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"Good - Bad - I'm the guy with the gun !"

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: September 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Hey, Hey! Here's The Reverend again bringing you the ultimate review of Darkwatch.

Let's face it, there's nothing more honorable than kicking some dusty undead butt! What are these guys doing outside their graves anyway? What do they want from the world of the living? Especially with sky-high gas-prices these days? And why can't they eat French fries and Burgers like everybody else? Why does it have to be brains? And who has brains anyway in times of our failing education system?
The good news is that we won't need any brains to play this game! :-) And that's just what we need after a long day at work, isn't it? So, Darkwatch should be right up our alley, right? Well, yes and no... Let's do the cons first and then get to the pros:

The game puts you straight into the shoes of Jericho Cross, a train robber in the Old Wild West with a long and brutal criminal past. Whatever happened to the GOOD hero in computer games - we may wonder - but I guess morally positive game-heroes have inevitably died with the early 90s. Now, bad old Jericho robs the wrong train one day. Apparently THIS train belongs to a secret society called the DARKWATCH (hence the title) who hunt down vampires in an "unholy war" as the intro movie bluntly suggests. Despite the horrific gothic look of the train with all kinds of Christian and pagan symbols and tons of bloody remains of its former human freight (and what with the coffin-shaped doors and weird pointy spikes everywhere) Jericho still believes to have found a train transporting money, gold and other valuables and does not seem the least bit distracted by the occasional zombie that gets in his way (yup, the train is the first interactive level already). As you can see, Jericho is not the sharpest tool in the shed and neither is the storyline behind Darkwatch. Once infected by the vampiric-undead curse, Jericho gets used to his new state of body and mind quicker than a hippie to pot - there is just no drama involved in his becoming a vampire - neither is there much drama later on. The story is presented in extremely short, matter-of-fact cut-scenes (which might have been better and more seamlessly integrated had they used the in-game engine).
It's a shame that we don't get more information about Jericho Cross, the Darkwatch and some of the situations we encounter throughout the game. The meager story leaves you longing for more, much more - and DARKWATCH II won't be enough of an excuse to make up for it.

Another part where the game falls flat is in terms of its level design. First of, levels are much too short. It's almost like the game screams RIP-OFF! in this regard. You just feel like the level designers were under-staffed, under-paid, under-aged or simply under-excited to come up with more, much more. You get the feeling that you're not exploring whole areas or levels, but arenas in which you get to fight a gazillion undead until the next tiny area opens. What a great game this could have been if the action part had been more balanced with exploring and searching and maybe just the occasional tiny little puzzle or two? There are just too many levels where you're just getting into the fun a certain environment provides, just to find out that it's over after just 1-2 minutes. For example: +500 points for designing a super-cool level where a train has to be boarded (from horseback) and then cleared of enemies moving from one wagon to the next - with the foggy, moonlit landscape rushing by outside! -2000 points for letting us inspect only 4-5 tiny wagons, throwing a cut scene in our face and abruptly ending the level if it could have been so much fun exploring the whole darn thing just 10-15 more minutes!!! It's like ordering a fancy schmanzy pizza with 10 toppings and actually getting it - only catch: the pizza is just 1 inch wide!!! NUTS!!!
Another downside of DARKWATCH is the fact that the levels were apparently designed by some claustrophobics from western Nebraska. 90% of them take place in the great wide open: canyon after canyon, valley after valley, burning cityscape after cityscape. Yes, there are major buildings in the game like a church, a cathedral and an old ghost town. But do you actually get to go INSIDE these buildings and explore them? Not a whole lot! It's just plain sad when a cool level leads you down a slope across a cemetery to a big old abandoned church just to tell you in another cut scene that you will now be entering the crypts underneath (which will take you about 3 minutes to complete consisting of one catacomb-like room, a fighting arena and the same catacomb-room from before (as a mirror-imaged clone) to finish the level off!!!). Great! And after the crypt it's the obligatory canyons again... Here you thought you'd actually get to see and explore the church from the inside but the designers were too bored to actually bother with it. This happens a lot in the game!

