The Darkness (360)
Every criticism I've seen in reviews of The Darkness is fair. It's uneven and ragged, and at times it's downright clunky. The character models often look plastic and the voice work is spotty. Your character becomes too powerful near the end of the game, and the narrative itself seems to falter in the last chapter.In short, it's not good.
It's great.
Or, using the narrative style of the game itself: totally f***king great.
The writing is totally inspired, even in its absolute excess. Some of the cut-scenes are among the best I've ever seen in a game, creating an unbearable amount of tension. It's one of the very few games I've ever played where I started to identify with the character, where I wanted revenge as badly as he did. And for every bit of sloppiness, there's a moment that is so unerringly true that it's utterly brilliant.
Instead of trying to tell you why this game is so sensational, which would involve all kinds of spoilers, let me tell you how I played it, because I think that has quite a bit to do with how the game makes you feel.
First off, turn off all the lights. That's mandatory.
Second, turn off the music. This game can be tremendously, unnervingly creepy, and the music is just a distraction.
Third, stop using your guns. That's not always possible, but whenever you can, use your darkness powers instead. Oh, and since there is a kind of gun as one of the darkness powers, stop using it as well. Anyone who plays this as a conventional shooter is totally missing the experience.
All right, here's one little story, anyway. Your character's powers, literally, depend on darkness. They draw sustenance from the darkness (which you can see, and it is unbelievably cool). This means that as you move through an area, extinguishing lights can be a matter of life and death.
At first, this seemed very repetitive and kind of boring, really.
What happens, though, is that as the game sucks you in--and it does--you start to experience the game in a different way. Suddenly, I realized what it would feel like to be the prey, seeing light after light popping and knowing that someone, some thing, was coming for me.
What I felt, in that moment, was dread.
The Darkness makes me feel all kinds of things that I'm not used to feeling in a game--uncomfortable, pit-of-my-stomach things.
Like I said, the criticisms of the game that I've seen are all valid. It's just that great games rise above their shortcomings, and this game soars above them.
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