The Darkness Is Rising
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 11:49 AM
It’s practically a given that film-based games suck and based on the insult that was Superman Returns: The Videogame: and the disappointment of Spider-man 3, games based on comic book movies suck even harder. But what about games based on comics proper? Well, they're pretty damn great if you judge by this summer’s best interactive narrative The Darkness (no, not the semi-ironic Brit rockers).
Much of this has to do with the game developer Starbreeze, a Swedish company that made its name by defying the odds with a film-based game that was better than its source material. Actually, that doesn’t even cut it since the license was the middling Vin Diesel alien flick Chronicles of Riddick while the game, Escape From Butcher Bay, which acted as a prequel with a plot all of it’s own, was a gaming classic.
This time out, they’ve used Marc Silvestri's Top Cow comic series The Darkness, which has been running for over a decade and provides a much deeper mythology than any two-hour sci-fi flick.
It tells the tale of young mafia hitman Jesse Estacado who, on the eve of his 21st birthday, is blown up by his mob boss Uncle Paulie. Turns out he, or rather, you, have inherited a mysterious power (or is it a demonic parasite?) known as, well, you know.
So not only are you pretty pissed at the attempted assassination, but you’ve got a little of the ol’ evil essence to wreak some revenge.
It’s a first-person shooter and the perspective adds considerable creepiness to the entire dark-hearted enterprise while the “shooter” part is enhanced by your ability to put away the guns and send out serpent-like tendrils (one of four dark powers) which can slay your enemies and eat their hearts. The heart-eating is actually quite a witty touch, considering how many cute red hearts we’ve consumed as power-ups over the years.
Starbreeze demonstrate their A-game right from the intro, which rolls out its plot points and creator credits as if it were a full-on Hollywood production. They hired comic scribe Paul Jenkins to pen the satisfying storyline an even went all out on their cult voice actors, which include Six Feet Under’s Lauren Ambrose, A-Team’s Dwight “Howlin’ Mad Murdock” Shultz, and musician Mike Patton (Faith No More, Peeping Tom) who voices The Darkness itself.
The imaginative gameplay offers far more than your standard FPS hallway crawling, the art direction is creepily atmospheric and the graphics disquietingly realistic, even on a standard-definition set.
In other words, you might want to play with the lights on