11/21/05 >> Darkwatch (PlayStation 2)

Genre: First-person Shooter

 

 

 

 

 

When Darkwatch was announced way back when in 2004, it looked a little interesting but I thought it would be just another tried-and-true cheap cash-in on a different plot. It's supposed to be a vampire-Western, something that has really never been done before. Except for the multiplayer, Sammy Studios put in a ton of time and made this a really great game.

 

GRAPHICS:
The characters and their models are really exaggerated for the main characters, but otherwise all look pretty dang good. Zombies look gruesome and the innocents look like real people. The actual locations are pretty ranged, although I didn't expect them to be. The overtone of the game (pretty dark) doesn't change except for one level, so they need a little more variety there. Other than that, the PS2 and Xbox versions are dang-near identical. All in all, these are some really good graphics with only a few minor hitches.

 

 

SOUND:
This may sound strange, but the main character, Jericho Cross, doesn't do a single word of dialogue! All the other characters have voices, including Rose McGowan doing one! The acting is done fairly well. Could be better, but I;m not complaining about what it is now. The music is all the old Western stuff, which works for this game although I didn't particularly like it. Sound effects are a plenty here and ranged from short shots, to huge explosions. All really well done here, but I think they could have had Jericho actually talk.

 

GAMEPLAY:
YEEEEEHHAAAWWWWWW! This game is definitely one of the most fun first-person-shooters I've ever played. The controls are simple to learn, and not only are there different weapons (like pistols to rocket launchers) you've got vampire powers. And these change depending on how you play the game moral-wise. Whenever you run into citizens, you can either save them or devour them. Good/evil. How you do that doesn't affect the actual story until the very end though. While the bosses are challenging, they aren't annoying either. And the missions are varied. You could be riding on horseback, going to a train, or just wandering through literal ghost towns! It's all got this middle set of difficulty so it's not too hard and not too easy, which is the way I think all games should be. It's fun to dink around with vampire powers on your enemies, or just blow them up with TNT (YAY RAG DOLL PHYSICS!). In fact, your enemies actually take limb damage and can even get them blown off! For instance, you could shoot them in the arm and they'd lose part of it, or blow their entire head clean from their shoulders. It's really fun to do. This is definitely a hit that can be a nice alternative to Halo 2.

 

 

MULTIPLAYER:
Ouch. Here's the only spot where this game falls flat on its side. You can play online on both versions up to 16 people, but the actual modes in this game don't impress. You really only get deathmatches and capture the flag. You can count team deathmatches too, but still not much. Since the human players don't lose limbs or do rag doll like the zombies, it isn't as much fun either. I wish they would have put as much time into their multiplayer as they did single player. Then this game would have totally rocked!

 

 

OVERALL :
Everything but the multiplayer is amazing, which is a shame, since most games need good multiplayer to keep the replay value up. And this is a short game, so unless you want to tinker with the different endings, this is a rental… a really good rental.

 

 

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Game Score: 8.7

 

 

Reviewed By: Staff