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Australian Ninja battles vampires in the wild west.
Publisher: Ubisoft
Sun, 20 November 2005
by: Australian Ninja
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Are you ready to fight the legions of undead with the rootingest, tootingest, meanest sumbitch of a cowboy vampire outlaw this side of Dodge City? I reckon you better be ready or I'll blow some chunks out of you with old shottie.
Work hard, don't shower and die in your boots.
It's the cowboy's code. Jericho does his darndest to live up to that code. Jericho (the main character in Darkwatch) started out alive but he doesn't stay that way for long. In fact he doesn't even make it through his first train robbery alive. He got turned I tell you, turned into one of them vam-p-ires. Least that's how folks round these parts likes to tell it. If I were you, I'd stay out of his way he's got a real mean look about him. Dressed all in black, one of his eyes glows red and his teeth look real pointy.
Darkwatch F!#$ing rocks. Buy it, rent it, borrow it whatever - but play it! It's awesome it's a non-stop blast fest with evil undead minions constantly spewing forth in an unending assault. It's an epic assault on the senses with explosions every five seconds, dead bodies flying through the air, splatter-fest head shots galore as you maim, dismember and blow the shit out of anything that moves. It's another FPS game that combines solid gameplay with a Wild West 1800s setting and then sprinkles on some vampires and horror themes. So FPS + Wild West + Vampires/Demons = Darkwatch. Got it?
The weapons kick ass, the main character (Jericho) is a cowboy-vampire; the shotgun battleaxe is one of the coolest weapons ever. Throwing dynamite grenades is so much fun it should be illegal. Seeing enemies fleeing in panic and then BOOM - flying in all directions. It's just all so overwhelming and in your face, often quite literally as the zombie-skeletons will often land right next to you after going boom. The pace of Darkwatch starts out slow and steadily increases. It gets frantic and then it gets to be unrelenting as the hordes of enemies beg for a quick fix of the old boomstick. Also on offer; a crossbow that fires explosive arrows, a rocket launcher, dynamite grenades, rapid firing handgun, a sniper rifle and a big metal club. Every weapon has a melee attack for taking out your grievances with the undead up close and personal.
 | | That is what happens when you sit too close to the TV |
I don't remember the last time I had so much pure FUN playing a video-game. The thought of not playing it all the time, whenever I could was like the thought of not eating or breathing. I don't remember the last time I played a game that was so thoroughly enjoyable and didn't get stuck or bored or suffer any feelings of malaise while playing. Truly I was engrossed with Darkwatch. I stuck with this game and it's increasing difficulty and relished every minute of it. The game gets progressively harder as you pass levels, but it never gets cheesy.
As you drain or help victims you gain more powers. The extra powers are good and fairly self-explanatory. They are triggered with a button press and explained in the in-game pause menu. Right near the start you get a double jump ability, which is brilliant for getting around, and you really feel that you are controlling a strong vampire character rather than Joe Blow. More importantly as you progress you learn a variety of tactics to win becoming a highly efficient killing machine. So the game gets really hard at points. But instead of walking away frustrated I hung in there like a stranded hero "This is lonely soldier, come in, this is lonely soldier" and persisted. I passed most areas of the game quite rapidly after many deaths. Fortunately checkpoints and save points are choc-a-block throughout the entire game and best of all, they are automatic. Darkwatch auto-saves just like Red Faction 2.
Let me tell you straight, the weapons are so cool and fun to use. The double-barrelled shottie with axe blade on the rear of the gun is truly the best weapon in the game. Hell, it's the greatest shotgun in a game since Doom 2's double-barrelled shotgun. The axe attachment effortlessly takes down the weaker enemies in one chop. There's nothing like mowing down the demons and then uh-oh, out of ammo - slice hack slice squish - four goons taken down while reloading and I didn't even break a sweat. On the rare occasion I didn't have the shotgun I felt sad. Come back home shottie, come back home!
But fear not true believers, for the weapons and ammo are plentiful. Only two weapons may be held at once. But often you can run back and forth mixing up weapons as you like. Whenever you swap one weapon for another, it will on the ground, forever. No disappearing tricks so come back for it whenever you like. Getting a good feel for a weapon combo is essential. You will mostly need a close range weapon and a mid-long range weapon. In addition you'll need to consider mixing a brute force weapon with a highly accurate weapon for head shots. My preference is for the shotgun and rifle combo. Plenty of firepower, range and head-popping potential.
