Manifest The Darkness
The story revolves around Jackie Estacado, an unflappable character who spent his childhood being brought up in an orphanage, where he met his sweetheart Jenny, who also plays a pivotal role in the storyline. His troubled life led him to becoming a hit-man for the notorious Franchetti crime family, but on his 21st birthday Jackie began to hear the voice of The Darkness. **SPOILER** We find out later in the story, when Jackie meets his great, great grandfather (hang on he'd be dead wouldn't he? – yep, it gets really weird) that the Darkness is an evil creature which has passed down generations of his family and is now using Jackie as his puppet for evil deeds. There has been a few problems in the Franchetti crime family, caused by a nasty character called Uncle Paulie who currently rules the family in a way that Jackie has openly disapproved of, and it's Jackie's goal to take back control of the Franchetti's, whilst attempting to find out more about The Darkness and learning how to harness its powers.
The Darkness is strictly for mature gamers and is gloriously and unashamedly violent with coarse language, plenty of bloodshed and grisly animations (prepare yourselves for the shocking scene when Jackie is about to be tortured with an electric drill!). There's nothing particularly innovative about the shooting segments, but if it's worked in the past there's no real need to push the boat out in this respect. As is stands the mechanics are still very solid, although the aiming function isn’t as accurate as it could be, but the fighting segments are impressive with sharp AI and plenty of meat to the action. You'll see a small target reticule which is controlled free hand and you'll be fighting tooth and nail against corrupt police, dead soldiers and even your own mafia crime family as you try and get to the bottom of The Darkness. There are a number of frantic shoot-outs where the NYPD and SWAT squads place themselves strategically around the area in order to ambush you, but they don’t totally rely on your aiming skills, but instead rely on your astute positioning, quick reactions and awareness of your surroundings.
Click for larger image
Click for larger imageThe weapons do their job effectively, for example, a close-up shotgun blast will send an enemy flying backwards, but are fairly useless at long range, spraying bullets with a sub-machine gun will take out more than one enemy in a single magazine and enemies can be taken out with one carefully placed headshot with a pistol. There's no health metre in the game, but instead you'll see a 'red mist' materialise on the screen when your health is low (the same as Gears of War) and it replenishes and the screen clears over time (providing you don't get shot again).
By far the most impressive thing about combat are the animations of the characters as they slump over tables, impale themselves on spiked railings and interact physically with the environment or any object that they bump into during their collapse. Furthermore, the bodies of enemies stay exactly where they are, so you can take out an enemy out and watch him slump over a pool table, come back 5 minutes later and he'll be in exactly the same position – this is something which you don't see much off in first person shooters and makes the whole experience feel more realistic.