And it's a shame because the actual atmosphere created by graphics and sounds is outstanding!
Yup, you heard me right. Here's the PRAISE part of the review. In terms visuals, audio and ACTION Darkwatch REALLY TOTALLY delivers like no other game out there. Think of it as being able to PLAY a movie like "From Dusk Till Dawn" or "Blade" and you get a good idea what the gameplay is like. You have a good range of weapons (guns, shotguns, rifles (sniper too)) which include wacky stuff like dynamite and a crossbow that actually shoots dynamite at enemies. And, boy, do they fly when you blow them to bits. The damage response it ultra-realistic thanks to the HAVOC ENGINE. Limbs come off one by one, heads roll around, bodies topple from buildings or over railings and go spinning through the air before landing on the floor in the exact position the topographic surroundings allow (if there's a bump or a wall they'll come to rest neatly against it in a realistic fashion).
Also nice is the fact that you can use every weapon as a melee weapon. So you can shoot, smack, shoot, smack as you please, dealing great damage to enemies close by.
Last but not least: you will gain a bunch of different powers, which are unfortunately not exactly vampiric (how about faster reflexes, partial invisibility etc.???) such as: Mystic Shield and chain-lightning. Bummer... they are o.k., but generally not too much fun to use.

Darkwatch sure delivers non-stop action and is great fun the first or second time around (probably on the very same day you buy it), but in the long run this vampire won't have the teeth to keep you satisfied. Hey, if you get a good deal on it - you should definitely get it! Darkwatch may come in handy for those times after horror movies when you feel like it's time to take the action into your own hands and blow off steam!

It's not that Darkwatch is a bad game, at all. It just saddens you that despite slick graphics, awesome sound and action the whole thing seems cut short like a top-notch music video as compared to the full length concert you really wanted to see.
The Reverend

It's a nice rent, at best...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: May 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game used a couple months ago, expecting a great thing of beauty as everyone said it was. I was very disappointed.
The presentation itself leaves much to be desired. I'll admit that the graphics are pretty much top-notch (aside from the fact that you can see pixelated color squares on the Gunslingers when you're right in front of them), but the colors could use a bit more variety. It's nothing but black, grey, and brown throughout the whole game, with the exception of one stage that throws some white at you. In the beginning of the game, you can't go through two minutes of gameplay without being interrupted by a simple cutscene that basically tells you what to do. This would be fine, except they're boring and drab. There a thousand ways I can think of that could have made them interesting. But they're not. And three quarters of the time, they're completely useless and just serve to split the action into frustratingly small chunks.
Enemy A.I. is pretty nice. Each type of enemy has a specifically written A.I. program. Reapers hurl themselves at you with scythes whipping, Gunslingers take cover and try to overwhelm you with fire from different directions, and Oozers waddle at you spitting acid. There are occasional hiccups though, like when Riflemen just stand there and look at you until you blow their head off. The physics are also spot-on (I believe it's the same Havok engine that Half-Life 2 ran on), and dismembered body parts go flying everywhere when the action heats up.
But the levels are incredibly linear. Almost impossibly, actually. They never really deviate from the 'follow path, blow up bad guys, follow path, enter large open area, blow up lots bad guys until a new path magically opens' formula. Occasionally they'll throw you a curve ball, like with the Coyote mission that has you driving a sweet gattling gun-mounted car thing, but that segment is short and feels pointless once you're done with it.
The game engine could use an overhaul, too. The character models of your allies are stiff as a board. The only things that move are their legs and arms. It's not a big deal, no, but it's a noticeable flaw in what could have been a great game. The riding missions are boring and drab. Basically, you ride through a blue-grey wasteland that has absolutely no features while you mow down Undead Riders (imaginative name, by the way) left and right. They're boring and I found myself not even thinking, just sweeping the area with my pistol.
The atmosphere definitely works, though. You're introduced to a gothic Tim Burton-esque Wild West that seems mysterious and compelling.
The story never really flourishes,though. It starts off strong, pretty original, but after that it tries to pull too many twists and never really ties them all together. Halfway through the game, I was suddenly struck by the thought that I had no idea why I was doing what I was doing and what I was supposed to be accomplishing by doing it. Events transpire and you don't know their point. It supplies the basic events and facts, but doesn't delve into their background at all. You're left to wonder why this person did this or why that group of people was killed...etc.

