A civil war soldier plucked from certain death by a time-traveling group charged with correcting the time alterations done by a mysterious force. You have to navigate different times armed with both futuristic and authentic weaponry, careful not to kill critical persons or damage to the time-stream could occur. A cool idea for a movie even more so, a video-game. But unfortunately we are gifted with an awesome idea and not-so-awesome end product. But it’s so much more than that, so please read on.

With a great premise comes the often-difficult end product that has to match that premise. I have said, in other reviews, that I have always gotten a charge out of taking actual historical events and mixing it with a sci-fi or fantastical element. Whether its the occult meanderings of the Wolfenstein series or the horror elements of the Onimusha games, I just dig on the whole idea. So when I saw this game coming down the pipe, I was eagerly awaiting it. So in Darkest of Days you play as the newest recruit for Kronotek, a covert agency who is desperately trying to piece back the recent time disturbances that have occurred, thus changing the future. This futuristic agency is supposed to be all knowing and all seeing with the giant eyes on the wall representing the all-knowing, and prerequisite geek who pines for times past. Good thing too, the father of Time travel has gone missing and all sorts of futuristic soldiers have been popping in and out of time causing all sorts of higgly-piggly (trouble).

Playing the game via FPS, DoD ends up falling flat right out of the gate. For a time-traveling shooter, there is remarkably little variance in the times you travel to initially. It seems that you bounce back and forth from the Civil War to World War I a few too many times for my liking; seeing the same drab environments and fighting the same moronic A.I. that seems to appear only as cannon fodder rather then an opposing force. Yes, you do eventually start seeing other time periods, but its almost as if the developers ran out of money and thought it would be cheaper to reuse the same environments.

And for that matter, there isn’t anything special about the visuals in the game. Yes, there are a couple of decent effects, there always is, but it’s almost as if the title had no sort of driving force behind it, challenging the developers to really try something new. No, pizzazz or sort of style is evident, at least not until some of the later levels and then it’s both too little, too late and not enough. Graphically the game is on the lower end of the spectrum, you need not get too excited, although there is a clever-looking level where you are in a dirigible and another involving a POW camp in WWII. The latter is actually something that the game gets right and had the developers had the hindsight to try and tap into that vibe then we could be talking about an entirely different game. The weapons themselves almost seem frail and without any heft. Which is weird because there is no sort of physics to them either. Guns have the range that is completely impossible and no sort of equivalent sound to go with it. Enemy A.I., like I said, is pretty poor and fighting them is almost like battling 5-year olds at paintball.

And that’s about it for the sound, the voice work of those giant set of eyes (Mother) and other NPCs is unintentionally funny, and not in the cool “B” movie way, more like a “pathetic excuse” way. It’s that much more painful to play this game because of its high concept and plot, only to be repeatedly disappointed.

In addition, the game’s plot also dances around a bit too much for its own good. The general idea is good, but then they start adding too much convoluted jibberjab. There is a pretty decent twist and conclusion to the game, but it honestly takes a special kind of player to actually see the game through to its end.

I know I am really slamming this game, and deservedly so for they got me all excited and then let me down. But there are a couple of ideas that I did like; I just wish they would have fleshed them out or made the explanations a bit more relevant. For instance, I spoke about not being able to kill specific NPCs. Instead you must use a weird green bubble that stuns them and allows you to continue and they not to die, keeping the time stream healthy (or whatever). This idea was good, but needed to be more relevant in the title? ANother example is how they forced you to play, manning a cannon, or turret or whatever. Cannons were really devestating, yet slow weapons. Here, they are just slow, it would have been better had they expanded these types of scenarios yet used futuristic ammunition. Remember, in this game, soldiers from times long gone, don’t even bat an eye when you begin ripping up the countryside with a machinegun.

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