The Darkness X360 demo

By Tom Bramwell Published 22 July, 2007

Pitch your tentacles.

An Xbox 360 demo of Starbreeze's excellent The Darkness is now on offer through Marketplace, having appeared and then disappeared for some reason late last week.

The demo, around 1.3GB in size, comprises three levels of the single-player-only action game, giving you control of hitman Jackie Estacado on his 21st birthday as he becomes aware of - and learns to harness - the "Darkness" powers of the title, fighting off ex-chums in the mafia with a mixture of bullets and tentacles.

The full game's been out for a while and you'd do well to read our review to find out exactly why it's worth looking into. It's a bit violent, though, so you might want to dob them into the Mail before picking up the pad.

And of course if you'd rather play it on PS3 you can do that, too, following last Friday's release of that of that version, which also brought with it a PlayStation Network demo that apparently didn't see the need to pop in and out of the shadows before settling down and allowing you to grab it.

Check out our PS3 and Xbox 360 gamepages for more on both versions.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 5 years ago

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

  • morriss #1 5 years ago

    Better still, check out my review of the game. Typos and all!

    :)

  • Scimarad #2 5 years ago

    I'd definitely advise you try before you buy when it comes to The Darkness.

  • spliffhead #3 5 years ago

    Not meaning to start a flame war of epic proportions but...

    I downloaded both the PS3 and 360 versions and played them one after another then side by side. Yes it was a quiet Saturday morning!

    I own both consoles and have no swing one way or the other (although the PS3 controller is crap). As far I am concerned I'll pick up the 360 version when it's sub £20.

    The image quality, framerate in busy sections and overall polish (the npc in the lav disappeared in the PS3 version for me, as well as not responding properly) on the XBox is much nicer then the PS3.

    Flame on...

  • menage #4 5 years ago

    It's not for everyone. The atmosphere, style and sounddesign mask what probably is just a "good" shooter, but the added bells and whistles make it feel more like an adventure. I found the Darkness to be the best game released this year (so far, Bioshock will probably steal that, or Mass Effect). But maybe that's because I don't like shooters that much. It's a complete cinematic experience which can't really be faulted in it's use of the source material.
    Edited by 3 at 23/07/07 @ 08:45

  • Scimarad #5 5 years ago

    It's a crappy port. That said I aleady have the 360 version and I think that is extremely overated.

  • souljacker2000 #6 5 years ago

    I really enjoyed the game... although i found it abit short and the ending was kind of a let down

  • spongebob #7 5 years ago

    I downloaded the demo, but haven't tried it out yet. Here's some things I already love/hate about the game:

    Love:
    Mike Patton
    Riddick developer
    Graphic style in general

    Hate:
    Tentacles
    Too scary atmosphere

    Thanks for your time reading through this comment.

  • t8yman #8 5 years ago

    mike patton is indeed awesome.

    enjoying the game, although I'm finding it a bit slow after returning from the "other place" if you know what I mean.

  • Darren #9 5 years ago

    @spliffhead - Like you, I'm a multiformat gamer so I own all three of the current systems and was torn between buying The Darkness for the 360 or the PS3. Fortunately, the choice was made easier by the PS3 version's delay but even so I'm glad I got the 360 game as it has an extra lick of polish missing from the PS3 one and along with Achievements and effective use of rumble, it's definitely THE version to own if you own both systems. I noticed the Video Profiles (which give six alternate colour palette/contrast settings) are also missing in the PS3 version too although the Gamma slider is still there. Great game though, whichever system you play it on.

  • Caimbeul #10 5 years ago

    "I'd definitely advise you try before you buy when it comes to The Darkness. "

    Ditto...looks good but I DL'd the PS3 demo the other day and deleted it within 10 mins...awful controls!

  • GuitarWolf #11 5 years ago

    This game made me hate Mike Patton. Every time I died he had some stupid comment. also completed it in two days, traded it in and got F.E.A.R instead. ( which I also completed in two days :(

  • sharpfish #12 5 years ago

    Didn't do much for me (Xbox360 demo). I'm sure it's a solid FPS and the twists to the standard formula are a nice try but just seem a bit showy for the sake of it (not actually that much fun after one or two goes with the different powers). I can see there is a bit of strategy involved but it's still linear as hell. And if linear FPS are your bag I think Condemned plays/feels a lot better than this game (not that condemned amazing but it's a solid/fun game). The storyline seems interesting and based on what it is based on should be better than the standard story, but I'm not overly keen on story led FPS's. Fear is overated too (clunky).

