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| | Title:
Darkwatch: Curse of the West
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System:
Xbox
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Genre:
First-Person Shooter
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Publisher:
Sammy Studios
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Developer:
Sammy Studios, Inc.
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Release:
Winter 2004
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Online:
Yes
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ESRB:
Rating Pending
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Its no mystery that perhaps the most crowded and toughest (for competitive reasons, that is) genre in all of gaming would have to be the first person shooter (FPS). Within the last few years, these games have been scattered all over the place, ranging in different themes, most of which end up getting stomped on under the feet of bigger juggernaut titles in the genre, such as Halo 2 or Unreal Championship 2. With that said, it seems as if a first person shooter can only be successful these days if its played out in the form of a sci-fi blockbuster. Contrary to this belief among many gamers, High Moon Studios (formerly known to gamers as Sammy Studios) is crafting a new engaging first person action game set in the old west packed with cowboys and vampires. Strange combination, no? Would you believe me if I said that this odd concept is actually shaping up to be a game worthy of sinking your teeth into?
Enter Jericho Cross- a vampire agent who has the task of protecting the innocent people of the Old West from blood sucking fiends of the night (in a simpler term, vampires), but Jericho has no one else to blame for the outbreak of the hordes of blood suckin’ foes but himself. When Jericho was once a human, he got around in life by stealing trains as a trade of his. What was supposedly his last job turned into a disaster when he boarded an armored Darkwatch train that confined a terrible evil from being spread upon the world and accidentally unleashed it. Now it’s up to players to take on the role of Jericho in his efforts to reclaim the tranquility that once belonged in the old west , and oh man, they’re going to have a blast doing it.
Quite simply, Darkwatch plays out like other great shooters in the genre, with great fluidity and responsiveness intact. There is never a moment of boredom no matter how many times you’ve played through an entire level, even in this preview version, which only contains two maps to romp through. Aiding the game in this non-stop pacing of action is the Blood Judgement system. Through scripted events throughout the game, players can acquire new powers at their disposal by making decisions to do either good or evil actions. Deciding which decision to make solely relies on the conscious of the players. The powers gained from those decisions cause the supporting characters in the game to perceive you as being a good or evil agent. From what I’ve played, the decision making choices players will have to make don’t seem as profound as say, Fable, but that doesn’t mean has to necessarily derive from the standard that game has set. As far as I can say for now, the acquisition of these new powers through the decisions are proving to be fun.
For instance, there is a woman that has had an unfortunate encounter with a vampire, which resulted in her being bitten. When Jericho comes across the woman, its time for players to select the option to finish her off or save her from becoming a creature of the night. Selecting the option to kill her will allow players to access a more powerful melee attack and saving her will increase the power of whichever gun you’re wielding. While both powers don’t really sound different from one another, both feel completely different while using them individually, with a dark tone of music playing in the background as you melee enemies into thin air and angelic music accompanying the burst of gunfire. Though I can only hope that as the game progresses so will the variation between the different powers that will make them distinguishable from one another. As for now, the utilization of Jericho’s unnatural powers are both fun and satisfying.
Jericho not only uses his powers to rid the west of demonic pests, he also uses his powers for detecting enemies within the environments you’ll traverse in throughout the duration of the game. Players will have the ability to zoom in on enemies with their weapons, which turns the screen into a blood red color and illuminates the oncoming hordes of demons heading in your general direction. While this method of detecting enemies is original in its entirety from all other games of this kind, it only helps you to a certain extent. At times you’ll only see the enemies that are in front of you but not from behind you, which causes the player to be on the tip of their toes at all times. Not only can players use Jericho’s enhanced vision to their advantage in being aware of the dangers they face in a situation, but they also have the ability to jump across long distances to go fisticuffs with airborne foes as well as to access other areas within the environment, though most of the time, you’ll be leaping far distances just to flee from danger.
Speaking of danger, it’s not often where you’ll be able to find any moment of peace out in the west, at least in this game. Constant waves of enemies are charging towards you and don’t hold back on impaling you with their weapons of choice, be it a large cleaver or a jagged bone scythe. Luckily for Jericho, he is able to withstand more damage than a mere mortal can handle with the utilization of his Blood Shield. Borrowing a page from a more widely known Xbox shooter that starts with the letter H, Jericho is able to take damage and recover over time from the wounds he’s obtained from his enemies.
Even with all these unique powers that can be used at your disposal to do away with enemies, what good is a first person shooter without a set of sick looking weapons? There’s no worry about that fear here, because players have access to a number of cool weapons. The weapon that Jericho is equipped with when he first sets out on his adventure is a revolver known as the Redeemer. You’re able to get some truly accurate shots on every enemy you fire at (thanks to the spot on hit detection system) with a single shot or you can let loose on enemy with a consistent number of bullets by simply pulling down on the right trigger on the controller. Another welcome addition is the powerful four barreled shotgun or in simplest terms, the Argus, which can shoot holes through enemies and render them useless as they burst into flames. While firing the Redeemer and Argus serves up some good fun in Darkwatch, they don’t compare to the power that is unleashed with the crossbow, which can fire explosive arrows that will literally launch enemies halfway across the map. There a number of weapons that we have yet to wield and experiment with in Darkwatch, but if the weapons that I wielded were any indication of how the other implements of doom behave, first person shooter fanatics are in for one hell of a time using them.
The slaygrounds Jericho will be adventuring through are quite interesting with a level of interaction and details that may seem surprising to the game’s unsuspecting players the first time they play through a particular map. Firing at dangling dead body from a tree will cause it to swing in different directions as if it had life to it (courtesy of the Renderware physics engine). The environments all have this creepy ambience where fog is abundant and details such as bats soaring in the skies foreshadow the action that will soon ensue.
The solidly constructed levels in Darkwatch make for an incredibly fun experience. One level that I sampled had me in control of Jericho as he was riding horseback on Shadow, the demonic horse that obtained its power by being bitten by Jericho as he fought his way onto an armored train. Shooting other horseback vampires and snipers while guiding the horse in the direction I wanted to go in was not a complicated at all, which made the whole scenario all the more cinematic with its natural feel.
So far, Darkwatch is shaping up to be far from sucking (no pun intended). The game has the right sense of style and the substance to back it up with enough action and diversity in the gameplay to keep things interesting. With summer perhaps being the most dreadful season for gaming, High Moon Studios may just be delivering the game gamers may be looking to sink their teeth into.
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