Don't feel bad staying in the Darkness about this one.

I've most recently completed "The Darkness" for my Xbox 360. I'm a bit late on this one, but mixed opinions and these wonderful $60 price tags had me overlook it until the price was a bit more fair. Add to that the fact that I respected, but did not enjoy Starbreeze studios' last game, "The Chronicles of Riddick" and you have your own recipe for ambivalence. I will say that I am a longtime fan of Mob stories, which is what drew me to the game, so don't think I went in expecting total boredom.

I did enjoy my time with The Darkness, at least enjoyed more than hated. The thrilling opening sequence lead into a rather engaging consistent world. I was surprised to be able to wander about so freely. Main plot items being mere suggestions amidst a variety of things to do. However, quantity not being quality, most of these jobs given to you by strangers are little more than fetch quests. What's more, it's awfully jarring to have this serious plotline about mob murders and revenge bogged down by needing to go fetch random object X for stranger Y. Of course, these are all optional and merely unlock bonus content, so if you feel as I do, you can ignore them, as I did.

The Darkness really didn't make much sense to me. Lots of murder, revenge, and World War 1 in hell. I didn't quite get that last bit either, but maybe if you're a fan of the comic, you will. The Darkness can claim to have the best handling of a girlfriend of about any game, without any cheesy outfits, dialog, or unrealistic interaction. This brief sequence where you visit her focused on her character and their interaction more than the sophomoric tones typical of female characters in games.

Other highlights are a very intense shootout where you're defending a house on a city block from all sides from within, a scene where you literally tear a mansion apart looking for your nemesis, and the monologues that cleverly hide most of the loading in the game. It's a unique solution to the loading problem and the main character's dialog is very compelling and adds to the story events within the game.

So where's the rub? In between these highlights, you'll find yourself spending far too much time wandering back and forth between subways, streets, and city blocks trying to get to your next destination. I found it a pain to have to spend minutes walking (very slowly) through a subway station, wait for the train, wait for the loading, arrive at the other station, find the exit I need, walk through that station, get another loading screen, arrive in the general area of my destination, and find it within there. Sorry that this paragraph dragged on so long, but now you have an idea of what the later hours of The Darkness feel like.

The shooting mechanics are imprecise and jumpy, just like they were in "Butcher Bay". Fortunately you spend the most time using your Darkness powers. Unfortunately, these require you to be in darkness, and therefore shoot out the lights in almost every environment that contains combat. Add this tedious task to the almost, but not completely necessary devouring the heart of every enemy you kill, and every encounter gets another 3 or so minutes bloated onto it with repeated animations that are only enjoyable for about the first 2 hours.

The Darkness has its fair share of problems which really add up due to the frequency with which they appear. They dragged down the potential positives of the experience to leave me feeling quite flat about the whole thing. Like a chocolate shake made with the finest cocoa, and rotten milk. The Darkness fails to impress, and since these scores are so popular, I'll give it a neither good, nor bad 5 of 10.