The Darkness adapts a 10-year-old comic book about a mob hit man who gains demonic powers, and yet the most unbelievable part of the game has nothing to do with the paranormal. The game's lead, Jackie Estacado, is just celebrating his 21st birthday, but his voice (courtesy of The Black Donnellys' Kirk Acevedo) is gravelly and worn. He's supposed to be hard from spending his teenage years as an assassin for the Franchetti family, but his leather trenchcoat and Trent Reznor locks don't tell the same story.
If The Darkness weren't so ambitious, it would be harder to take this trumped-up shooter to task for such character details. But the game's creators aimed high, and sadly, they fall flat on their faces nearly half the time. The Darkness attempts to combine shooter, role-playing game, and actioner elements, like a mix of Shenmue and Half-Life. Neither the gunplay nor the imaginative superpowers really work. When overtaken by evil, Jackie can whip deadly tentacles at enemies, summon darklings to do his bidding, and project killer tendrils that simulate the low-to-the-ground "shaky-cam" creatures from the Evil Dead movies. None of these powers really come together, though. The tendrils constantly get mired on the lips of walls, and the darklings rarely do what they're commanded. Even the shooting is unsatisfying, since more bullets are spent dousing lights (to create much-needed shadows) than ventilating baddies.