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Review: Darkwatch
- Title: Darkwatch
- Developer: High Moon Studios
- Publisher: Capcom
- System: Xbox (PS2)
- Reviewer: Zonk
- Score: 6/10
There is a lot to like about the setting of this game. Darkwatch combines some of the best elements of Vampire Hunter D and Brisco Country Jr.; riding a horse quickly through the night pursued by a vampire lord, driving an armored buggy over ranks of skeletal undead, leaping onto a moving train just to hitch a ride. The two worlds are well blended, with the fantastical elements melded to the western in an interesting style.
You'll be seeing that world through the eyes of Jericho Cross, a former bandit turned vampire through his own bad luck and poor preparation. Cross is short on words, but rubs up against some interesting characters who do plenty of talking for him. The game follows Jericho's pursuit of the vampire lord named Lazarus, who kicks off the plot by slaying the protagonist within the first ten minutes of the game. In your afterlife you pursue Lazarus with the help of a pair of western beauties voiced by Jennifer Hale and Rose McGowan. These characters make up the bulk of the NPC interaction you'll encounter during the game. Representatives of the Darkwatch, an undead hunting organization, and the slavering undead they slay fill out most of the other NPC roles. Despite the subject matter, the voice work comes across as respectful to the roles. The voice actors gave their all to give these characters life. The dialogue is regrettably less respectful, with some corny eye rollers spread throughout the game. The storyline itself is interesting enough, moving with a frenetic pace and throwing a few twists and turns at you. Unfortunately, the game is over too quickly to really settle into the plot. Gameplay and story are somewhat interconnected. Throughout the game, you're presented with 'good' and 'evil' options. Choosing either path nets you new vampiric powers, but disappointingly does not affect the storyline or the game's outcome. Controls are the typical console based FPS, with one thumbstick controlling movement and the other orientation. Even with the sensitivity turned up as high as it went, I found the movement a little gummy. The problem lies in the pace of the game. Enemies spawn quickly and in many locations around the gamespace, forcing you to react quickly to incoming opponents. While this makes for exciting gameplay, the mushiness of the controls leads to frustration. Even if you see an opponent coming you may not be able to line up your attacks quickly enough to defend yourself. Thankfully, your vampiric powers give you an edge. In addition to a 'blood shield' (ala Master Chief in the original Halo), Jericho can execute great leaps, speed himself up, and enter a vision mode where his opponents are clearly highlighted against a red background. Other abilities manifest themselves as you consume the souls of the damned, or release them into blissful oblivion, based on your chosen alignment path.
The vision ability is very useful, because as you might expect from a title with a touch of horror there are a lot of dark spaces to explore. The game maps tend to be well laid out. Regrettably the sameness of the visual elements, the darkness and textures, begin to blend together fairly quickly. Creature designs, too, run together into sameness before the short title ends its run. They certainly look good, but after you've worked through a few levels you'll have already encountered most of the critters the game can throw at you. Refreshingly despite their sameness they can be crafty opponents. The skeleton foot soldiers are dumb as hammers, but the gunfighters do a good job of seeking cover in a long-range fight. Throwing a stick of dynamite in the direction of a group of foes will send them scattering, and they even react appropriately when one of their number is hit with an exploding arrow. There won't be any moments of eerie intelligence, but it's gratifying to know they'll at least put up a fight.
Visually, Darkwatch does a good job of placing you into the moment. While the graphical capabilities of the console of your choice won't be pushed to the limit, characters are attractively animated and opponents convey a sometimes surprising sense of speed. Both the undead and story characters share a somewhat exaggerated style, with large facial features and angular body shapes. Jericho's vampiric powers are stylishly realized, as are the explosions and weapon effects in the game. The audio landscape of Darkwatch is not as attractive. Generic-sounding monster screams and underwhelming weapon effects will be your constant companions. The game is slightly less forgettable music-wise, with some nice musical stings and twangy background tunes. But then, I like spaghetti westerns.
