The Darkness

Few first person shooter titles have done anything to advance the genre and bring it into unchartered territories, but then again, most of them don’t need to. It’s common gamer knowledge that blowing stuff up and shooting zombies is fun no matter what the occasion. However, it is nice to see some strides made to shake things up a bit once in awhile and that is exactly what Starbreeze is doing with their new Xbox 360 game The Darkness. You may remember Starbreeze for their work on the surprisingly good Xbox title The Chronicles of Riddick.

The Darkness, which is based on the comic book of the same name, puts a spin on the typical FPS gameplay by imbuing your character with demonic powers which allow for gameplay beyond firearms. By shooting out the lights in an area, you can transform into a monster complete with tentacles and snake-like creatures that you can send after your foes. The tentacles aren’t just for decoration either, they’re super strong and allow you to pick up cars, dumpsters and other heavy objects to use as weapons. In an impressive demonstration of how these powers affect gameplay, the developers sent one of the snakes through a ventilation shaft and used it to attack two enemies from behind. Your character is also capable of summoning spooky little demons that will aid you in combat.

The developers also displayed some cool new technology with the game. When they walked up to a television monitor in the game, the screen turned on and a video began to play. As it turns out, the team will be able to put actual television shows on these monitors or even full length feature films. To make things even more interesting, one of the little creatures flipped the channel and a new video began to play. Right now, they plan on just packing whatever room is left on the disc after the game is finished with content, but also said they were considering adding additional programming for these screens through Xbox Live.

The Darkness obviously still has some work that needs to be done, but the developers are planning for a Winter, 2007 release, so that leaves them plenty of time to iron out the details. First person shooter fans will definitely want to keep an eye out for this one. The innovative, demonic element could prove to be one of the most engaging FPS ideas ever conceived.