Darkest of Days demo impressions

Darkest of Days is one of those games that I know is going to be overlooked by tons of people that probably would have enjoyed, yet won't experience due to negative feedback or the outlandish premise. Keep in mind that all of the following statements are based on the demo, so it's possible there's some even more crazy plot twist that ruins the game/gameplay later in, but if you're trying to play through this for the story, you're probably missing the point. From what I gathered from the demo, you start off as a soldier during Custer’s Last Stand, tasked with simply surviving against increasingly more and more Native Americans. Unfortunately, you get shot and end up firing into the masses on a CoD4 last stand mode, and when everyone around you finally dies, a time bubble pops open and out pops some futuristic looking soldier, telling you that they need you to come back with them. Enter Darkest of Days; Once you're teleported to the future, you're given a brief explanation of why you're going back through different periods in time, which is usually something along the lines of "THIS GUY IS IN THE WRONG SPOT! GO BACK AND FIND AND PROTECT THEM WHILE SHOOTING REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIERS WITH A ROCKET LAUNCHER LOL" It's not in exactly those words, but I think you get the point. After a brief training session, you're warped back in time again, with more control over the outcome.



The gameplay itself is really reminiscent of things like Serious Sam or Painkiller, or possibly even Left 4 Dead since it's mostly you moving to an area, holding it, then moving on to another. To keep things a bit more fresh from just saving one guy while killing everyone else, there are random enemies that have a blue aura surrounding them, which means that you're supposed to score a non-lethal take down on them, which is easily done by shooting them a few times in the legs or arms. It's not much of a change from the formula, but it is a welcome addition. While everyone you're fighting is using weapons from the respective time period, it doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to be blowing through them. Judging from the demo, when you enter an area, you're given 2 weapons from that time, which in this case meant an old school rifle that you had to reload by packing gunpowder and dropping in ammunition and a faster semi-automatic rifle that's a bit weaker in terms of pure firepower, but later you‘re handed a weapon to turn the tides in your favor. While it's not exactly complicated, the well done engine, mechanics, and controls do provide a lot of mindless fun. It's nice to play newer games that don't try to have elaborate cover systems or RPG elements from time to time.

Graphically speaking, I'm a bit torn. On one hand, the game really does a great job of modeling the chaotic feeling of organized battles during that moment since firing a manual reload rifle leads to tons of smoke filling up the air, which clouds your field of vision, but those same effects are largely what cause the frame rate to drop down from 30-40 to somewhere in the teens for a few seconds. The character designs are pretty well done, and while their talking animations aren't that great, it still looks good enough to not break you out of the battle while getting shot at. The only real downside I've noticed is that the color palate seems to reflect what you have a mental image of what a battle would have looked like at that time period, and not an actual realistic environment.



The sound effects are ...not the greatest strength of the game, but they aren't really terrible either. Considering the game is coming from a smaller studio, it's not that bad, but I almost get the feeling that the voice actors in particular are trying to feed on stereotypes to help you identify where they're coming from. I would like to point out how bizarre it is that no one at all ever mentions how you're using an incredibly overpowered weapons, but hey, what can you do?

Overall, I'm really impressed with the simple fun that's here, but I’d have a hard time recommending it to anyone that’s not a fan of more arcade style shooters. While there isn't a point mechanic or anything that I'm aware of, it's not exactly the deepest game out there. Then again, you've got tons of those coming out between Halo: ODST, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and several other shooters coming out from this year or in early 2010. Why not give this one at least a chance as a demo or if you see it for a lower price. Unfortunately, I've heard some bad things about the console version, so if possible, go for the PC one (29.99 on Steam), provided you can run it. While I have your attention, I've got to say that this feels like the perfect engine to mod on since you've got all these weapons already demonstrated in game.