Without a doubt, Phantom EFX has published one of the bleakest first-person shooters in recent memory. You play a time traveling soldier with the unenviable task of going back to some of humanity's most depressing moments. We're talking about time periods full of despair, hopelessness and injustice. And just when you thought that was bad enough, they turn around and call the game Darkest of Days. It looks like I'll be needing that Prozac prescription refilled after all.
The story here is completely ludicrous, to such an absurd level that it actually gets in the way. Usually I'm all for an intriguing time travel adventure, but the story it's wrapped in makes absolutely no sense. Apparently in the future a company known as KronoteK has figured out a way to travel through time and unravel some of history's biggest mysteries. Unfortunately, doing this has created some problems that require fixing.
That's where you come in. Thanks to a clerical error (yes, this entire story happens because of paperwork), you have been transported from 1876 (where you are in the middle of the Battle of Little Big Horn) to the 22nd century. Your job is to go back in time and collect and rescue several war heroes and make sure you haven't disrupted anything significant in the time stream. Of course, that's easier said than done. Your quest will take you through some of this planet's darkest days, including the American Civil War, World War I and World War II.
But here's the problem, it doesn't make sense to draft a fighter from the 19th century. I simply do not buy that this young kid who was about to die in 1876 is able take on multiple sides of World War I and get himself out of trouble in World War II. What's more, he doesn't bat an eye when he sees his first automobile and airplane. And let's not forget that he seems to be an expert at using weapons that were invented hundreds of years in the future. The whole concept is baffling. Why not just bring somebody from the future back, at least then they would be adequately trained to take on these enemies.
In what can only be called a predictable twist, there seems to be another group of time travelers who seem to be trying to mess up your mission. Who are these people and why are they fighting against you? This completely generic mystery ends up being the crux of the story, all the way up to the less than convincing ending sequence. Even when everything is revealed, it seems like there could have been another way. If we're dealing with time travel, then why not just go further back and fix this before it got out of hand?
Perhaps it's apropos that a game about the distant past feels like it's from generations ago. When playing Darkest of Days I had a hard time believing that this was a product in the 21st century. This is a game that gets many of the most basic gameplay mechanics wrong. It's trying to be Call of Duty, but fails in every possible way. For one thing the computer-controlled characters (on both sides) are complete morons. Your allies barely react when being shot at and the enemies lose track of you even when they're looking right at you. You'll also find that the aiming and basic gun play never feels right, mostly because you're using such crummy weapons. Having to reload after every shot tends to slow the action down.
When you first load up a level you'll think that you're in a giant open world. Unfortunately, each area is built around a series of frustrating invisible walls. What's especially annoying is when your checkpoint is right in front of you, but you can't get up that hill because there's a wall blocking your path. And to make matters worse, if you get too far away from the pack, you'll instantly die. No warning, straight to the continue screen.
On top of having broken gameplay mechanics and invisible walls, Darkest of Days also suffers from some rather serious stability issues. There are times (usually when you're in the middle of a large-scale battle) where the frame rate will grind to a halt, often freezing the action at the worst possible moment. Because of the inconsistent frame rate, you will find yourself falling prey to a lot of cheap deaths. And just to add insult to injury, after each death you'll have to wait for a 30 second load time before jumping back into the action. While 30 seconds may not sound like much, the truth is that after you've waiting for the fifth or sixth time you start to wonder if the game is worth the headache.
Another big problem is the pacing, which is wildly inconsistent. Early in the game you are switching between the Civil War and World War I, two wars that happened more than fifty years apart. Even with all of that time in between battles, the truth is that both of these wars feel almost identical in the game. In both wars you're fighting poorly detailed bad guys through the forest; the only real discernable difference is the weapons you use.
In a twist I never saw coming, the most exciting part of Darkest of Days coming when you get teleported to World War II. Yes, the same World War II that we've seen countless times before. But instead of storming Normandy or playing out one of the famous battles that has been recycled time and time again in games like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor, Darkest of Days puts you in a concentration camp. This sequence is not only poignant, but also the most clever use of time travel found in the entire game. You literally break yourself out of the camp, which is a lot of fun despite not making any sense.
