The Darkness is a very Italian game. Sometimes, I feel a twinge of shame for really enjoying Italian media, being Italian myself. I feel like I’m playing into the stereotype, clapping my hands and pointing at the screen as Johnny Salami shoots a guy in the head while eating a cannoli. But I have to admit, stereotypes be damned, there’s just something fun about watching bad people do bad things to each other while screaming the word “gabagool.” But from the outside, The Darkness doesn’t seem like an Italian game. And that’s certainly not why people still talk about this title. People came for the edge. Just looking at the cover, you get the vibe. This is some sorta Crow-meets-Spawn type deal. This is a game where people kill and shoot so much, but, like, they’re sad about it after. And it is that, to be fair. There are plenty of trenchcoats and angst and metal music. But it’s also so much more. There’s a reason why this game hasn’t been forgotten over the years.
Eyy, Paisanos!
In The Darkness, you take control of Jackie Estacado, an orphan taken in by the Italian mafia and more specifically your Uncle Paulie. The story starts in medias res, with you on your way to pull off a hit and Paulie already pissed off enough at you to set up an ambush to take you out. The details of why he’s pissed off aren’t that important, the game handwaves something about money, but this essentially sets the stage for the rest of the game. You spend the rest of your time trying to get back at Paulie, protecting your girlfriend Jenny, and getting together with a few people in the family who don’t appreciate Paulie’s way of doing things. And just in case this was starting to sound too pedestrian of a plot, the Aughts come in hot with a new twist: a demonic presence that’s suddenly made itself known to you called The Darkness. This presence allows you access to powers and essentially makes it so you can’t die. The entity is also voiced by renowned freak Mike Patton, who was nice enough to record the sounds he makes waking up in the morning for use in this game. Jackie and The Darkness don’t exactly see eye to eye for most of the game but they strike an uneasy partnership. Essentially, Jackie wants Paulie dead and The Darkness wants control of Jackie. The drama lies in the fact that the further into revenge Jackie sinks, the closer he gets to losing control.
There’s something really quaint and strangely wholesome about the goth/grimdark aesthetic that was huge during the late 90s and early Aughts. That bygone era when Marilyn Manson was still counter-culture and Hot Topic had a stranglehold on society. And The Darkness leaning into that vibe only does favors for its overall story. It’s a pretty basic premise but gets elevated by its tone. When your demonic buddy starts yammering away about the sullied defilement of what used to be your soul, it’s hard not to like the guy. You can really feel how much the writers hate their stepdads. The story is told in sort of a gangster-noir type of way, with Jackie performing a monologue every time a loading screen pops up. Think Martin Scorcese but with a scene haircut. And thankfully, the characters in this title are pretty good at talking. Starbreeze Studios showed that they had directing chops with their previous Riddick title, and here they are at the top of their game in terms of character and dialogue. I found the best parts of this game to be whenever anyone opened their mouth. Everything has a sort of pulpy, comic book flavor to it, but the delivery couldn’t be more on point. It really goes to show that if you take a pretty standard, basic story and just tell it in an exciting way, the result can be extremely effective.
He Did Meet Batman One Time
On that note though, The Darkness is a comic series. From what I can tell, the basic structure of the comics was taken and a few details were shuffled up to read better for an eight-hour video game. You can unlock the comics going through the game, but I didn’t dive too deeply into the multiple issues that you unlock. I suspect this ties into one of the game’s bigger storytelling issues: lack of world-building. The Darkness is pretty sparse on important details. A lot of the dialogue is performed with the feeling of covering old ground, so it doesn’t sweat any details getting you up to speed. You will have questions. And the game is not interested in answering very many of them at all. What is The Darkness? You don’t know. How did it find you? Blame WW1 Grandpappy or something. There are moments going through the game that feel anticlimactic since the buildup for these events is probably further elaborated in the comics. And while that is a shame, the game pushed the more immediate goal of Uncle Pauly, so it sort of sidesteps that problem. Whenever the story focuses on the straightforward task of getting revenge, it feels coherent. It’s just when these stray plotlines about lore crop up that the game runs the risk of losing you.
