It should only take about 10-12 hours to complete the game. The first thing you’d think of doing after beating the game is to try the multiplayer now right? Sure go ahead, but the multiplayer is a disappointment. You get four modes: deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, and survivor. With only four deathmatch maps and four capture the flag maps it is obvious Starbreeze didn’t focus their efforts as much on the multiplayer as they did with the singleplayer. Many of the maps feel rushed and the design could have been better. You have the ability to choose between human vs. human, darkling vs. darkling, or shapeshifting. It is fun in some ways. The darklings are speedy and can jump long distances, but playing as a human is much more powerful. The shapeshifting gameplay, where you can shift from human to darkling, adds more spice, but gets old quick. Also, lag has been a problem for online play and when it occurs it makes many of the matches virtually unplayable (imagine lag while trying to shoot darklings jumping 30 feet across the map). The inability for the multiplayer to be as stunning as the singleplayer really hurts The Darkness in the replayability category.
Real quickly, for all you achievement junkies out there, the achievements come along in a fairly balanced manner. There are 50 achievements for a total of 1000 points. As expected, achievements range from singleplayer to multiplayer gameplay. Now to express in delight, Starbreeze gave gamers a nifty little feature: the ability to check their achievement progress in the menus. Props to Starbreeze!
Well readers, it’s been a long review, time to end it.
In short, The Darkness is a violent and satisfying piece of visual poetry. The storytelling is one of the more impressive in recent memory and the abilities presented bring something fresh to console shooters. It’s just too bad the multiplayer is a disappointment. It’s the only thing holding me back from dubbing this stunner a classic.
