Also rewarding is what comes after you've iced every mobster in the room: you let your Darkness tentacles feast on the still-beating hearts of your victims. It's not just for show, either, because your Darkness abilities grow a tiny bit with each ingested aorta and diligent heart devourers will be able to max-out their powers well before the end of the game. Each substantial increase in your Darkness powers comes with a tasty new ability like the Darkness tendril that you can shoot out to smash light bulbs (The Darkness' luminescent enemy) or skewer dudes through the chest. Other abilities include the Black Hole (which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a huge tear in the fabric of reality that sucks people into it, crushing them into slouching ragdolls) and Darkness Guns.
Think you have enough ways to off people? Nah, not just yet... we're forgetting the Darklings. These little guys are gremlin-like demons that you can summon to do your bidding and they come in four flavors: Berserker, Gunner, Kamikaze and Lightkiller. The Berserker is your melee critter that beats enemies; the Gunner has a trusty mini gun, combat helmet and cigar; the Kamikaze has a jaunty Abe Lincoln-style stovepipe hat and a few pounds of dynamite strapped to his back; the Lightkiller carries a hospital's crash cart around and zaps light sources. Each of these guys comes in handy for only a few specific operations, though, so for the most part they are just for show (especially when they wander around peeing on the dead in a room you've just cleared).
Hidden Treasure
Beyond the bloody abuse that comprises the bulk of The Darkness, there are tons of unlockable extras for fans of comics to take advantage of. Entire issues of comics created specifically for the game can be found throughout the adventure by collecting scraps of paper with phone numbers scrawled on them. You can also seek out additional outfits for your Darklings, including the much-coveted "burlap sack ensemble" for the Berserker (trust us, it's way better than naked Darklings).
These bonuses are just one signifier of the love that has been poured into The Darkness, because this game is packed with content. Nearly every wall is coated with graffiti, movie posters and other decorations that serve to keep the grimy walls of New York City from becoming too repetitive. In addition, every television in the game functions as you might imagine real TVs do, and you can change the channels to suit your mood. There aren't a lot of channels, but it's still pretty amazing to channel-surf through old black-and-white cartoons and grainy Flash Gordon flicks. Even the discarded phone numbers that you discover along the way have fully-voiced answering machines associated with each, so that when you call one from a pay phone (thus unlocking whatever content comes with the phone number) there is somebody on the other end to say some weird crap to you before sending you on your way with some new concept art or a comic book.
We haven't been able to test out the multiplayer side of the game on retail consoles just yet, which is why this is an Out of the Box in keeping with the GameSpy policy of not issuing a review until the game can be played in the really real world. Still, if what we've played so far is any indication, The Darkness is primed to be one of the great hits of 2007... for mature gamers, of course. With all of the blood and body parts hurled about the screen, you may want to send the kids to bed early before popping this bad boy into your machine. Of course, that would mean playing at night when it's dark -- which is great for The Darkness, but rough on blood-shy players with sensitive tummies. Of course, if you're the least bit worried about being grossed out, you should probably skip The Darkness entirely, because it's probably the most disgustingly graphic horror show we've yet seen on HD-capable consoles.
