The lowdown: Despite some minor gameplay shortfalls and lack of multiplayer action, Darkest of Days utilizes the concept of time travel very well for the FPS genre. I would recommend a rental of this title, or a purchase when the price drops down.

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE:  September 8, 2009
PUBLISHERS: Valcon Games
DEVELOPER: 8monkey Labs
ESRB RATING:  “M” for Mature
GENRE:  First Person Shooter
PRICE: $49.99


PRODUCT OVERVIEW:
Have you ever wondered what could happen if time travel was a reality? Have you ever thought about the possibility of going back in time to rewrite history for the better? That possibility is a reality in Darkest of Days, where players will travel back and forth through the annals time to relive some of mankind’s most dire hours. By fighting through terrible events such as The Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest conflict of the Civil War, and vicious battles from both World War I and II, the player will attempt to save certain key individuals who were never meant to become involved in these truly monstrous events and thereby change human history for the better.

In Darkest of Days, you take on the role of Alexander Morris, an unlucky foot soldier who gets transferred to General Custer’s regiment days before the Battle of Little Bighorn. Moments before his inevitable demise, a futuristic time agent warps in to save Morris and transports him to the future where he is told that time travel is now a reality. However, an unknown faction is attempting to re-write history for their own benefit. Your job is to stop them, and you’ll fight your way through eras spanning thousands of years to do it.

PRODUCT FEATURES:

I opened this title up with mixed expectations. While I was very excited for a time-travel game, I knew that setting the bar high was not fair for a newer games studio. With that being said, I think that 8monkey and Valcon did a fairly decent job with this title.

Mainly bouncing back between the lines of World War I and the American Civil War, you will find yourself immersed in many famous battles, such as the Battle of Antietam. There are also sections of the game for World War II and the battle of Little Bighorn, as well as the final levels ending in 1st century A.D. Pompeii. With virtually no replay value, the campaign was of medium length. (Warning: “New game” really means new game. Everything will be erased and you will not be happy.) It wasn’t really a difficult title either, especially on Hard. Playing the game through on the highest difficulty took me roughly 6-8 hours. No one spot required more than 5 tries, and only a few required more than one.

The gameplay was fairly straight-forward for a FPS. While the controls were like most other shooters, the change weapons button was confusing. Where most titles use the Y button, Up on the D-Pad was used in this game. The Y button was used to pick up new weapons and became very confusing when trying to switch weapons while running across a battlefield. All of the other controls were rather straightforward, with the bumpers being used to sprint and melee, respectively. The game also employs an active reload system, as similar to Gears of War.

All of the cinematics and cutscenes were done fairly well. Personally, I thought that some of the obscene language was unnecessary, especially in the opening scene of the game. Subtitles accompanied all of the talking segments and occasionally had grammatical errors and ran at a different speed than the actual dialog. The cutscenes helped piece together the well-constructed plot.

The graphics and physics for the game were mediocre. At points, they were absolutely awful, but visual effects such a smoking gun made up for it. As for physics, the biggest peeve I found was the grenade tosses. Throwing a grenade at a building in most games would typically cause it to bounce back. That was not the case in this game, as grenades could penetrate walls and bunkers. The game also had lag and dropped frames in periods of high action. This is unheard of for a console, and I was very taken aback by it. Other than that, everything else worked as advertised.

As for realism, carrying an assault rifle through the Civil War is obviously not very practical. As I mentioned earlier, some of the physics were not real-world. I did find it interesting that while running, you would actually become winded and slow down after some time. Having played a variety of games in my day, this is a new idea to me. While it can be annoying as a player, I like the realism factor that it adds. The smoking gun is also a nice touch.

The AI also could have been better. While it worked well for most of the games, I found that if you moved away from an objective with the enemy fleeing, they would eventually just stop running and shooting, ultimately standing still in the middle of a field. They would also disengage you if you completed an objective involving them.

For those achievements lovers, this is another fairly easy 1000G. The toughest achievement is probably going to be beating the game on Hard, which is worth 200G (“With Chest Hair”). My favorite was “Horse Puncher,” where you literally punch a horse in battle, killing it and gaining 100G in the process.

Conclusion:

Despite several shortfalls, I didn’t think this game was all that bad. A few title updates and a possible sequel would be great for the series. Despite being $49.99, I would recommend picking the title up after the price drops. A rental would also do the job since the game has no multiplayer or online functionality.

Single Player: 6/10 | Multi-Player: N/A

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