High Moon offers up a game with an interesting setting and memorable characters, muddied by sluggish controls and repetitive gameplay. Though Darkwatch will likely not be remembered as one of the pinnacle releases of 2005, it does stand out from the crowd of generic shooters thanks to the obvious attention paid to the game's background. Despite that the too-quick story doesn't allow for time to fully appreciate the environment, and the sameness of the game levels and monstrous opponents drains the player's interest in the gameworld long before the plot concludes. Darkwatch is another game that could have been great, but ended up only worthy of a rental. While I think there are elements to enjoy here, I can only recommend it to someone specifically looking for a shooter with a western or horror theme.
Update: 09/21 19:24 GMT by Z : Clarified that High Moon was the former U.S. publisher, not developer, of the Guilty Gear series.
With the exception of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, I have never encountered the "relatively untapped genre of the vampire cowboy" anywhere.
I think there's a pretty good reason for that.
High Moon Studios chose the relatively untapped genre of the vampire cowboy for their latest offering, Darkwatch.
;-)
Gee, I wonder why that might be?
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Read on for my take on the best undead western you're likely to encounter any time soon.
i think its safe to say that its also worst "undead western" you're likely to encounter any time soon.
"Happy Trails to You, until we meet again!"
The only question is, will Dale Evans rise to the occasion?
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
*sigh*
I dunno,
I've seen some dialogue from the game. I don't think even Tala's big jigglies can save this train-wreck.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
Western Horror? Certainly doesn't come readily to mind (not like a good pirate thriller, w' a ship full 'o the dead and buckets o' blood, arr!) A shooter is a shooter, eh? How about we include some gun play in the next Dungeons and Dragons roll-out. (What was that strip with the guy with the handgun that ran in Dragon for ages? Some potlicker borrowed by book and ain't seen it since.) How do you kill spectres with bullets? Shouldn't they be silver?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"High Moon Studios chose the relatively untapped genre of the vampire cowboy..."
That's not a genre, that's an unimaginative combination of two ganres.
And by "relatively untapped", I assume you meant "absurd".
Seriously, the people who put out games like this must be Adult Swim flunk-outs... and that's saying a LOT!
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Gee, ...
You can shot them if you don't like them!
"Maybe I'm just getting frustrated because I've got money to burn and can't find a decent game to spend it on..."
Perhaps it's your medication. Good GOD!
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
They had me at "heavy helping of spectral prostitutes"
I am not a crackpot.
Why is a run-of-the-mill game given front page space. I doesn't sound much different than any other FPS (apart from the bizzare scenario), and Zonk (the self-poster) only gives it 6/10. Is this the quietest news day-ever of was Zonk just desperate to post something?
I'm not saying I disagree that there are some serious problems with voting machines in this country, but it's telling that according to the people polled the incumbent has screwed virtually everything up and they would still vote for him over the Democrat by a point.
With control schemes for console first person shooters fairly standardized
I think someone disagrees with that comment.
^_^
With control schemes for console first person shooters fairly standardized, developers seek to differentiate their titles with theme and storyline. High Moon Studios chose the relatively untapped genre of the vampire cowboy for their latest offering, Darkwatch. The former Guilty Gear developer tries to explore some semi-serious story elements along with a heavy helping of spectral prostitutes, skeletal riflemen, and dramatic voice acting. Read on for my take on the best undead western you're likely to encounter any time soon.
* Title: Darkwatch
* Developer: High Moon Studios
* Publisher: Capcom
* System: Xbox (PS2)
* Reviewer: Zonk
* Score: 6/10
There is a lot to like about the setting of this game. Darkwatch combines some of the best elements of Vampire Hunter D and Brisco Country Jr.; riding a horse quickly through the night pursued by a vampire lord, driving an armored buggy over ranks of skeletal undead, leaping onto a moving train just to hitch a ride. The two worlds are well blended, with the fantastical elements melded to the western in an interesting style.
