The Darkness Preview

By Kristan Reed Published 30 August, 2006

GC: Starbreeze sheds more light on its horror masterpiece.

It's not set to emerge blinking into the daylight until early 2007, but The Darkness is definitely near the top of our Most Wanted list following another solid showing at the Leipzig Games Convention.

Ever since Starbreeze took the wraps off its first next generation project at this year's E3, it's been a game we've been somewhat keen to get our hands on. But despite originally being slated for a November 2006 release, publisher 2K Games has granted the Swedish team more time to make sure the game delivers on its obvious promise. The downside, obviously, is that the team's still in 'presentation mode', and to an extent we're still forced to rely on a certain amount of blind faith that it really is as good as it looks.

For the purpose of the Leipzig demonstration, Starbreeze cut straight to the chase in the assumption that we already knew about Mafia hitman Jackie Estacado's "awesome and terrible" Darkness powers, and how he inherited them on his 21st birthday. At war with his own Mafia family following a betrayal, it's your job to regain control of the Franchetti family in somewhat unorthodox fashion - involving giant tentacles with jaws on the end of them. As lead designer Jens Andersson says of the E3 presentation: "It really showcased what you will be able to do with the Darkness powers within the game." If you want to find out more, now's a good time to revisit our first preview of The Darkness.

Dark is the new light

"Now here at Leipzig we have new stuff to show you," Andersson promises."It's the introduction of the game, so it's before Jackie receives any kind of Darkness powers. It's more a traditional shooter in this first segment up to the point he gets possessed basically on his birthday."

'The Darkness' Screenshot 1

At this point we shown the "special" cinematic introduction sequence, born out of how much they "hate" long tutorial segments that "have nothing to do with the game" - not to mention "long cut-scenes that you have to look through before you get the chance to play". Appropriately, we're treated to a "heavily scripted sequence which you basically can't fail, but you have some form of control and it gives you a sense of what the game is all about before doing all the necessary tutorial elements."

After all the chatter, we get to witness a few minutes of a dialogue and action set inside a moving car, complete with an on-the-move shoot-out in an underpass. During this extended intro, the frantic dialogue, erratic driving and fearless shooting dominate the exchanges to give you a flavour of the kind of unsavoury characters we're dealing with. From our vantage point, it wasn't altogether clear which bits you controlled - whether the driving bit was entirely on-rails, or whether we're shooting intermittently, but it was a typically cinematic way to kick off proceedings.

Construction time again

'The Darkness' Screenshot 2

Following a dramatic car crash, where one of the old (wise) guys complains about his busted up legs and messed up suit, the demo switches to more traditional tutorial territory, as "we need to make sure people understand how to play the game". "If you heard what he said during the tunnel sequence we have ended up in the construction site where Jackie and the guys are supposed to pick up the foreman, so it's like a bunch of construction workers that are in league with the mafia, and you have to take them out, basically."

And take them out you do. Jackie's handed the two trademark gun and you get a chance to use Starbreeze's familiar yet unique first person shooter mechanics. "In The Darkness we have been working pretty heavily with these guns to increase the immersion of the game. In Riddick we took one step with introducing seeing your own body - and of course we have that stuff in here as well - but we wanted to go even further with The Darkness," insists Andersson, showing off the 'vo-capped' technology, which allowed Starbreeze to simultaneously record the face, body and voice-over for the most natural effect possible.

"We have implemented a system where the player interacts with the environment around him." he says. "For example, if you go up to this crate he moves his hands up above the crate, just to get a clear line of fire on whatever the player's looking at." It's a pretty seamless system - move to the side of a crate and the player's hands adapt dynamically to the side, or adjust over the top of the crate if you walk up to the middle of it.

Aim and fire, aim and fire

'The Darkness' Screenshot 3

Meanwhile, Starbreeze's approach to aiming has been tweaked slightly as well, with an in-built aiming delay " that's very similar to the traditional mechanics of the small circle going larger when you stand still...instead of having a HUD element of giving that feedback it's more or less based on the physics - the physical properties of the movement of the hands. So that's pretty neat," Andersson adds.

Riddick's influence on Starbreeze extends to the number of different attacks available to the player, for example stealth kills and counter attacks that allow you to garrot someone, or use their weapon against them. "Jackie is a hitman, so he has guns already, but we still like the idea of it so we've implemented something that we call execution kills, which basically works in a manner where if you get close enough to a person you have the context-sensitive system that will pull off a special attack. It's a pretty neat system and it's really fun to play and just to see all the different kind of variation of execution kills you can pull off depending on what weapons you have and stuff like that."

