Don't forget to check out the breakdancing crew!
Mixed amongst the fighting segments and the many objectives is the narrative driven storyline, which is told through a mixture of conversations with characters and the lead character's own reflections on his life and his future. As previously mentioned, it's a high quality script with great voice acting, which makes it all the more believable and manages to sustain your attention. The Darkness is brimming with artistry, from the stencil-shadow techniques (the use of sharp edges), light mapping, photo-realistic models, motion-captured dialogue and oodles of fine detail in the locations and characters (just look at the hands! They're freakily realisic looking).
Starbreeze have gone further than many developers by paying equal attention to every aspect of their videogame. Despite the dark nature of the game, they've ensured that the enviroment is fun and in parts it's an interactive playground that you can explore to your hearts content. The locations are brimming with nice touches which effectively add to the atmosphere in the game. You can turn over TV channels – Flash Gordon was on the other day – blow out candles if you wish, jump on the tube down to the next station, flush the toilet, make a phone call, collect letters from the post box, or spend some time watching the local break dancing crew who've converged at the station. There's so much more to 'The Darkness', which we'll save for our review, but suffice to say it's looking so gorgeous it could make a grown gamer weep. That's not to mention the mixture of intense fighting, head scratching environmental puzzles, stimulating objectives, great storyline and overall cinematic feel.
Click for larger image'The Darkness' will be the game on everybody's lips when it arrives at the end of June.
The Darkness also has a multiplayer mode, which we're yet to play. We'll have more about this shortly.