If you play The Darkness nowadays, it’s pretty apparent how it’s such a product of its time. And I don’t mean with the aesthetic. I like that. Bury me in Nine Inch Nails merch. But it presents a screenshot of where video games were in relation to other forms of media. When this title first came out, media outlets raved over the scene you spend with Jenny, just spending time and soaking in the serenity. It’s honestly a pretty nice moment and if you want to, you can watch the entirety of To Kill A Mockingbird with her. But this sort of storytelling, where you’re still in control but have the option to just slow down and enjoy the presence of other characters, was just coming to fruition. Up to 2007, most people didn’t really care about the side characters in their AAA gaming sphere. If you couldn’t shoot them, they didn’t matter. But The Darkness made an interesting creative choice that really struck a nerve with the gaming landscape as a whole. Not to say that this title shifted the market, but there was definitely more emphasis being placed on the characters in big-budget games going forward. Whether it was the catalyst or just part of the wave, one of the most fondly-remembered qualities of The Darkness is the storytelling and nuance it gives to its world and characters.
One Dog Goes One Way
But now it’s time to talk about the elephant in the room. There’s a reason that I talked about the story and atmosphere for so long. The gameplay of The Darkness tears me up. Everything is cool. Everything is so past cool and stylized and perfectly skates that line of being pretty silly and also so serious Mom, you wouldn’t understand. It’s just… It’s just that actually doing any of these things sucks so fucking hard. Starbreeze Studios created this game in between the two Riddick titles that would go on to be pretty lauded in the industry. But the first Riddick title would be the far-away favorite and I think I have an idea why: you barely used any guns in that game. The Darkness loads you up with so many guns and unfortunately, you have to shoot them. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the worst I’ve ever experienced in an FPS, but this certainly isn’t the best. You rely on auto-aim primarily. There is an aim-down-sights option, but it’s pretty awkward to use on a controller. The auto-aim usually does its job, but a lot of the encounters in The Darkness take place at long range in empty streets. So that’s a lot of faith you have to put into a dot in the middle of your screen. And sometimes that dot doesn’t know whether you want to shoot at one dude or the other one hovering over his shoulder. You die pretty quickly in this game as well. All of this inevitably leads to frustration with the systems at play. Perhaps it’s just my modern sensibilities, but I lived through this era of semi-jank shooters and I feel like even giving this game the benefit of the doubt, this wasn’t the best that the generation had to offer.
Of course, the powers that your little demonic stowaway bring along shake up the experience a bit. At your disposal, you have tentacles that can grab and throw, protection against bullets, all the way up to a portable black hole that you can throw out whenever things get too hectic. You generally use these abilities during head-on combat but occasionally, there’s a puzzle that requires a bit of creativity with your powers. You also have the ability to summon a few unique classes of helpers known as “darklings” who can go around killing people, killing people, killing people, or turning lights off. Overall, I like all these powers. The variety shakes up what could otherwise be a somewhat monotonous shooting experience. And the personality given to the darklings is charming, with them chattering to themselves and really just getting a kick out of this whole murder thing. It’s fun. The thing that holds The Darkness back is not lack of effort, it’s just somewhat botched execution. I wish that the split between fun design and frustrating gameplay was more skewed, but overall, I don’t think that it’s enough to sink this entire game.