After showing us the basics of running around shooting and some grisly executions, we get to see another immensely cool feature for the first time - of how the TV's used in the game. "We have it not only running full feature movies and stuff but also running gameplay-relevant information," Andersson reveals. "It's a neat way of giving info to the player without sort of having to bring up dialogue or whatever." I'm sorry. Full-length movies? Apparently so, with old classics like Nosferatu seen running in-game, giving players something else to do while we're running around shooting things, and devouring perps with our pair of giant tentacle jaws. Some ten hours' worth of movie material is promised for the final game, including Hitchcock classics.

Celluloid heroes

'The Darkness' Screenshot 4

The PS3 version may boast even more, thanks to its Blu-Ray storage advantages. Elsewhere we get to witness live news clips of our antics, which is an interesting way to sidestep having traditional cut scenes. Later we get to see a pre-recorded clip from Jackie's uncle Paulie - again, a smart means of moving the gameplay on without taking the player out of the action.

In terms of the bedrock of technology behind the game, it's "an evolved version of the Riddick engine," which is evident from the rich normal mapped environments and excellent use of lighting. "Of course, with the power of next-generation hardware we can do a lot of more open areas and stuff than we ever could in Riddick. We have also introduced light-field mapping, which is kind of similar technology as they have in Half-Life 2. So we have combined the two technologies, so we still have the dynamic lighting where you can take out all the lights around you but we can also do this sort of city light areas, with a more ambient style of lighting. So the best of both worlds."

Betrayed by the Mafia godfather and at war with your own family, Jackie begins to hear strange voices which signal the arrival of his Darkness powers. Played by Mike Patten of Faith No More, we didn't know whether to care a lot or not, but we're sure some of you doubtlessly will. Nevertheless, the general standard of the voice acting was excellent, capturing the cotton mouthed style perfectly.

And with that, the latest demo session was over, leaving us with a tantalising display of what to expect when the game hits the shelves in the early part of 2007. Check back in the coming months, when we hope to get a full hands-on with Starbreeze's exciting looking next generation first person shooter.

The Darkness is due out in early 2007 on PS3 and Xbox 360. Check out our interview with Jen Andersson.

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (60) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Tomo #1 6 years ago

    Looks good. Great developers. Hope it works for them.

  • lambtron #2 6 years ago

    Ooft. That old woman should be more worried about whatever the fuck is wrong with her face!

  • Skooch #3 6 years ago

    "looks like a PS3 must."

    I suppose you need at least one good game to play, if you can get hold of a PS3 by early 07 that is.

    /hides

  • Hog-lumps #4 6 years ago

    sounds alright.....

  • Jesus: Action Figure #5 6 years ago

    "Played by Mike Patten of Faith No More, we didn't know whether to care a lot or not"

    I love you.

  • w00t #6 6 years ago

    Riddick was one of the best games on Xbox, so I'm looking forward to this with interest.

  • manic_mouse #7 6 years ago

    "looks like a PS3 must."

    Yeah, £425 to play a game that a £200 console can pull off just as well. The PS3 is a steal, isn't it?

    Apparently the 360 version will have better textures than the PS3 version, due to it having more free RAM for textures:

    Högdahl: "So far the two versions look pretty much the same – quite unsurprisingly, since we use the same shader source code and content for both platforms. They will be identical gameplay-wise. There will only be very minor cosmetic differences, such as the PS3 will have better quality video for the in-game TVs and on the Xbox 360 we have a bit more room for textures in memory."

    http://ww w.gameinformer.com/Magazine/Ins...

    And of course the 360 version will have rumble as well.

    So a 360 must, surely.
    Edited by 1 at 30/08/06 @ 13:43

  • Blerk #8 6 years ago

    For fuck's sake, does every thread have to turn into a 360/PS3 cock-waving contest?

  • smelly #9 6 years ago

    Dont think much to those screenshots tbh.

    Was expecting something much better the amount sony is pushing the ps3.

    EDIT : NOTE TO DUMBASSES - Not slagging off the ps3 here, im just saying these shots dont look like they're using it to its full potential.
    Edited by 1 at 30/08/06 @ 13:47

  • SeesThroughAll #10 6 years ago

    For fuck's sake, does every thread have to turn into a 360/PS3 cock-waving contest?

    Yep, as long as some people keep trying to hide their insecurity by bragging about how much they can do with it... the 360, of course, what else ? :)

  • dr_zoidthrob #11 6 years ago

    It looks ok, but then again, so does Riddick and the two don't look different enough. Characters heads are a little rounder, but it doesn't look *that* next-gen to me.

