Don't blame the cheesy title of The Darkness on the game developers - blame Top Cow, the comic book company that publishes the comic the game is based upon. It's worth noting that many games that based off of comic books (or their movie counterparts) are usually bungled endeavors, rushed out the door in order to maximize profits at the expense of the game's quality. However, there have been exceptions, and thankfully, The Darkness is one of those, bringing a highly polished single-player experience, dazzling visuals, and heretofore unseen brutality in any first-person action game.

The Darkness has you playing Mafia hitman Jackie Estacado, who happens to run afoul of his boss after a botched mission. Conveniently, though, soon after his boss starts trying to kill him, Jackie manifests a demonic presence that gives him death-dealing powers of startling magnitude. This demonic presence, however, will stop at nothing to achieve total control over Jackie's soul, so there is internal struggle as well as the blistering firefights Jackie finds himself in. All in all, it's a very dark, scary trip - a trip that is thankfully made easier by the near-perfect controls for gunslinging and Jackie's diverse Darkness powers.

As well crafted as the story is, it is sadly very short; skilled players can beat the game within the span of eight to 10 hours. Although there is a multiplayer mode, it feels tacked on and shallow, with crushing lag issues hampering it (that should hopefully be fixed in a patch by the time you read this). As major as these flaws are, however, The Darkness is still great fun and definitely worth your time - if you can stomach the brutality of a Mafia/occult double-punch. Besides, any game where you can devour the hearts of your enemies gets cool points in my book.

The Darkness is available for the PS3 and Xbox 360, and is (obviously) rated M for Mature.