Don't lie. Not cool. Did you take my sarcastic comments seriously? LOL!
K, guys, after having a ***** trying to play this on both systems, here are my final thoughts after finishing it:
Darkest of Days is a sci-fi first-person shooter developed by 8monkey Labs for the PC and Xbox 360.
Story:
Darkest of Days is a game about traveling through time and saving key figures that should've never died. It's a fantastic premise. Early on you'll meet your partner in crime... errr, time (ha, get it? Yeah, not funny at all.:P), Dexter. He's quite the likable fellow. He has a foul mouth and is full of sarcasm. You'll also meet the woman who runs the show, Mother. The problem with Mother is that Darkest of Days completely fails with character development, except with Dexter, so you won't care about Mother or the people you're rescuing throughout history. It's enough to push the game along, but other than Dexter, the rest of the script and acting falls short of what's expected. The potential of an interesting tale is abandoned early on. There was a lot of potential in the POW camp scene, so it's all a shame.
No spoilers, but the ending is absolutely atrocious.
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Gameplay:
The gameplay in Darkest of Days is about dropping the player into a huge battle on a massive amount of terrain. Sounds awesome, right? It should. Sadly, this is another section of the game where it drowns itself in its own mediocrity. No matter which system you play it on, PC or Xbox 360, the game runs like complete escrement. This game was not optimized well on PC, which made me run out and pick it up for 360 after being hassled with the screwjob that is the PC version.
So yes, I got it for 360, too. I started to play it and noticed immediately that the game cannot run on the Xbox 360. There are multiple parts in the game that the framerate will drop into the single digits. It's like watching a slideshow, which makes aiming a complete pain in the ass. One perfect example of this is the Zeppelin mission. This mission has you and Dexter aboard a Zeppelin and tasked with defending it from multiple units on the ground. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue. Sadly, though, the framerate in this section is horrid, like many parts in Darkest of Days, it really shows off the awful performance in this one section. You have to use a sniper rifle to take guys out on the ground, but due to the technical issues, this section can be incredibly laggy and jerky. It's a mess.
Now, I know I've been very negative thus far, but there is a bit to like here. The battles where you're on the ground and advancing with Union members to take on the opposition is breathtaking. There's many sections like this. I liked that the weapons were historically accurate, even if single shots can be a pain in the neck when facing a large amount of enemies.
Again, though, technical issues bring down the spectacle, and this is all really a shame, because the potential is clearly there, but they failed for the most part.
Darkest of Days is known for its twist, which means taking epic futuristic weapons back in time and blowing away sad tools with muskets. Very often, though, you have to use the muskets. You very rarely actually get to become the futuristic badass that 8monkey Labs sold their game on.
The aiming in the 360 version is fine (if it's not tanking in the framerate department), but the PC version has really laggy mouse controls for some reason.
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Presentation:
Darkest of Days looks like a game from about 2003. It isn't the ugliest game I've seen, but it looks older than Half-Life 2, which actually looks quite nice still. I have to give 8monkey Labs some props for creating vast terrain with many units on-screen at once, but it runs badly. I don't know if the engine was a programming disaster or if this game just wasn't optimized well for both platforms. It seems like more time was needed, though. It looks great for everything that's going on, but it can't keep up with it, so is it really worth it? I'd rather have nice performance.
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Overall:
Darkest of Days is a 7-8 hour game. It's a difficult FPS, though. You will die a lot, even on normal. Is it worth the frustration? That's really up to you and your expectations for a game. The graphics are decent at best, but they're good considering what they're pushing on-screen. The game runs like crap on both systems. The gameplay is lacking, but sometimes fun, when the framerate isn't chugging along, that is. As a whole, even though it was announced many years ago, and it had a ton of potential, Darkest of Days feels like a game that is uncooked. It needed a lot more time in the oven. The final product feels rushed, unpolished, and a mere shadow of its true potential.
I hate to say it, but I can't recommend Darkest of Days. If you're a historic buff like me, then it might be worth $10 or so in the bargain bin, but I'd say to steer clear to everyone else.
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Final Verdict: 3.5/10
BioShockOwnz
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