*
You'll be seeing that world through the eyes of Jericho Cross, a former bandit turned vampire through his own bad luck and poor preparation. Cross is short on words, but rubs up against some interesting characters who do plenty of talking for him. The game follows Jericho's pursuit of the vampire lord named Lazarus, who kicks off the plot by slaying the protagonist within the first ten minutes of the game. In your afterlife you pursue Lazarus with the help of a pair of western beauties voiced by Jennifer Hale and Rose McGowan. These characters make up the bulk of the NPC interaction you'll encounter during the game. Representatives of the Darkwatch, an undead hunting organization, and the slavering undead they slay fill out most of the other NPC roles. Despite the subject matter, the voice work comes across as respectful to the roles. The voice actors gave their all to give these characters life. The dialogue is regrettably less respectful, with some corny eye rollers spread throughout the game. The storyline itself is interesting enough, moving with a frenetic pace and throwing a few twists and turns at you. Unfortunately, the game is over too quickly to really settle into the plot.
*
Gameplay and story are somewhat interconnected. Throughout the game, you're presented with 'good' and 'evil' options. Choosing either path nets you new vampiric powers, but disappointingly does not affect the storyline or the game's outcome. Controls are the typical console based FPS, with one thumbstick controlling movement and the other orientation. Even with the sensitivity turned up as high as it went, I found the movement a little gummy. The problem lies in the pace of the game. Enemies spawn quickly and in many locations around the gamespace, forcing you to react quickly to incoming opponents. While this makes for exciting gameplay, the mushiness of the controls leads to frustration. Even if you see an opponent coming you may not be able to line up your attacks quickly enough to defend yourself. Thankfully, your vampiric powers give you an edge. In addition to a 'blood shield' (ala Master Chief in the original Halo), Jericho can execute great leaps, speed himself up, and enter a vision mode where his opponents are clearly highlighted against a red background. Other abilities manifest themselves as you consume the souls of the damned, or release them into blissful oblivion, based on your chosen alignment path.
The vision ability is very useful, because as you might expect from a title with a touch of horror there are a lot of dark spaces to explore. The game maps tend to be well laid out. Regrettably the sameness of the visual elements, the darkness and textures, begin to blend together fairly quickly. Creature designs, too, run together into sam
"With the increasing price of oil, I can't help wondering what the face of computing is going to look like five or ten years down the line. The average computer uses as much as 1¾ Titanics worth of coal to run on any given day."
Coal is cheap, and produced locally.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Controls are sluggish.
Levels and enemies are repetitive.
Game is short, so plot is ineffective.
Dialogue is sub-par.
Graphics are ok, but don't push any limits.
Levels and enemies are repetitive.
The characters are pretty good.
The setting is different from other FPSs.
6 out of 10? "Cool! Six-shooters and skeletons!" Almost every other part of the review was negative. What does this game offer that makes it better than average?
If you say that you "can only recommend it to someone specifically looking for a shooter with a western or horror theme," doesn't it deserve a rating of 3/10? Or is an "average" game worth 8/10?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Yes, quality postings from the huffington post. Only insane leftists take anything posted there seriously.
Cannibalism in New Orleans!
"or if designed like a heat pump could even cool a room,"
Sorry to nitpick, but no, it couldn't.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
The average computer uses as much as 1¾ Titanics worth of coal to run on any given day.
Where did you get this number? It seems a bit extreme.
A bunch of Tech Stuff
I'd love to see someone take on the relatively untapped genre of non-3dFPS games. I yearn for the days of King's Quest and Leisure Suit Larry.
Could a game like Civilization or Sim City get off the ground today? Not likely.
These people looked deep into my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined.
Characters -- Setting
(1)Pirates -- (1)Carribean
(2)Cowboys -- (2)Old West
(3)Knights -- (3)Camelot
(4)Vampires -- (4)Erie Castles
(5)Soldiers -- (5)WWII, burned out society, etc.
