I think it was 1996, when I picked up my first copy of the Darkness comic book. The comic had just the right mix of action and violence to keep things interesting. After playing the game for a few hours, I'm happy to say that the game does an excellent job in capturing the "feel" of the comic book.

Like the comic book, you start out as Jackie Estacado, a hit man, who finds himself on his mob family's hit list. As the story unfolds, you begin to find out the 'who, what and why' of your situation. But the real fun of the game is understanding and using the Darkness, a semi-parasitic entity that speaks to you and gives you all sorts of cool ways to do away with your enemies. Hey, there's nothing like ripping your enemies' hearts and eating them to boost your power. But you have to be a little resourceful, since attacks that use the Darkness drain it. You'll have to do most of your dirty deeds in the shadows, since your power is automatically restored in darkness.

The first-person shooter aspect of the game is fairly good - you get several types of guns, such as pistols and shotguns, to blow away the bad guys. But as one would expect, the "wow" factor of the game comes from using powers of the Darkness. However, where most games would stop there, Darkness goes a few steps further and actually delivers a gripping story line, combined with some truly awesome voiceover work. Add all this together and you have one incredibly fun game that hits the bull's-eye for fans of the comic book and first-person shooter games. -dark abyss

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