This is a long review, I know, but it barely scratches the surface. I would suggest renting it. It's not worth the $30 that Amazon currently wants for it.

solid shooter, but not that great.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

this was a pretty fun game, but it wasn't really great. it could have been really great, but it has a few drawbacks. Still, it's pretty fun, so I suggest that you only rent it, like I did.

Now in the game you play as a trainrobber named Jericho Cross. In one night, he is about to rob a certain train in Arizona, but when he blows open the vault's door he finds out that inside it held Lazarus, the lord of the vampires. He is then bitten by the monster, and he becomes a half- vampire. He is then recruited by a secret organization (called the "Darkwatch") that fights evil, and he must quickly defeat Lazarus before he turns into a vampire completely.

In the game you fight all sorts of monsters, such as skeletons, zombies, banshees and more. The graphics in this game are also pretty good. However, the biggest problem I had with this game was that it was too short. You can finish it in about 6-8 hours. If the developers would have made it longer, it would have been much better. Also, there isn't much sense of progression, because you only get a few powers throughout the game, and you don't get each weapon as you progress through the game, but rather almost all of them are found in each level, and you can only carry 2 weapons at once. this didn't make the weapons feel very unique, and that kind of dissapointed me. These were the only two major drawbacks to the game.

Other than that, it's pretty fun. Even though the weapons aren't very unique, there's a pretty big variety, and you'll have things like a pistol, duel pistols, a shotgun, a sniper rifle and more. Also, since Jericho transforms into a vampire, you also get vampiric powers, which include blood vision, which makes you see your enemies much more clearly, double-jump, which is self-explanatory, and blood shield, which functions like an armor. Other than that, there are many parts in the game where you are faced with different choises. In these situations, you'll have to determine wether you want to do something good or evil. For example: You'll come across an injured person, and you'll be given a choise to either kill him and drink his blood, or cure his injuries and let him go away peacefully. These choises give you different vampiric powers which are either good or evil ( based on your choises ). This was a pretty fun addition to the game, even though your choises don't really affect the storyline, aside from a choise you'll have to make at the end of the game that will affect the ending.

There is also a multiplayer option in the game, but the multiplayer isn't as great and fleshed out as in other games like Ratchet:Deadlocked. It mainly consists of standard multiplayer modes like deathmatch, Capture The Flag, etc. and it doesn't have real depth to it. If you want a good online game, buy Ratchet:Deadlocked, like I mentioned earlier.

Overall, this is a pretty solid and fun shooter, but some things keep it from being truly great. I suggest that you should just rent it, because it's pretty fun while it lasts. However, if you want a really good First-Person-Shooter, I suggest you buy Doom 3.

Darkwatch......Satiate your bloodlust with this lil gem....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: September 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you've read enough of my reviews to know, two things I have a strong fascination with is Vampires and First-Person Shooters. So, it's no surprise that I got more than a little excited when I heard that High Moon Studios was creating a game with both those things in mind...hence, Darkwatch. Upon first playing the game, the one thing that amazed me most about it was the graphics. It's dark, gothic, western motif is fully realized in the game and, for the most part, was what got me so into playing the game. The second thing was the control. Out of all the FPS games that I've played on the PS2, this one has them all beat controlwise, hands down. Targeting your enemies is accurate and easy in the game and that is a must for FPS. Voiceovers and Enemy AI is also top notch, which is another plus. One thing, worth mentioning, is the red hot love scene in the game...that one will leave 'em talking(that's for sure). At any rate, it's a rock solid FPS that does the genre justice. FPS Shooter fans will love playing this game.

Yet, Darkwatch, like any other game..isn't without its' shortcomings. First and foremost is the storyline. Although there are alot of cutscenes that pushes the story along, the conclusion isn't so rewarding. There's no sense of closure by the end of the game. Course, if you've played games like Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver(like me)..that shouldn't be a problem. Yet, it's not quite in the same sense of the aformentioned game. Second, Single-player seems a tad uninspired. I can't quite put my finger on how,exactly...but it feels that way. Third and lastly, while the vampiric powers are cool and all, they aren't used to thier full potential in the game. While playing it, I came up with several gameplay ideas that they could've used to improve their potential.

