It appears that the comic books are a source of inspiration for many games lately. Many don't know but the current game has actually been adapted after a 80's comic book called The Darkness written by Mark Silvestri. Like Superman, Spiderman, Marvel Ultimate Alliance this game offers an alternative to real life situations and impersonations by offering the chance of embodying some surrealist heroes and villains that dudes like Silvestri thought off.  

The plot isn't more special than any ordinary mafia game. Some close buddy of yours (big daddy mob, uncle Paulie) tries to kill you (promising highbander Jackie) and deprive you from what you love most (your girlfriend). As an act of revenge you go out on a killing spree to punish the bastard. All this happening on your 21 birthday. The story gets a substantially burst of appeal, along with the infusion of a so called damnation. Coincidently or not this curse becomes active exactly on the day Paulie tries to murder Jackie. The root to this damnation apparently lies in the deeds of Jackie's grandfather, who fought in world war one. To save himself, Jakie has to die on holy ground. Suiciding a couple of times isn't an option. He respawns to life each time (after he descends into a WW1 envisioned hell) if he commits this sin.

Being in constant fight with every light scattered throughout the game (in order to manifest your darkness powers) becomes sometimes more important than the story itself. The darkness power you obtain from the shadows and dark is essential when dealing with large groups of enemies. A mobster possessed by demons what can be wronger?

The four available darkness weapons, which are not necessarily designed just for carnage. The demon arm is similar somehow with the the gravity gun found in Half life 2. You can do all sorts of things with it: kill the lights or the bastards, pick up , move or throw objects, unlock doors...

The ancient weapons are used against monsters that respawn. Darkness energy will drastically drain when used. So use them carefully.

Creeping dark is very intense used at the beginning of the game. It has many uses: stealth kills, puzzles solving, unlock doors, creep around unaccessible spots, collect goods, climb walls, devouring hearts...

Black hole is the ultimate darkness weapon though. Its strength depends on how much darkness power you got. It will suck anything around in a mercyless vortex even it's a bit exaggerated the impact it has on the enemies. The game is way to easy on the final stages.

An additional help given by the forces of darkness comes under the form of some brutal little creatures called darklings. Although they have a will of their own, they exist to help you out in any situation. You have to spawn them from darkling gateways (visible only when the darkness is manifested).They are a lot like you, light haters, so watch out this aspect when releasing them into the scenery.

Bersekers are vicious little beasts that use just about everything they get their hands on, as weapons. Useful when lots of enemies are around. They are a funny/sick combination that like to dress up with whatever wearable item they find.

Light killers have the mission to remove every source of light you come across, needed for manifesting your darkness. They walk around with a battery on their back short-circuiting electrics around, only after that they 'work' on the nearby enemies.

Kamikaze darklings are very useful when lots of enemies are around. They will run into crowds of enemies and blow themselves up, clearing the way. While gunner darklings make use of gatling guns to unleash a devastating firepower on enemies.

It isn't all perfect as it sounds. There are a few glitches with the kamikaze and the gunner obstructing or affecting your health. A.I. problems in one word. To cut off the over aggressiveness of the darklings, from time to time they have funny sayings, actions and outfits, an idea very similar in concept with that from Codemaster's Overlord.

Boosting the darkness power is a must, in order to not have difficulties in progressing to the final chapters of the game. To do this, you just have to collect the hearts of the killed enemies. The animation of this act (as the demon heads battle each other for the heart) is pretty nice but kinda disturbing ritual. Even the four horsemen of Apocalypse are present in the game when Jackie descends to hell. But they will not look as you might expect (which isn't surprisingly). Because the prior image you've had of them was also a subjective one. Hard to have objective opinions when we talked about unwitnessed happenings.

Leaving the darkness powers away for a sec, you still have at disposal the typical human arsenal of weapons: pistols, revolvers, guns, machine-guns, uzzys, riot-guns...useful in the first instance but not on long term. The respiro moments from the subway stations makes this sadistic game more digestible. Nice to see the developing team has recreational activities too.

Being the 'nth mafia game on the market, the script and the implementation have to be really good in order to stand out when compared with other titles. The fact that there are way to much subliminal (sometimes directly exposed) messages in this game: darkness here, darkness there, awesome powers this ancient force gives you, the light is now my enemy, with darkness on you are protected from any damage, death cannot reach us..... might be a method to enrich the experience, but a poor one i think. I don't know if these are accurate reproductions of the original story from the comic books, but if you are easily suggestible, you might get some new behaviour "power-ups" after playing this game. I am sure the game will be acclaimed and praised for its unsurpased violence and gore though.