Darkwatch - Xbox Game Review
Xbox Review DarkwatchCapcom once again returns us to the old west, but this time to fight a totally un-cool vampire named Lazarus and a bunch of his zombie type friends. The release on this first person shooter had been delayed for what seemed like eternity, nothing unusual from the Capcom when it comes to Old West shooters. Let’s see if it’s worth buying, or if it’s just another western shooter rental.
The Storyline
Truth be told, I really don’t care much about a story line. I like good action, graphics, and game play, however this storyline had me interested. You rob a train, only to find out it contained an evil vampire in the vault. He turns you into a vampire, you hook up with some government chic named Cassidy Sharp, and you spend the rest of the day shooting up zombies as you try to kill Lazarus the evil vampire and save your pitiful soul.
In 3 words, Western Zombie Shooter.
Gameplay
There are some interesting twists to the controls of your character, Jericho. Once his vampire like abilities start to kick in he can do some pretty interesting double jumps with tons of hang time, decent dives, and a fun melee attack with will surely become one of the easiest ways to kill your stupid enemies.
Your character has 4 vampire powers, and depending on which path you chose, good or bad, will influence the powers. Several points in the story line determine your path, that and killing civilians for no reason. Ah, the power of the dark side.
Melee attacks and early shootouts aside, Darwatch’s gameplay didn’t really impress me. The controls were o.k. and the game featured some interesting twists as far as character abilities, but after an hour or two it’s the same old same old.
Graphics
I have heard mixed reviews about the graphics. Everyone agrees that the pre-rendered scenes blow, however the zombies blow up really well and twist and turn like there bones are broken. That’s Fun stuff.
The background scenes were empty and flat in my opinion. I don’t know, I guess I just expected or hoped for more as far as the graphics.
Multiplayer
Everybody knows that I’m all about the multi-player. If you make a game, it better have good mutli-player or in my opinion its not worth the purchase price. Darkwatch does not deliver on mutli-player. I quickly became disinterested. Plop.
The Bottom Line
The story line has holes and was a little disappointing. Some odd monster noises when there are none visible in the game distracted me from the game play. The Halo-ish vehicle controls were unnecessary and awkward. The graphics could have been better. It’s fun to blow up the zombies and watch them fling around in mid air, but with only about 6 hours of game play and worthless multi-player action, I have to say that Darkwatch is a cheap rental at best. It’s fun to play, for all of 6 hours maximum, but not worth the purchase.
posted by Bob Narley @ 6:24 AM
