The Darkest of Days

[JRD]

Released September 8th, 2009 for XBOX360 and PC

This one is definitely on my list  ;)

STEAM has it for US$35,99 amazon for US$36,99

Quoting STEAM website

About the Game

Have you ever wondered what could happen if time travel was a reality? Have you ever thought about the possibility of going back in time to rewrite history for the better? That possibility is a reality in Darkest of Days, where players will travel back and forth through the annals of time to relive some of mankind's most dire hours.

By fighting through terrible events such as The Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest conflict of the Civil War, and both World War I and II, the player will attempt to save certain key individuals who were never meant to become involved in these truly monstrous events and thereby change human history for the better.

Key features

Brand New Engine: The dedicated team at 8monkey Labs has created an all-new, groundbreaking game engine known as Marmoset. The Marmoset engine not only breaks from the all-too present Unreal engine FPS clones flooding the market, but also allows for some amazing graphical capabilities. You'll fight through epic battles filled with literally hundreds of NPCs on the screen at the same time, all with an advanced AI and all without a hint of graphical slowdown and all set against wide-open environments that are lushly detailed and dynamically lighted.
Compelling Storyline: Darkest of Days is a compelling, action-packed first-person shooter to be sure, but it's not just mindless run-and-gun, blow 'em up gameplay. You'll have to not only think about how to approach certain key battles and situations, but you'll also have to take care when fighting — certain key people that were never meant to die will be marked with a special blue aura. If you kill them, you'll face dire consequences...
Wreak Havoc with Future Weapons in Antiquity: Something nearly every gamer that's ever played a shooter based in the past has always wanted is the ability to bring a futuristic weapon back through history and kick some major butt. How differently would Custer's last stand have turned out if the General was equipped with an M-16 assault rifle? You'll be able to answer questions like this in Darkest of Days. While not every battle and situation will allow you to wield weapons from the future, there will be plenty of opportunities for you to unleash futuristic fury on your unsuspecting foes.

System Requirements

Minimum:

OS: Windows XP (Service Pack 2)
Processor: 2.0 Ghz
Memory: 768 MB
Graphics: nVIDIA GeForce 6600 or ATI Radeon 9800 with at least 128 MB of video memory
DirectX®: 9.0c
Hard Drive: 5 GB available
Sound: a working sound device

Recommended:

OS: Windows XP (Service Pack 2) / Vista
Processor: 2.0 Ghz or better dual-core CPU
Memory: 2.0 GB
Graphics: nVIDIA GeForce 8800 or newer/ATI Radeon 3000 or newer
DirectX®: 9.0c
Hard Drive: 5 GB available
Sound: a working sound device

[JRD]

Here is the trailler

[smg id=1404 type=av]

If PZ don't like this gameplay vid, then I'm an old lady  ;)

retiredgord, you were looking for a new game... maybe this one will do it  ;)

[smg id=1403 type=av]

[spaceboy]

Looks really cool JRD!  Too bad PS3 is conspicously missing in the list  :'(

[JRD]

Yeah... I noticed that too.  :(
Maybe in 2010 mate... sometimes titles are split for a while and then released to all platforms... who knows?

[Art Blade]

looks cool :-X  but also a little linear, perhaps? Any info if it is "open world"?

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah, I will definitely look into this. Trading up a muzzle loader for a fully auto weapon and tearing up the Civil War sounds like fun. Not to mention pre-Vesuvius Pempeii.... I think it'll have to wait until I get Wolfenstien though....

[JRD]

looks cool :-X  but also a little linear, perhaps? Any info if it is "open world"?

You'll fight through epic battles filled with literally hundreds of NPCs on the screen at the same time, all with an advanced AI and all without a hint of graphical slowdown and all set against wide-open environments that are lushly detailed and dynamically lighted.

;)

Don't know about your tasks... how to perform them. If you are to assassinate a key person, then it may be quite sand box style. Maybe not as sand box as FC2, a bit more dynamic and spray-and-pray, but still... it sure does sound promising!!
Also, if you fail in protecting some key persons, the way the story develops also may vary... leading to multiple endings and high replay value!!
I'll keep one eye open for this one....  8)

[PZ]

I love it!  Being able to use an automatic rifle in the Civil War is like playing a game with a built in trainer.  Dang it, I just ordered Wolfenstein PC last night from Amazon - could have thrown this one into the list and maybe my wife would have never known  ;)

[JRD]

There's still time... she'll never be able to tell the difference between both  ;) ;D ;D

I like the fact that you bring 21st century guns that actually exists (some of them at least) into a 19th century... I saw a sci-fi rocket launcher but no Doom-like plasma guns  ;)

I've been checking some vids at youtube... it seems a bit linear, but in a wide open environment, which is more than what Crysis did I guess...
The guy leading you through the story said "follow your orders and stay alive... don't be a hero" and it seems like you have some tasks like "repel enemy attack", "cut off their lines" etc... and somebody hands you a war-winning gun to do it as you wish  ;D ;D ;D

I was also impressed by the relatively low system requirements... it's a brand new game and looks good with smoke and fire, explosions etc...