Unfortunately, the World War II stuff comes after more than a dozen Civil War and World War I levels. What's more, you'll quickly discover that this stage (with its functioning guns and snow) is only one stage long. I would also like to point out that like every other level before it, this World War II level is set in the forest. In fact, outside of the fresh snow, this feels like exactly the same forest you've been stuck fighting in for twelve levels.
Late in the game we're whisked away from the battle fields to the first century. After forcing myself to stay interested through one pointless level after another, I was thrilled at the idea of going back two-thousand years. After all, when you're telling a story about time travel, why not visit brand new locations and years? Why must we spend so much time refighting wars we've seen before in dozens of other games. Sadly, this first century level was just more of the same. Instead of interacting with the locals, you're there fighting with the other side. Red versus blue. It was yet another disappointing turn in a game with so much potential.
On the back of the box we are promised five area to fight through, however the truth is that there are only four. To get to five they are counting the introduction, which features you almost die at the Battle of Little Bighorn. That battle lasts all of a couple minutes, and then from there it's on to the four aforementioned levels. By their rationale they should have included the 22nd levels you keep warping back to. After all, you're in those levels much longer than the 1876 battle.
It's not that Darkest of Days doesn't have some good ideas; there are certainly flashes of brilliance from time to time. I love the idea of taking futuristic weapons into the Civil War. When you consider the potential of having a deadly-accurate automatic weapon in a fight against thousands of rushing soldiers, that's the kind of thing I could get excited about. While there is some of that kind of gameplay scattered throughout the game, it never really feels like its taken full advantage of. Out of all of the levels in the game, I only found myself with these super-powered weapons a few times, hardly enough to consider it a large part of the game.
And that's the problem with Darkest of Days. There are a lot of aspects to this game that could have been fun if they were handled better, but none of these ideas gel in this package. Instead it feels like it was hastily thrown together before somebody realized how dreary the game was. The story attempts to add a few wrinkles here and there, but when the concentration camp in World War II is the most fun part of the game, then you know you have problems.
As I played through the moderately-sized campaign I kept wondering why the developer had to choose these played out battles. This is a game about time travel, why not go all out and take us to extreme situations the like we've never seen before? Why not take us to the final days of the Roman Empire? What about the Battle of Troy? Waterloo? Leonidas and his 300? Seriously, they could take this game anywhere and they chose the Civil War and World War II? That just seems lazy. Part of my disgust with this game was the wasted potential, instead we get a completely unoriginal first-person shooter that doesn't even try to be different from every other game on the market.
You might think that with all of the different areas, locations and weapons, Darkest of Days would make for a fun multiplayer game. Chances are you would be correct, but for whatever reason the developers decided not to offer that as mode. Instead you get a single-player campaign and ... well, that's all you get. Unless you're one of those people who absolutely must have every achievement in the game, there's no incentive to go through the game a second time.
With its horrendous gameplay and nonsensical story, it's probably not worth bringing up the ugly graphics. Had you shown me this at a convention or trade show, I would have assumed that the developers were simply too busy to get the final artwork in place. However, as a finished product, there's no excuse for how bad Darkest of Days looks. Every enemy is made up of a low-polygon count, the trees and brush are all 2D and every texture is uglier than the last. Couple that with sluggish animation and the inconsistent frame rate and you have one of the worst looking Xbox 360 games I've seen.
And don't even get me started on the voice acting. This is a game set in a bunch of warzones, yet there's never a sense of urgency. Characters talk lazily about what they are going to do and never react in a realistic manner. The worst dialogue comes in your futuristic home base, where a widescreen TV with a woman's voice berates you. None of the writing is believable and I found myself muting the TV each and every time somebody said something. And did I mention that the game references both Ghostbusters and Sesame Street? Yes, it's that kind of script.
I'll be honest with you, I wrote a mostly positive review for this game. However, thanks to KronoteK I was able to go back in time, knock myself out and write something that is a lot more honest. Darkest of Days isn't just about a bunch of depressing time periods, it's one of the most incompetent first-person shooters I've played in a long time. With all of the glitches and technical problems I have to wonder if this game was even tested. Either way, it's a miserable experience that should be avoided at all costs. Now that I think of it, I don't know why I didn't use this time travel technology to go back and stop me from playing Darkest of Days in the first place.
