Pros: - Good Story - Innovative game play -
Cons: - Awful Multiplayer - Controls need work -
The bottom line: If you are sick and tired of the same old FPS, The Darkness is for you.
With game developers needing to make a good million dollars to turn a profit these days, it becomes riskier and riskier to break away from the typical FPS mold. "The Darkness" tries to break the same repetitive mold in its own innovative and unique way. Does being unique pay off for this sadistic FPS?

Graphics- 7/10. It has been quite a while since "The Darkness" was released, and it really shows. What some thought were the best console graphics yet, looked very bland after only a few short months. The texture work is still pretty good, lighting is used incredibly well, and those two aspects of the game are still top of the line for the XBox 360. However, particle effects are laughable, the game fails miserably at some of the character models, and "The Darklings" you gain as a special power don't look very polished at all. In addition, matching words to lips in the cut-scenes is pathetic. The characters barely open their mouths, and it truly does look just like what you might see from the original XBox. The graphics got great reviews when the game was released, but with games like BioShock, Call of Duty 4, and GTA 4 out now, these graphics just couldn't stand the test of time, and if you are looking to buy this game because the other reviews mention how great the graphics are, don't bother. The graphics shouldn't stop you from buying the game, but you sure would be disappointed if you thought you were getting something great out of them.

Sound- 8/10. Sound throughout the main storyline is superb. For every heart pounding moment, the game has intense heavy metal to match. Bullets sound realistic, and the darklings sound very nice as well. The voice overs are incredibly well done, with Jackie being always interesting to listen to- but I have to say my favorite voice over is the berserker power you get. It's a little demon that helps you out, and if you shoot it responds with, "I'm telling mommy"! All of the other characters are also well done, especially Jenny who is Jackie's girlfriend, and is obviously played by a talented voice actress.

There is a big problem with the sound, however. During the multiplayer, the same heavy metal that plays in the story plays constantly, only twice as loud. I can't hear other player’s footsteps at all, and it is the same track of heavy metal over and over and over again.

Fighting System- 8/10. This is where the game tries to be innovative. Instead of just throwing in the same, typical, uninspired set of weapons, it gives you the same, typical, uninspired weapons AND a pair of cool snakes attached to your shoulders. The guns you use are pretty much the norm- a rifle, a SMG, a shotgun, and a pistol. The game also tries to implement some kind of half-hearted lock-on system, but it fails miserably. It might randomly lock on to an enemy, when you clearly are pointing at another enemy, or just not lock on at all. You get the point about the normal weapons, but the real fun is in The Darkness curse you get. You can slither through tight spaces to attack enemies, spawn darklings, which will show you how to get out of an area or just help you out in general, or just go nuts with the Creeping Dark (One of the snakes attached to you) attacking everyone you see- kind of. The hub of the story is in the subway, where you have to travel from place to place to progress the story, but you cannot attack people with the darkling or your normal weapons. Also, the darklings only have one attack, and it can get really, really old using that as many times as you will have to. You level up your powers by eating the hearts of your victims, and it is definitely as bloody as it should be. Rather than give you a ton of new powers though, the game just makes the ones you have better. This gets a ton of bonus points in my eyes, for trying something new besides just the basic weapons. It can be fun attacking people with the darklings, and really, it's the only fun thing about the fighting system.

Game play (minus the fighting system)- 6/10. 6/10 is generous in my mind. There is a total lack of cover system here. I mean you can do the basic crouch, but for a game that only requires a few hits for death, you think that they could do a little bit better. Besides that, it can be frustrating using up all of your ammo trying to shoot out the lights in the streets. Your darklings are not as effective when they are in the presence of light, so you have to shoot out the lights on the streets before going on rampages with your demon powers. Even when you do have all the lights shot out, the darkness powers are very difficult to control. At times, they seem to slither in random directions despite your repeated attempts to retract them back to you. If you don't have a flat surface around you, it is definitely a steep learning curve to use them. Also, you can only move at one speed in the game- slow. It can be very annoying trying to get past an enemy to cover while you are walking. It doesn't make any sense to me, and is a HUGE turn off.

Controls- 6/10. The game uses the basic controls you might expect. RT is shoot your weapon, Y is jump, A is action, and B is reload. It is clear how complicated it must have been for the designers trying to find a way to implement the darkness powers easily into the controls, and they found a way. RB and LB both control the darkness, and LB with X allows you to use your creeping dark option. With such a complicated fighting system, you have to call the controls some what of a success, even though no matter how much you tweak the sensitivity, the controls always feel a little loose.

Multiplayer- 5/10. Typical, uninspired multiplayer. You get the basic Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Survivor games. You can customize the games a fair amount including Time Limits, One Hit Kills, and Randomize Weapons, but all of these should be expected in the game. The map pack you get is VERY boring. Basically, it is a series of hallways that you barely notice while you look for enemies. Sorry guys, not as good as Halo. Of course, the game implements the darkness powers into the multiplayer in the form of "shape shifting", meaning that you can turn from a human to a darkling at will in certain games, but again, darklings can be very hard to control and humans are just plain boring to play. Most of the time, you respawn in the same area, so the enemy can just stand and wait for you to re-spawn, and then take you out with one shot, usually. Of course, all of this is totally irrelevant if there is no one to play. I've been online where there are only a few groups of people playing, and at times, I haven't been able to get a match at all. The multiplayer was just thrown-in to add a little more replay value to the game. Well, it doesn't add much.

Story- 9/10. Based on a series of comics and graphics novels, the story just oozes cool. You play as Jackie Estacado, who was a hitman for a crime family, but on Jackie's 21st birthday a powerful force known as "The Darkness" awakens within you. The crime family’s “Don” whom you are a hitman for is not happy with the fact you have disagreed with the way he does business, and he has a hit put out on you. With your newly inherited powers, you have to take out your former family. The story has abundant interesting and intense moments, and always keeps moving forward with many different plot changes. You get to play through Manhattan, Chinatown, and even Hell, where your curse originated. The game also tries to be somewhat of a free roaming game with other areas to visit inside New York, but none of them are really worth the effort. In addition, the game throws in random side quests throughout New York, but again, none of them are worth your time or effort. The story is always slick, even in the loading screens where Jackie tells a story about his life, friends, and former family. The reason I was so pleased with the story is the fact that it just keeps moving along. Some games just try to drag out levels for much longer than necessary, but with The Darkness you will always feel like you are doing something new. If you are a fan of the comics or not, you will probably enjoy the story quite a bit. Though it is not super long (I found it to be about 10 hours), it packs quite a punch, and you will be left wanting more.

Much can be said about The Darkness. You might call it innovative, ambitious, sloppy, or a Mafioso mess. Moreover, while it may be all of the above, The Darkness definitely brings something new to the table, and if you are tired of the same old FPS, you will really enjoy this game. I give it an 8.3/10.