    However, i'm really starting to go off FPS on the 360, i'm certain I would enjoy it 100% more on the PC version, I'm fed up of walking around like a tank and aiming like a robot (which is how it feels compared to a fluidly controlled PC FPS with Mouse/KB).

    So all upcomming FPS will be bought/played on my PC and I'll use the Xbox for the stuff it/it's controller excell at (Racing games and other arcade/traditional stuff).

    7/10
    Edited by 1 at 23/07/07 @ 11:42

  • menage #13 5 years ago

    People see this to much as a hardcore shooter. It's more of an adventure with shooterelements. Seriously, there's lots of conversations, phone number hunting. Experimenting with your Darkness powers, etc.

    Yesterday I had the most awesome thing. A darkling (the light killer) raced across the street, climbed a pole upstairs, entered a open building window, you heard screams coming from the apartment and suddenly a guy comes flying out the window and crashing down on the pavement below. Goddamn awesome.
    Edited by 1 at 23/07/07 @ 12:23

  • Darren #14 5 years ago

    The textures on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are more or less indentical and any perceived differences are almost certainly a result of the motion-blurring and anti-aliasing in the 360 version and possibly the settings, including Sharpness, etc., on your HDTV for different AV inputs. Why would the PS3 have "significantly more detailed textures" than the 360 version anyway, both games are using the exact same assets and only the colour palette and "polish" effects like the aforementioned motion-blurring and anti-aliasing separate them visually. I really cannot see this high and medium PC settings thing between the PS3 and 360 versions at all and any high-end PC game would certainly be using anti-aliasing, something the PS3 version certainly does NOT have. ;)

    I remember several reviews of Oblivion commenting on the PS3 version looking *slightly* sharper than the 360 version but then the PS3 version lacks anti-aliasing so that is to be expected.

  • DrDamn #15 5 years ago

    The Oblivion differences may have been the middle distance stuff they changed - meant to have come to the 360 as an update too - did that ever happen?

    Darkness demo - ignore the first level I got so bored waiting for it to start I quit the demo but came back to try the other ones. It's a demo - show me how it plays not a 5 minute vaguely interactive cut scene. Once playing it is nice enough, good production values gives it a nice atmosphere. I did find the controls very much like a PC shooter converted not quite right to a console. Hard to put my finger one but not quite right in some respects. May pick it up cheap at some point.
    Edited by 1 at 23/07/07 @ 16:56

  • menage #16 5 years ago

    I don't understand the controlissues. It even helps you aim slightly. The only thing that's sometimes frustrating is the creeping Dark ability.

  • SomaticSense #17 5 years ago

    @ Zerolight

    Nope. The gun smoke effects are definitely on the 360, and the details are exactly the same. The only difference between the two are the lack of framerate and AA issues in the 360 version.
    Maybe you are looking too hard to try and make the PS3 version look better in your eyes, because what you have said is contradictory to everything I've read elsewhere, and seen with my own two eyes.

    Maybe you didn't change the video settings in the options (not sure if the 360 demo allows you to do this, but is there in the full version). I found setting it to Profile 2 or the custom profile makes it look miles better. And that's not an exaggeration.

    edit: Regarding the demo, I think it was a grossly stupid decision to have the opening intro part of the game included. One, because it is pretty much a long movie, which isn't suited to a demo AT ALL. And two, because it spoils the narrative which is best left to the full game, where people are not expecting to get straight into the main gameplay to see whether it's worth buying or not.
    I reckon a little segment taken from later on in the game, maybe from the 3rd chapter when you have the Demon Arm (one of the main selling points of the game, imo) would have been much better.
    Edited by 1 at 23/07/07 @ 21:52

  • menage #18 5 years ago

    "I found setting it to Profile 2 or the custom profile makes it look miles better. And that's not an exaggeration.
    "

    That even works the same on SD, profile 2 cleans everything up ervy nicely and everything looks way better.

    I do thought the story was the best part of the game, it's a very story driven game so it wouldn't suit the demo to just blast and slaughter away. That's not what the game represents.

  • Fab4 #19 5 years ago

    Oh...you said "tentacles"...nevermind ;)