  • manic_mouse #12 6 years ago

    "Twisting your torso with the 'accelerometer' controller on the PS3 might work. Shaking the controller to shake people you've grabbed a hold of? "

    Sounds interesting, but are Starbreeze implimenting any of that stuff? It's going to be hard to incorperate the motion sensing stuff into multi-format titles without it being tacky and bolted on (the knife sections in RE:DS anyone!?).

    I played Riddick for a while, but then managed to get stuck in a section where I needed an item from the previous section to continue. Problem was it was impossible to get back to the previous section. That's some bad game design right there, hoping for less of that with the Darkness which looks excelent to be honest. I shall be buying!

    "For fuck's sake, does every thread have to turn into a 360/PS3 cock-waving contest? "

    The guy was implying that the game was either PS3 exclusive or somehow better on the PS3, neither of which are true. Do you have a problem with me pointing that out?
    Edited by 1 at 30/08/06 @ 14:00

  • geepersd #13 6 years ago

    looks a bit too "normal mapped dark grime and shadows" to be not set in a triple max prison, but still looks interesting as Riddick was excellent.

  • Pike #14 6 years ago

    Game looks promising. Riddick was excellent.

    Manic_mouse: He didn't imply that the PS3 version was going to be better. I read the comment as if he meant that any PS3 owner will need this game. I didn't read it as some dig at the 360.

  • smelly #15 6 years ago

    Red Steele looks better graphically


    (lights fuse, runs away...)

    :-D

  • Pike #16 6 years ago

    Oh look, smelly is still trolling the comments sectionas uninspired as ever.

  • manic_mouse #17 6 years ago

    "He didn't imply that the PS3 version was going to be better. I read the comment as if he meant that any PS3 owner will need this game. I didn't read it as some dig at the 360."

    And why single out PS3-owners, or the PS3 version? The GAME is a "must", the format should be irrelevant (since it's out on both and both versions have advatanages over the other).
    Edited by 1 at 30/08/06 @ 14:17

  • gth #18 6 years ago

    "The guy was implying that the game was either PS3 exclusive or somehow better on the PS3, neither of which are true. "

    No, he wasn't. He was just saying its a "must have" if you are a PS3 owner. At least thats what I get out of "looks like a PS3 must".

  • Pike #19 6 years ago

    You guys are way to fucking defensive. Not every comment is console war flame bait.

    And of course every sensible person knows that the only proper way to play the game will be to wait for the PC release.:p

  • SeesThroughAll #20 6 years ago

    "The guy was implying that the game was either PS3 exclusive or somehow better on the PS3, neither of which are true. "

    No, he wasn't. He was just saying its a "must have" if you are a PS3 owner. At least thats what I get out of "looks like a PS3 must".

    Heaven forbid anyone from so much as implying that the PS3 will not be crap... The MS loyals shall take down every single infidel! Jihad!

  • deepmenace #21 6 years ago

    oh dear EG....what have you become.

    next gen is the worst thing to happen to a lot of gaming forums.

  • smelly #22 6 years ago

    >Oh look, smelly is still trolling the comments sectionas uninspired as ever

    Erm, it was a joke comment aimed at the tired penis wars that was starting.

    *sigh*

  • manic_mouse #23 6 years ago

    "Heaven forbid anyone from so much as implying that the PS3 will not be crap... The MS loyals shall take down every single infidel! Jihad!"

    *attempts to close can of worms*

    Can you see the logical fallacy in your statement, by the way?
    Edited by 1 at 30/08/06 @ 14:33

  • jozz #24 6 years ago

    This thread is retarded.

  • nickthegun #25 6 years ago

    {(Undying + Riddick + The Sopranos) x Mike Patton = *splooge*}
    ________________________________
    Format Cock Waving

    I am very much looking forward to this game now, especially since it looks like its going to be better on the true gamers console.
    Edited by 1 at 30/08/06 @ 14:32

  • smelly #26 6 years ago

    Reet. I dont own either a ps3 or 360.

    Seems to me that this game:

    Pros 360:
    Better textures

    Pros ps3:
    Better movies


    And if either of those two actually make a flying fug of a difference to the ACTUAL GAME, or so that players CAN ACTUALLY NOTICE the difference, i'll eat my hat.

    If yer happy with the machine you've bought/intend to buy why worry about what the other one can/cant do? Who cares?

    They're both getting this game, and im sure both will PLAY exactly the same (appart from the ps3's shaking gimmick), so what the hell does it matter???