(6)Aliens -- (6)Outerspace
The scalawags rolled a 4 and and a 2, but Douglas Adams they ain't. Arr!
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
He was a sheriff who got killed and (partially) resurrected to track down his murderers. Lyrics here. The song is on their "Of Mythic Distortions: CD, and it's a stitch.
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
An efficient computer would produce no heat
I think the laws of thermodynamics would have something to say about that.
or if designed like a heat pump could even cool a room
sure.... if you want to put your computer outside
Technology, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
On metacritic, it scored 77/100 by critics and 8.7/10 by users. For metacritic, that seems pretty respectable. Of 25 critic reviews, only 2 scored 60% or less. I don't know who Zonk is.
k watchcurseofthewest
Also, I ask, did Zonk play PS2 or Xbox?
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps2/dar
I do not have to play it, I do not have to buy it. This is yet another Doom/Wolfenstein type game that anyone over the age of 12 has been bored to death by since the early 90's.
Bet next review is another Command and Conquer, or another Wing Commander, remember when they actually made NEW games? Don't give me that MMORPG tripe, I was playing MUDS in the early 90's also, all they did was add pictures. There has not been a major advance in the actual GAMES since I last booted my Amiga 500.
What about:
The Ghost... Goes WEST!
http://www.phillyburbs.com/edwood/wood2.shtml
Long live Ed Wood.
Extreme? How? You fell right into the trap. He didn't specify a time frame on the Titanic's side of the equation, and therefore he didn't really state anything. I mean, you really cannot measure coal consuption of a machine from a hundred years ago, not specify a RATE of usage, and then give that information for a computer now. It just doesn't make sense, so don't bother asking.
People buy games with better graphics, even if they are derivative of older titles.
There is a lot less hype about games where the improvement is in gameplay and/or plot. You can easily impress people with screenshots and demos; it's harder to get people to buy games that require playing the whole game to understand its advantages.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Has slashdot slashdotted itself?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
There is plenty of space to innovate on current hardware, but developers insist on pushing polygons over promoting plot.
;-)
It's often not even polygons new PC games are pushing - rather, intensive shader operations are used for surfaces like plain walls when a bog-standard texture would do.
I thought about this a lot when I played the demo for F.E.A.R. a few weeks ago. Despite crushing my not-cutting-edge Geforce 6600 under its boot, it still didn't exactly look pretty, and didn't manage environments beyond horrendously cliched, incredibly simple alleys and corridors. I think there was also a small warehouse in there too.
Deus Ex: Invisible War did something similar. Where the first game had some pretty huge, nonlinear maps, its sequel had tiny, cramped levels with a couple of characters wandering round. But it had completely real-time lighting, so that makes things okay! Apparently.
I've got a fairly powerful PC. It can run older games at ridiculous framerates and resolutions. I'd much rather developers made better use of the resources available, and presented gamers with good design rather than graphical buzzwords. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't bother with stencil lighting, expensive shader operations or whatever, a typical, generic PC of today could manage some gigantic maps - a whole city block instead of a few alleys, crowds instead of two or three characters, a decent-sized island instead of a Rockall-with-trees.
Or whatever. I still reckon today's incredible hardware is wasted on rendering corridors and crates...
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
But you cared enough to post that you don't care? if you don't care about an article then *skip over it*.
I don't know how DarkWatch even merited a review, let alone a spot on the front page of /. Out of all the games that come out everyday, Zonk chooses to post a mediocre review of a mediocre game that leads to a mediocre discussion of this year's gaming mediocrity.
How many Libraries of Congress does it get to the hogshead?
You haven't been paying attention lately, have you?
fnord.
Judging from the screenshot, this looks strangely similar to Doom3...
Btw: Harrr!