It's lasting appeal, overall, lies within its' unlockables and the multiplayer aspect of the game. The vampiric powers in the multiplayer section of the game is used to its' fullest potential here. It basically gives you an innovative new way to play Deathmatches and the like.

In closing, Darkwatch is more than just a decent FPS. It's a solid first effort to what might be a lucrative franchise for High Moon Studios. Although certain elements tarnish its' presentation, it's not quite enough to just classify it as another decent cookie cutter FPS. There's alot more to the game than that. Darkwatch, at the very least, is the first game out there that actually pulls off the feeling like you're in the old west....even though the Undead are after you. I look forward to seeing what High Moon Studios pulls off with the second installment in the series.

Solid horror/western FPS

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Yeah, you could do better FPS wise than Darkwatch, but you can do a lot worse too. Blending vampire/zombie horror in a western environment, you play as Jericho Cross; an outlaw who gets more than he bargained for after a train heist gone bad results in turning loose a powerful vamp named Lazarus, and you yourself are turning into one of the undead. Throughout the game, you'll battle hordes and hordes of monsters, zombies, banshees, vamps, and other baddies as you come across victims and get to choose whether to dine on them, or to set them free. This gives Darkwatch a degree of replayability because you can decide whether you want to be good or evil, and your actions have an impact on the outcome of the game. However, you can only carry a limited supply of weapons at a time, which may add a challenge to the gameplay, but it also hurts it. There are also various points of the game where you'll get to ride your zombified horse and shoot, as well as piloting a tank-like vehicle and take out enemies. The graphics look sharp, but when you get close to an enemy, they can become choppy. The sound effects and music are wonderfully done however, and the controls are tight as well. The biggest drawback of Darkwatch however is that the game is ultimately too short. It can be completed in a number of hours, and the multiplayer aspect isn't as fun as one would think. Despite all that though, Darkwatch is still a more than solid FPS set in a unique setting, and if you're looking for a good FPS for the PS2 (and there aren't many these days), look no further.

Another FPS with some insights but yet still lacking

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: August 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Darkwatch takes then genres of the Vampire RPG and the FPS and combines them into a game that breaks ground as the first Vampire Western! The team at Capcom obviously put a lot of time and thought into this games production, they came up with somthing unique and definitley worth taking a look at. The story of Darkwatch, puts you in the shoes of Jericho Cross, outlaw extraordinare, on the night of his final heist, the robbery of a treasure train. However things are not all that they seem, when you blow up the vault you unleash a powerful vampire lord named Lazurus who promptly turns you into a vampire out of gratitude or possibly simple malice. In order to fight off Lazarus's curse you join up with a woman named Cassidy who leads you to the Organization known as the Darkwatch, which is front line in battling vampires and their minions throughout history. While this is a very promising begining to a game, the story later gets bogged down, things aren't explained and dialogue degenerates to quips and quant remarks that don't move the story along at any pace whatsoever. The developers at Capcom, really put their heads together in coming up with a unique look for the game, however appearences can be deceiving, Capcom boasted that the Enemy AI was top of the line and cooperated with eachother, not true, the AI simply uses rush tactics, the easiest way to kill them is to simply back into a corner and shoot at anything that moves. Capcom also threw in two extra modes of play Horse Back Slinger in which you ride across the desert on your demon steed killing undead riders, and the Steam Tank levels(an obvious rip off of the warthog from Halo), while these are fun, they are also extremely short and far between. Another area the game is lacking, is in the weapons system, Darkwatch gives you the standard Halo option of carrying Two weapons at a time, however, I found that many of the weapons were poorly designed, for instance the most powerful and the most useful weapon in the game turns out to be the simple pistol known as the Redeemer, other weapons like the carbine and snipe rifle are slow reloading and for some players difficult to aim. There is also a gernade and dynamite system that isn't really incorporated into the gameplay very well, the biggest flaw being its really hard to gauge where the dynamite or the gernade will fall, you eventually end up simply throwing it at the ground in front of you while retreating hoping an enemy will rush you and get blown away. Apart from weapons Darkwatch also employs a set of Vampiric abilities that Jericho can gain through judgement decisions, clearly outlined as Good or Evil. For example, Killing a woman for pleasure, EVIL!, Saving the woman and removing a curse from her, GOOD!, However there is no interaction involved with these choices, players simply select wether or not they want to make good or evil choices, somthing more along the lines of KOTOR II might have been more appropriate, also being good or evil in no way effects the story line, so there is no point in replaying the game just to see what happens, NOTHING. The abilities are of a Good set(chain lighting, silver bullets, invincibilty etc) and an evil set (soul stealing, enemy recruiting etc), however a player is forced to choose good or evil he cannot be a tandem player, the game doesn't reward players who can't make up their minds Graphically speaking, Darkwatch doesn't exactly measure up to what the PS2 can handle, I have played this game on both Xbox and PS2 and I have found that Xbox will beat PS2 graphically on any given day, so this is expected, despite that the game is not as good looking as other recent capcom releases for instance Devil May Cry 3. Another downside to the PS2 version is the lack of multiplayer value, there is a Halo Style Co-op mode but there is little or online play. If you are a gamer looking for an online shooter go with the Xbox version, it looks better and it sports better gameplay.
Overall I give this item a 3, my advice is rent it before you buy it, if you are a die hard fan of say anything involving vampires then feel free to waste your money. If you are a parent looking to get this for a kid, I highly suggest you reconsider, there is nudity and a scene of sexuality, on top of violence involving decapitation, maiming and overall gore and bloodshed involving undead frightening creatures

