies and pull off grisly close-quarter moves. There's no hard and fast route to success, and the game's all the better for letting players decide what kind of anti-hero they want to be.

Of course, you also gain access to four types of Darkling along the way. These scrawny little imps can run ahead into battle for you, taking out the lights, acting as a gunner, a suicide bomber, or just a general nuisance. On rare occasions they help solve puzzles for you, although giving you an example would give you too much of a clue, so I'll resist that particular temptation.


They gave it a 8/10. This game is looking better by every review out there.

[doobiwan]

Just not my thing, I'd rather get Overlord.

[Ruslan74]

Overlord seems to have more DK appeal, when July comes I will download the demo. I am capped to death already. :p

[doobiwan]

Me too :$

we've still got to do that shadowrun evening!

[Ruslan74]

I tried running the Shadowrun demo 2 weeks back with a friend. We couldnt get a game started coz we couldnt find enough people to fill the party. It needs a minimum of 4vs4 games to start one online.

I ordered my Shadowrun copy from DVDCrave and am currently waiting for it to arrive. For R360 incl. postage it aint such a bad deal.

[TG]

:drool:

Damnit, why can't I be rich instead of good looking?

:p

[doobiwan]

Easy, just sell your body. . . .

That should give you enough cash to afford bus fare to go donate some organs ;)

[Ruslan74]

I just rent my vodka warehouse storage space for PC geeks to hold LANs in it. Thus my "interest" from helping gaming. :p