On one hand, I'd like to agree with you, as I've always been about 6 months behind the technology curve (on the plus side, $10 Bargain Bin games!), but sometimes those little touches really add something to the game. Ever tried to go back to playing a game without lipsync or blinking on the character models? Quite frankly, it's rather eerie. The gliding pace of some of the characters is also very jarring. And going back to something like Doom, it just all feels flat and unrealistic now. To sum it up, I think some graphical whatsits grow on us without us noticing. *shrug* Personally, I hold back the 6 months or so and enjoy them that way, but I'm thankful for the gamers who keep on the bleeding edge so that the game companies put out games that I'll buy at a much cheaper price in 6 months, when my price for upgrading my technology is a tenth of what it would have been.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
All of you are replying saying how crap Darkwatch is and it sounds like you have never even played the game! You can't take this one review and then piss all over it just because one person says it's not that good. I happen to love the game and I'm not ever really a FPS fan. The art is great, the guns all have melee and multiplayer is so fun!
I'd tap that genre.
If you hurry, you can probably catch 1966's Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula , now playing on a VHS machine near you...
Seeing bad movies only encourages them. Watch responsibly
Sounds a little like necrophilia to me.
it's a sig, wtf?
I think you've gotten confused from all the mergers and spinning off of studios and crack smoking, Zonk. High Moon Studios is what was once Sammy's United States development studio. They were spun off shortly before Sammy merged with Sega. The Guilty Gear series is developed by a Japanese company, Arc System Works, and published by Sammy (and recently Sega) in Japan and the US. In other words, the developers of Darkwatch had exactly jack to do with the Guilty Gear series.
I've got news for you. Very little news originates from /. I think of /. as a "blog" (or whatever you want to call it) which is somewhat stuck in 1997 (it doesn't look like a modern blog - like boingboing). This site is commentary heavy, not (original) news heavy. It also supports strong user customization, so that you can filter out commentary and/or stories which annoy or disinterest you. I'm getting to the point where I'll filter out your posts, simply because I'm sick of your Zonk complaints. Shame, because I enjoyed your earlier comment I linked to and am confident you're capable of more posts like that...
Two have featured protagonists that are probably undead, but non-vampires. High Plains Drifter features stranger riding in town who's tortured by dreams of being whipped to death by the three outlaws in town, while it's a bit more obvious in Pale Rider, where there is a brief shot of Preacher's back, featuring six healed bullet wounds centered on his heart.
Ah yes, the vampire-western! I get it, they have taken two trite, overused stereotypes and merged them into one. But why stop there? Let's throw more cliques into the mix. All that's left to do now is merge in alien-horror, some demonology, and swords-and-sorcery. And some high-kicking martial arts. And nazis, gotta have nazis. Once they've mixed all that together, we can have this sort of omni-genre sludge that will satisfy entertainment needs for years to come.
I know this game isnt inovative or AAA but 6/10? Its a fun game that can be played a few times, and the multiplayer while not great is good enough to kill some time, its fast paced and clean. 7.5/10
That would be SnarfQuest by Larry Elmore. Very funny series.
Not that I like his stuff, I don't.
But I don't think that Slashdot is deteriorating so much as going through another cycle. This too shall pass.
Now to slink off as an anonymous coward after watching rAiNsT0rm being "made an example of."
Umm... Stupid, you have obviously never heard of Vampire Hunter D, ya numb nuts. Uh... adult Swim... uh ... losers. Dude, get a life and learn what your writing about. It is a good thing most of these moderators have no idea either, otherwise you would be labeled "Dumb Ass".
-- Anybody is 1337 compared to this guy!!!
Oh yeah... Zonk's reviews suck. Bring on the FLAMES!!!!!
You know I don't buy and play games very often. But I like the vampire / odd world genre. I would consider buying this one if it's out for PC.
I've seen a few good suggestions posted, but the king of this "relatively untapped genre" would have to be Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat, starring David Carridine (from Kung Fu) as Dracula and Bruce Campbell (from Evil Dead) as Van Helsing.
Not that it's a good movie or anything (it's not), but if you've ever seen it, it does define the "Vampire Cowboy" genre more than most things out there.
yes.