“Anyone Who Says The Subway is Dangerous…”
There are also side missions that you can take part in. Some of them are along the path of the main story and some of them you have to look for. They run the gamut of quality, with some being really creative, clever tasks and others being pretty much like the rest of the game. But that’s not the real reason they’re notable. The fact that these side quests exist at all is notable. The addition of side quests in a game like this always confused me. For the entirety of this title, your motivations surround Paulie and Jenny. There are world-shattering, life-and-death situations happening literally every mission. There are stakes, there is a sense of urgency. So tell me why Jackie, an immortal zombie deity hellbent on revenge, would give a shit about a harmonica busker who’s getting harassed for change. Potentially, this could say something about Jackie’s character and humanity. What undermines that is how in every other scene, he goes on and on about how the only reason for his existence right now is to get revenge for himself and those he loves. These two aspects of the story are not melded together and I don’t think the juxtaposition really helps The Darkness. It ends up creating a lot of whiplash going from goofball Jackie to sophomore notebook edge master Jackie. If they made an effort to show off both sides of Jackie during the main story, I think this would have worked better. But as it is, these are just some weird oddities that you can do if you really can’t get enough of this quirky little game.
One thing that is absolutely nailed is the presentation. Compared to its contemporaries, The Darkness holds up especially well. I maintain that graphics overall during the PS3-360 era aged like milk. But by leaning into a unique art direction, this game ends up coming out the other side clean. The greatest way to future-proof a title is to make its art direction unique enough to set it apart. There aren’t any games that look like The Darkness. The lighting is really the star of the show. It complements the fidelity on display here, covering up imperfections and creating an atmosphere. The one critique I have is that the lighting is oftentimes too eager to cover up imperfections. I understand they have a brand image to uphold, but this game is just too dark. The soundscape here is also very unique. Leaning into its comic origins, The Darkness is able to get away with bombast and avoids the standard militaristic fare that shooters of the time were saddled with. Operatic vocals and horns make up the heartbeat of this game, broken up by scattered pianos and guitars. There’s a lot of variety in this title and it lends itself to a story that covers a wide swath of emotions. Sensitive numbers like Jenny’s Theme live comfortably alongside the oppressive score you hear in Grinder’s Lane. The Darkness, perhaps appropriately, resembles more of a movie score than a standard videogame soundtrack. And the experience is all the better for it.
Usually with the games that I cover, I don’t need to talk about performance. With most older disc-and-cartridge-based games, the game runs how it runs for everyone and I can just judge it on the quality that everyone has experienced. But I had the misfortune of playing The Darkness on PS3. In 2023. My PS3 is going on seventeen years old at this point. And while I’m glad that it hasn’t straight-up shit the bed on me, I have to be honest, I haven’t been keeping up with its maintenance every single day. So while some of the following may be specific to my console, I looked up PS3 footage and it looks like the console in general just struggles with this title. According to Xbox 360 playthroughs that I found, this game seems to run much smoother there. Your mileage may vary. In my experience, The Darkness massively chugged in some points. Walking around in quiet areas yields pretty consistent results, but whenever something like a gun or more than one person appears on screen, frames can drop pretty low. I even took my machine apart and cleaned it out, turned off the internet access, and even consulted the elder Reddit gods. Nothing could make this game run at even a fraction of the 360 version. So if you do decide to take a plunge into this title, I implore you; don’t make my mistake. Buy the 360 version.
A Little Light in the Darkness
So that’s The Darkness. It’s not a perfect title. In a lot of ways, it’s sort of annoying or just plain bad. But it cares about the smaller details. And all of these smaller aspects come together to form something that stands to be remembered today, despite its problems. If I had to guess why The Darkness struck a chord with people, it lies in the absolute devotion that Starbreeze Studios tackled the atmosphere. Beyond anything that you can play, this is a game that you can feel. There was effort put into making the subway system you use feel real and lived in. There was effort put into the performances of every character, down to the most minor. There was effort put into the cinematography during Jackie’s loading screen monologues. The Darkness is a lot of things, some good and some bad. But what this game can’t be accused of is being without heart.
If you want to make your way through a homeless man’s booby-trapped sewer system, pick up the game for Xbox 360 here. There is a PS3 version, but I promise you don’t want to do it. Just get the other one. Don’t make my mistake.