[PZ]

Just checked a few reviews one for xbox and a couple for PC - some not too favorable.  They said that the game suffers from frame rate problems on the xbox with graphics that would have been acceptable 5 years ago. (The graphics looked good to me though).  While the countryside appears to be open, all of the reviews mentioned invisible walls directing you to where the developers want you to go.  The advice was to wait for it to hit the bargain racks or to rent it for the weekend.

However, another reviewer said that it was the most refreshing game that he's played in a long time - might be a good idea to watch for more opinions.

[JRD]

I had the same impression reading through reviews and watching ssome gameplay vids.
I'll keep my eyes peeled for that one anyway... if it's rather cheap on release (some games costs $50-$60), it may drop to an acceptable level in a few months  ;)

[fragger]

 :-X Thanks for the heads-up, JRD!

I'm intrigued by the premise of this game, being both of bit of a history buff and a sci-fi fan. I always did enjoy a twisted time travel type tale. (Geez, try saying that 3 times quickly).
It's hard to tell from the clips, but it did look a bit more linear than some OWGs. The guy had a map but it seemed like he had to go certain ways to certain places and do things in the proper order, but I can live with that if the game is involving (Half-Life 2 springs to mind). It may not be like that at all, as I say it's hard to tell...
Using modern assault rifles against ancient weapons hardly seems fair - but it certainly seems fun!
I'm definitely interested in this one, looks like being something a bit different.

[Art Blade]

I reckon it will be somewhat like CoD series, corridor-wise, invisible walls etc. Looks open but isn't.

[Dweller_Benthos]

I grabbed the demo today, so I'll see how it plays tonight. hah! demo, that's funny, it weighs in at over 800MB!!! Remember the good ol' days when a demo fit on a low density floppy disc? Hell, back in the day, the WHOLE GAME fit on a floppy for that matter.

[JRD]

So I hit you right on the spot, right D_B??  ;D

Let us know how it plays... I'm really curious about it...  :-X

[PZ]

Yes indeed - when a floppy disk was actually "floppy"  (remember the 8-inch ones?).  let us know your thoughts after you play the game.  :-X

[deadman1]

Hehe I used to have a 5 ^1/4 " floppy for my old C64 it made a nice change from the taperecorder. I remember playing "space invaders" type games while waiting for the other game to load.  ;D

[Art Blade]

hehe, I still have my original old C64, and it still works :) 5 1/4 floppies too, after like 20 years, almost a miracle.

[Dweller_Benthos]

I had a tape drive for my Atari 400, used to load my own programs from it and had Zaxxon for it. Took forever to load, when it didn't fail, that is. I still have a bunch of 5.25 floppies & the drive up in my attic. One of the old computer systems at w@&k used the 8 inch floppies until we got rid of it in the early 90s.

At to the Darkest Days demo..................... well, let's just say that after playing it, I didn't want to rush right out and buy the game. If you're looking for a FC2 replacement, this ain't it. Very linear, I tried to walk out of the woods you start in and almost immediately hit an invisible wall. Then, at one point, you are stuck on rails like those arcade games you see where you have no control of where your character goes, you just have to shoot at whatever happens to be in front of you. That was very brief, though, and after that you could walk around a bit, but still not have much freedom. It seems that in the full game, you'll be able to pick what missions you go on, so I don't know how that will effect the game as it moves along, but while in mission, it's pretty standard stuff. Get assigned a checkpoint, go to it, fight some guys for a while, get assigned the next checkpoint, go to it, etc, until you meet up with the person you're supposed to protect, then hope he follows you to the escape point. For an 800MB demo, it took me all of 15-20 minutes to finish.

If I ever do buy the game, it will be a long time down the road when the price has dropped considerably. Those of you on consoles who can rent it should if the rental fee isn't too high.

Bottom line is, don't buy it without trying it first, and don't pay full initial retail price.

[JRD]

Bottom line is, don't buy it without trying it first, and don't pay full initial retail price.

Thanks a lot D_B...  :-X

[PZ]

Ditto - thanks for the report D_B,  what keeps my interest in FC2 is the freedom to move around rather than be directed down an invisible path.  The linear games don't hold my interest long term.  I think I'll wait until this one hits the bargain basement  ;)

[Art Blade]

cheers D_B :)

the bargain basement

nice expression  :) :-X

[Dweller_Benthos]

The more I think of it, this game isn't even really good as far as linear shooters are concerned.

[JRD]

Which is a pitty... the story could be outstanding... not linear even.
Changing the future could lead to numerous finales and great twists during campaign.

Well... it's not the first time we see a good idea die  :(

[PZ]

Yeah, I love the idea - reminds me of several movies (and a Twilight Zone episode) where the time traveler tries to change the future.