For some inexplicable reason, the discussion of this game (Ghouls?), tabletops, and cross-genre mixes makes me want to play Shadowrun. How about a next-gen stab at Shadowrun? The SNES game was epic... There are enough rulebooks and histories to get a solid plot. I bet it would seem shiny and new amidst these cross-genre tritefests.
Bury me in mashed potatoes.
The average computer uses as much as 1¾ Titanics worth of coal to run on any given day.
How did you come at this number? It is totally absurd. Someone recently claimed something similar, so I did some calculations as to how much coal is actually needed to run a computer for a day, which is about 8 kilograms worth.
As it turns out, 1.25 Titanics worth of coal would run your computer for millions of years.
'For we walk by faith, not by sight.' II Corinthians 5:7
no
Best vampire movie ever made! Featuring: you guessed it--Vampire Cowboys (and girls).
Sammy Studios (now High Moon) only published Guilty Gear. It has always been developed by Arc System Works
As it turns out, 1.25 Titanics worth of coal would run your computer for millions of years.
I can't figure out how you came up with this number. I looked it up, and for 19 of the last 20 years the Titanic has used an average of 0 kilograms of coal per day.(*)
(*) according to wikipedia, the titanic burned approximately 1.4 kilograms of coal on July 14th, 1978.
I thought it made sense? Sure, they never said what speed Titanic is travelling at, but you can guess cruise speed, for an entire day. It takes a certain quantity of coal to do that, and with that coal you could produce X KWh of electricity. You compare that vs. the 300W/h * 24 = 7.2KWh that an average computer would use (and I'm making up the 300W/h).
So yeah, you could compare it? My gut feeling is that titanic wins by a landslide.
"If you could only see what I've seen with your eyes..." - Roy Batty
I assumed the original poster meant the capacity of a Titanic; how much coal could fit into one. Not the Titanic's actual usage.
That's what I went for, anyway.
'For we walk by faith, not by sight.' II Corinthians 5:7
Obligatory "Maybe."
But is that a full-voyage Titanic, or only the historical half-voyage unit? It's a common mistake.
At my school (UF) students have been hired to chalk the sidewalks with DarkWatch's logo in order to promote interest in the game.
"Attack! Marketing kicked off a week-long guerilla-marketing campaign Monday for its new first-person shooter video game, Darkwatch."
I'm not sure how much interest some chalk on the sidewalk garnered for the game, but the subsequent article in our free student newspaper surely grabbed attention from the geek crowd
Sauer
I carefully measured the amount of coal my computer used yesterday, and the amount of coal the Titanic used yesterday. And... he's absolutely correct. My computer used 75% more coal than the Titanic.
who the hell plays FPSers on a console?
I played Halo 2 for about 2 months and left it and found it rediculously hard to come back to after playing CS:S for 6 months.. seriously.. why bother playing console FPSers unless you have a keyboard hooked up...????
I am really amazed by those numbers; considering the RMS Titanic *sank* on April 15, 1912. Burning coal at the bottom of the ocean is a neat trick!
Furthermore 1.4 kg of coal probably weren't enough to heat even one furnace; let alone move the ship.
Several sites indicate an average consumption of 825 tons per day.
a heavy helping of spectral prostitutes
/with apologies to J.K. Rowlings...
Well, "Nearly-Headless Nick" might finally have a chance to become "Got-Some-Head-Yesterday Nick"...
Freedom: "I won't!"
I have regressed back to a MUD. check it out >>> http://www.medievia.com/
:)
It is fun, and I can play on Linux and Windows & more importantly at WORK. I am sick of upgrding for new games. Rebell and play something that is totally free! Shameless Plug
I bought a non free game a bit ago for a PS2, Killer 7 - the worst game I have bought in a long time, and it was $50. My geographic location gives me little options, and I have a slow Satellite Internet connection.
War aint what it used to be!
-Anonymous Non-Coward
calm down. if you don't like a comment then *skin over it*.
MORTAR COMBAT!