The Darkness was pretty popular when it initially released (hell, I even read it), and it fit in well with the grim and gritty style of comics that populated the early and mid 90's. It followed the story of a mob hitman named Jackie Estacado, who upon his 21st birthday gained some incredible dark powers. These powers were also a curse for Jackie however, because to keep on living he had to become celibate, which was no easy task for someone so accustomed to loads of sex and violence.

The initial run of The Darkness ended with issue 40 after some lackluster sales, was re-launched again with a new #1 in 2002. The comic has run on since then, spawning crossovers with notable characters, even with other Publishers. However, The Darkness has never been a big name title in the same way that something like The Punisher, Spider-Man, or the X-Men have been. Sure, there have been some rumblings of a film here and there, but the chances of a general audience having any clue as to what The Darkness is all about is pretty slim. So it'd be reasonable to think that a game based on this license would probably be one of the worst ideas for a comic game ever, right?

Well, The Darkness, developed by Starbreeze Studios (Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay), is an incredibly entertaining single player FPS experience on the Xbox 360. The storyline more or less sticks to the one presented in the comic, with a few differences here and there, but the overall effect is incredibly solid. The script is well polished for an FPS, and the voice over work is pretty amazing.

The atmosphere and general setting of The Darkness is fantastic. Nearly beautiful enough to make you forget all about that game with the gears, Starbreeze has poured a lot of effort into making the dark and dingy world of Jackie Estacdo come to life. They've also done an incredible job with bringing the power of The Darkness to an FPS.

When you start out, you'll have two tendrils in view, one on both sides of the screen. You can whip them around a bit, which isn't too effective, but you'll soon learn a bevy of new abilities. Eventually you'll gain things like a shield, guns powered by Darkness bullets, and a huge black hole you can summon up to pull your enemies away, but this power is limited by a meter that you can only fill by standing in the dark. A big mechanic in the gameplay is eliminating as many light sources from the field as possible, which is also advantageous to Jackie because the Darkness bestows a bit of night vision as well. The biggest problem with the powers, especially the black hole ability, is that you eventually become far too powerful for the common enemies. The black hole is almost like activating a cheat; it makes blowing through most levels far too easy. Rounding out the list of Jackie's abilities are the Darklings, four small demon creatures with their own particular set of skills.

Unfortunately the game doesn't throw a whole lot at you when it comes to intelligent enemies. The majority of the foes are made up from other mafia thugs, with a few variations. There are a couple levels that involve an entirely different location than NYC, but the overall skill level of the bad guys doesn't seem to change too much. By the end of the game you'll be plowing thru each area with ease, and while that can be fun for a bit, it ends up becoming a bit boring..

Thankfully, The Darkness is a true treat on the eyes. The detail presented in the world is great, and you'll be surprised at how open ended everything is. You can't really get lost or lose your direction, and its no GTA, but it's a far cry from being on rails. Textures are nice and clean, and the character models animate extremely well. Mouths don't match up well with the voices, but outside of that, there isn't much to gripe about on the visuals.

The voice acting is really, really good. Some of the best I've heard in an action game in ages. Coupled with a pretty well written script, you'll find yourself engaged in Jackie's story. Things never get too complicated, and nothing really surprises you outside of a couple twists, but overall there's a lot of meat to the story as it unfolds.

However, while the single player experience is excellent, the Multiplayer modes seem pretty tacked on. I'm not sure if this is due to fanboys bitching about the lack of multi in Riddick, but really, this game would have been fine if it had just followed suit. The Multiplayer modes are pretty standard stuff, consisting of Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch, and Survivor. You can't play as Jackie, but you can choose to take on the role of various gangsters and Darklings. The gangsters are a bit stronger, and can make use of weapons, while the Darklings use only strong melee attacks, but can climb on the walls and ceilings. I imagine after the new game shine wears off, you won't find a huge community for the multiplayer, especially with games like Gears of War still going pretty strong, and with Halo 3 coming up this year. It's worth checking out to see if you like it, but it's not a good reason to pick up the game.

That's not to say that The Darkness isn't worth picking up though. It's an excellent FPS on a console that has already seen its fair share of the genre, and that's really saying something. The visuals are stunning in HD, and the overall gameplay is a lot of fun. You'll even find some side quests to do, and plenty of hard to get achievements for the Xbox 360 gamerscore enthusiasts. I'd definitely suggest picking this one up.