    Edited by 1 at 30/08/06 @ 14:33

  • manic_mouse #27 6 years ago

    Exactly Smelly. As I said, well before people started calling me a fanboy, the GAME is a "must buy". The format should be irrelevant (which is why I took exception to the "PS3 must" comment in the first place).

    "Probably taken from the Playstation 3, as i have not seen anything on the X360 that comes close to this. "

    Dude, have you seen Uno?
    Edited by 3 at 30/08/06 @ 14:42

  • smelly #28 6 years ago

    @yellowtruck : I do hope yer trying to be ironic and not moronic.

    Edited by 1 at 30/08/06 @ 14:41

  • manic_mouse #29 6 years ago

    And there we go. I accept all your appologies, and all the "I'm sorry you were right" boxes of chocolate.

    *lights cigar*

    I love it when a plan comes together.

    @Yellowtruck: Check this out http://uk .gamespot.com/xbox360/puzzle/un...
    Edited by 2 at 30/08/06 @ 14:48

  • aldurtregi #30 6 years ago

    Mike PattOn

    /anal-retentive

  • SeesThroughAll #31 6 years ago

    Can you see the logical fallacy in your statement, by the way?

    None, I must be one of the few people who think both formats will have good games, but enthusiasts of the 360 who aren't interested in a PS3 (or can't afford one) always go on harping about how crappy the PS3 version will be, etc.
    Take a look on most threads, and you'll see what I mean...

  • smelly #32 6 years ago

    Well to me it doesnt look that great
    And I've seen LOADS better examples of screenshots on the 360

    Whether or not its 360 or ps3 who's to tell.

    My money is on them not being THAT different to the naked eye (appart from lower texture res on the ps3, which perhaps would indicate that shot is probs more likely 360).

    But saying a stupidly sweeping statement like that is only gonna kick people off again, so i wish you wouldnt.

  • smelly #33 6 years ago

    >always go on harping about how crappy the PS3 version will be, etc.

    Well until we actually SEE them running side by side, or have screenshots to compare, no-one knows do they?

    So anyone saying anything either way is purely basing it on pure falicy and wanting their choice in machine to be right.

    My advice, if you havent yet bought either, wait, compare them, and get the one you want.

    No bloody point arguing about it!

    Besides itll almost definately PLAY exactly the same on both machines!!!

    I presum most of the ps3 owners who are whinning owned a ps2? Did you worry about that having shit graphics? No - because you were too busy enjoying the games to care.

    See?

  • Inquisitor #34 6 years ago

    Hmmm, I think brothers in arms 3 comes close to looking that good, its not so dark either so in a way its more impressive. In fairness I was watching a video of that though, so its unfair to compare it to screenshots.

  • manic_mouse #35 6 years ago

    "None, I must be one of the few people who think both formats will have good games"

    Are you implying that I don't?

    Oh your fallacy is that I didn't have a problem with him saying the PS3 version will be good, but that somehow the PS3 version would be better than the 360 version. You made a "strawman" of my argument.

    http://en.wikip edia.org/wiki/Strawman

    And the guys subsequent comments have proven that I was right in thinking he was implying the PS3 version would be better. All in all I'm feeling rather vindicated.
    Edited by 3 at 30/08/06 @ 15:01

  • Fatfish #36 6 years ago

    Cock waving aside.....

    ....this game sounds great. Really looking forward to it and hope it comes up trumps. Happy to trade high class visuals for deep, original and involving gameplay.

    @ Jesus Action Figure - I like that "...we didn't know whether to care a lot or not..." comment too. Very subtly written - big :D to Kristan

  • miiiguel #37 6 years ago

    Better this, better that...

    But we all agree on one thing:

    360:
    better price.

    Resistance: Fall of men @ Amazon: 75 Eur... damn! That's expensive!
    Edited by 1 at 30/08/06 @ 15:07

  • krudster #38 6 years ago

    It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.

  • manic_mouse #39 6 years ago

    "Resistance: Fall of men @ Amazon: 75 Eur... damn! That's expensive!"

    I doubt the actual PS3 game will be that expensive because as far as I know the RRP hasn't been decided on yet. Online stores are just over-charging based on a worst case senario. They don't want to take £30 pre-orders and have the game turn out to be £60...
    Edited by 1 at 30/08/06 @ 15:24

  • smelly #40 6 years ago

    GAH!!! STOPPIT!!!!

    Trying to bring this back to a discussion about the game : Am I the only person who thinks those shots arent that great?

  • manic_mouse #41 6 years ago

    "Am I the only person who thinks those shots arent that great?"