The well designed levels in Darkwatch have the right weapons lying on the ground conveniently right before you need to use them. Like finding a sniper rifle just before entering a long narrow desert canyon. Or finding a stash of fresh dynamite right when you need to blow up a demon spawn point.
Some people may find Darkwatch a bit short. For me it was "just right." Which would you rather do, play a game that hem-and-haws around and drags on with a long play time? Or play a compelling game from start to finish with a short play time? Like Ubisoft's Beyond Good and Evil. I'd choose the latter (compelling but short) any day of the week. Plus games that are fun and don't take forever to finish can be played again right away.
Seeing as there is a good alignment and an evil alignment in Darkwatch, I'll be playing it again real soon. Just to see the different powers you gain depending on your alignment. The powers are nothing you haven't seen already in other games, they just have different names so I won't bore you with the details. Anyhow, it takes around ten to fifteen hours the first time through depending of how good you are at FPS games.
If you've ever played Bloodrayne you'll know how satisfying it is hack your way through masses of enemies and suck out their blood at every opportunity. Plus, being evil is fun. Well the good news is when your come across certain -shall we say pedestrian people - and fallen Darkwatch comrades in the game you have a choice. Do you help them or chow down on that tempting fine wine you know is flowing in their juicy jugular? Like that's any kind of real choice. Help them? Not bloody likely this is the Grand Theft Auto generation.
These choices are only cut scenes, so you don't bite people yourself. But the choice is a real one and has consequences for what powers you will develop, and which boss you will fight at the end of the game. Oh and that pesky ghost partner (voice-over) that talks to you throughout the game has some interesting comments when you kill people in a village you were sent to save. What did they expect running around screaming with their arms flailing wildly? Somebody had to shut them up. I liked when one of your Darkwatch comrades sees you drinking from the neck of his dead friend. "You bastard, you vampires are all the same!" Then he starts shooting at you. Well, I never liked that varmint anyhow.
The setting of Wicky Wicky Wild West 1800s is beautiful. The whole theme is integrated into the game masterfully. The chink-chink of spurs on your boots as you walk. The familiar western movie whistling sound followed by "wa-wa-waaaa" sound effect when you accomplish a significant event in the game. The Darkwatch badge and gun. The howl of wind in seemingly empty canyons. The loud shots and ricochet sounds when you fire various guns. The moody, creepy music. The mine shaft stages, open desert canyons and frontier town stages are top stuff. Having some daylight missions where you are weaker and temporarily lose your powers unless you walk in the shade was fun. Other highlights included the mostly silent Jericho (your character) with his grim solemn stare and long brooding face. The grim dark nature of the whole game.
I found the vampire sex scene both confronting and disturbing. I don't mean that in a good way. I'm puzzled why it was even there at all; it was totally out of whack to the rest of the game. It really creeped me out.
 | | Age was not kind to Violet Beauregard |
How does it all look though? Pretty. Pretty ugly that is. I didn't have much time to stop and admire the scenery, as I was too busy frantically trying to survive the never ending demon attacks. The senior citizen PS2 does an admirable job of displaying one of the nicest looking games I've ever seen on the console. There is nothing like seeing the fine games produced during the end of a console's lifespan. In those brief, very brief moments in Darkwatch when you've just come out of a firefight victorious - bodies littering the ground - you notice the stunning graphics and forget it's only a game. I mean, I was THERE. When the Darkwatch (that's the posse that keeps the evil varmints in line) cronies briefed me for a mission, I was two steps ahead. I knew what weapons I wanted. I knew how to kill that demon spawn. Hell son, quit messing around with your yapping and let me get back to killing those freaks.
The music, driving atmosphere, loud gun shots and hefty doses of attitude draw you into the game's world. It may not be a pretty world, hell it's just plain evil and mean but once you get comfortable you won't want to leave. Writing this makes me want to go and play it again now. Darkwatch gave me those visceral thrills like when I first watched the original Matrix movie. Playing Darkwatch is like being an evil vampire Clint Eastwood. It's like being Wolverine in a berserker rage. It's like being Bruce Lee swamped by hordes of bad guys with little or no A.I and wiping the floor with them.
At times the pace is so hectic that you wonder if it will ever stop? I was amazed at the skills I developed playing Darkwatch. Have you ever been so desperate that you threw dynamite right at your feet as you were surrounded by demons, then double jumped straight in the air to avoid blowing yourself up? I know I have, may times now. All the while firing old shottie on the way back down.