    Yes! They're lovely. :p

  • Pike #42 6 years ago

    The screens look fine, but they are not as impressive as some other games, such as Mass Effect. There is still time to polish them some more though. Starbreeze are good with graphics.

  • Xerx3s #43 6 years ago

    For fuck's sake, does every thread have to turn into a 360/PS3 cock-waving contest?

    Useless without pic's. ;p

  • manic_mouse #44 6 years ago

    "The screens look fine, but they are not as impressive as some other games, such as Mass Effect. There is still time to polish them some more though. Starbreeze are good with graphics."

    Indeed, and screens never do a game justice anyway. It probably looks a lot better running: You can't see how good the animation or effects are from static screenshots. Based on Riddick we can give Starbreeze the benefit of the doubt on this one.
    Edited by 1 at 30/08/06 @ 15:40

  • absolutezero #45 6 years ago

    Doubtless it was in the interest of the article but "We Care Alot" is'nt a Mike Patton track :p

  • symmetry #46 6 years ago

    "It's a pretty seamless system - move to the side of a crate and the player's hands adapt dynamically to the side, or adjust over the top of the crate if you walk up to the middle of it."

    No more arm and weapon clipping? Can it be true?!?

    Man I love Starbreeze.

  • bubble #47 6 years ago

    The Mike Patton contribution is the most interesting thing about this. Otherwise it's another grimey looking first person actioner with supernatural/horror elements.

    Why are we not bored of this yet?

  • DDevil #48 6 years ago

    We Care A Lot may have not originally had Patton on vocals, but FNM *did* re-record it with him.

    It's a dirty song, but someone's got to sing it.

  • nickthegun #49 6 years ago

    "Doubtless it was in the interest of the article but "We Care Alot" is'nt a Mike Patton track :p "

    Yeah, but Pattons version is the one everyone remembers. Chuck Moseleys sounds like a drunk with a cold. Not that theres anything wrong with that........
    /Crab Song FTW!

  • Pike #50 6 years ago

    The Mike Patton contribution is the most interesting thing about this. Otherwise it's another grimey looking first person actioner with supernatural/horror elements.

    Why are we not bored of this yet?

    We only do it to annoy you. Now get back under your bridge.

  • spongebob #51 6 years ago

    I really, really liked Riddick. The storytelling was exemplary.

    Did you people know that Mike Patton enjoys eating shit? He thinks it's a trip. I am not shitting you!

  • ekko #52 6 years ago

    A game about Charlie Murphy? Just what I always wanted!

  • drumbaby #53 6 years ago

    /saw post total was 50+

    /guessed that the Ps3 vs 360 fucktards must have piled in

    /checked just to be sure

    /chuckled wryly

  • captainrentboy #54 6 years ago

    The PS3 Blu-ray version will hold more classic horror movies on it than the 360 version will???Holy shit!If that's not a reason to splash out another £20 for the PS3 release I don't know what is.
    And I was going to post links to a load of pics of 360 titles that look considerably better than that one yellowtruck posted earlier,but I'd rather be wanking :/

  • Fatnick #55 6 years ago

    Those are just going to be clips from films, surely?

  • admir #56 6 years ago

    MS fanboys (loosers) are stupid


    well i hope it will be a good game

  • BadBoyBonner #57 6 years ago

    **about the screens**

    I do think that the screens are not that great it has to be said. Starbreeze came from (seemingly) nowhere to push out some of the best graphics ever seen on the Xbox. So expecting such talent to shine on the xbox 360, they do not seem head and shoulders above with this against other developers as they did at the time of Riddick.

    However, whenyou watch the 720p trailer I thought that the graphics were exemplary although I do not know if it was a target render or an in-game engine – does anyone else?
    Edited by 1 at 31/08/06 @ 01:47

  • Krun #58 6 years ago

    I actually think the screen shots look rubbish (I don't care if they are 360 or ps3). all the next gen rendering and shading seem to do is highlight poor character design. Its like the rendering is so good that I expect the characters to look more real, but these guys look like shop window manikins.

  • smelly #59 6 years ago

    >I actually think the screen shots look rubbish

    Glad Im not the only one!

    I would iterate on my opinion further, but that would involve giving examples and upsetting the fangirls.

  • tom234 #60 6 years ago

    This game will be great like their last game Riddick so I'm looking forward to it.
    I also would like to see some videos from this game. Maybe Starbeeze shows something in X06 or TGS.

  • okn #61 4 years ago

    Thanks so much for this! This is exactly what I was looking for

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