Here's an example of one of the most ludicrous battles I experienced: I walk into a room. Grab guns 'n ammo on the run, drop a good ten feet into a chamber and shoot some skeleton zombies. Two flying harpy women scream and fire projectiles at me. A fat black-mage looking dude with a shotgun charges me. I lure one of the harpies into an ally and pop her head with the shotgun. I run backwards pumping shell after shell and throwing dynamite at two of the fat-dudes. I run and grab the explosive crossbow. Three skeletons, another fat dude and two harpy women chase me. I use my melee combat power. That means I hack em to bits with temporary super strength using my axe blade. Pausing to reload more skeletons are after me and that second harpy flew too high for my melee attacks. I fire several explosive arrows at the skeletons, laugh as they run in circles and get my distance as they go ka-boom. I foolishly rest for a moment and realise another fat-dude mage is attacking me from behind. I charge him as he runs at me. I shoot, then stab, shoot then stab, (with the shotgun-axe) and reload. He takes about four headshots point blank then he takes a dirt nap. Suddenly I notice the room is empty, bodies everywhere and an eerie silence fills the chamber. I'm alive and the undead are dead again. I throw my real life fist in the air in triumph!
It's similar to Serious Sam with the wave after wave of enemies. The frenzied action gets incredibly intense and at times it is very satisfying to pass a difficult area. Each stage plays out as a set piece. You find out what to do fast or you die. Enemies are incidental, the main objective is what you need to go after. Anything that gets in the way kill it. Get caught up in just killing things and you may not notice that spawning point. If you don't blow it up the enemies will come forever and eventually with low ammo you will be overwhelmed. The level layout and paths are very linear.
 | | The more the merrier |
This is not a game about exploration and very rarely will you wander around or back track other than to grab a weapon you discarded or restock on ammo. This is not a bad point at all. If anything I would say that the levels are well designed and do a great job of keeping the focus on the action. They alternate tight corridors with wide-open spaces frequently.
I loved the tight corridors as it meant more opportunity to slice and hack while throwing dynamite. Seeing enemies blown sky high from the explosion then bouncing off the walls is just hilarious. Rag doll physics strike again and make older FPS's look primitive. You have a shield that recharges just like Halo. Health is almost a non-issue as almost every enemy drops blood health packs that fly into you when you go near them. So you will be almost dead then two seconds later back at full health and armour.
The music was very subtle in Darkwatch and I often didn't notice it with all the shooting, explosions and screaming from dying enemies. When the rare moment of silence presented itself I was captivated by the authenticity of the western movie theme music and instruments. If you enjoy a good western movie then it is likely you'll get more out of the music than other people will.
There are a nice variety of enemies in Darkwatch. All are suitably creepy and it is really fun to slice off their arms or head and watch their animation as they panic. Shooting off a skeleton's head results in the arms comically grasping at the stump looking for a head, then stumbling around and finally collapsing in a heap. It's intentionally funny and I liked it.
So if you dig horror as in Vampires, Dracula, Zombies and the like Darkwatch is for you. If you like a good bit of "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" or any western movie ever that involves six-shooters, spurs on boots, horses, train robbery, Darkwatch is for you. If you enjoy some Doom, Half Life, Medal of Honour etc then you are in for a treat, Darkwatch is especially recommended for you. There is nothing particularly original or innovative about Darkwatch. What Darkwatch does is take a whole bunch of cool ideas that on paper might sound a bit crap and throw them together to create a horrific masterpiece of an action game.
I recommend this game highly for fans of intense twitchy action games. If you'd rather play a game that involves thinking and puzzles or a strong story then you are in the wrong place. Darkwatch is pure arcade reflex testing twitchy action. If you have a weak stomach, if the site of an enemy exploding (a rip-off of the Doom 2 Mancubus demon) and leaving a mess of ribs and guts laying about then Darkwatch is not for you. If you're a sad git with reflexes like old man Pa Kent from Kansas then Darkwatch is definitely not for you. Get back to your cornfields. It's not a deep game; it's just pure fun and when you're done why not play it again? Plenty of other difficulty settings mean the first time through is a practice run.
by: Australian Ninja
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You'll come for the gunshots and explosions. You'll stay for the dismemberment and blood drinking. | |
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