Does Darkwatch Deliver?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Darkwatch : Curse Of The West combines both the horror
and western genre with a first person shooter aspect
to gives players some very intense gaming action. The
gameplay offered in Darkwatch is a fresh and crisp
appeal, quickly bringing the player into the feel of
a true western enviroment.

You take on the role of Jericho Cross, an outlaw who
makes the mistake of trying to rob the wrong train.
His actions release all havok as he blows open the
safe releasing Satan's son, Lazarus. Lazarus in turn
curse Jericho as a vampire and unleashes an army of
the undead. You now must journey into the west trying
to win back your soul in a battle against yourself and
the diminions of hell along with the spirit of the
former regulator Cassidy by your side guiding you thru
the different western terrains as you venture to the
Darkwatch headquarters. Darkwatch is a secret
mysterious society that has been protecting all of
civilization from the evil's of hell since the dawn of
time. Clay Cartwright rushes you in as you endure some
physical battles to prove yourself worthy in order to
become the newest Darkwatch agent.

You will come across such enemies as; scythe- and
gun-wielding skeletons, floating banshees,
blood-spitting oozers and many more evil monsters that
will try to stop you in your path. However you will
have a variety of weapons available for your access.
he weapons provided
for your disposle are ; 'The Redeemer' a modified
revolver, 'The Carbine' a rapid firing musket, 'The
Argus' a four barreled shotgun with plenty of stopping
power, 'The Range Rifle' a sniper rifle, 'The Rail
Rocket' a mortar hand canon, 'Dynamite' gret for
clearing out a hoard of the undead. At some point in
time you will need to use everyone of these weapons to
clear out your enemies & pass a mission. Each gun also
offers you the opportunity to use it as a melee
attack, allowing you to take down many of your enemies
with a few butts from your weapon, saving you your
ammo for situations in which you may need it more. You
will also find yourself capable of taking up position
in stablalized turrets and tearing down your enemies
with a rain of bullets. You cannot carry all of the
weapons so be sure to make your tactical decision upon
which weapon to drop & which to pick up.

Guns are not the only thing that Jericho will have to
rely on in order to take out the undead, but there is
an impressive array of vampiric powers that can be
earned & used to take out the undead. These powers are
earned by releasing tormented souls & sucking the
blood of those you come across. There are two sets of
powers, good powers & evil powers, both have a set of
4 powers, however you can earn more than just four
powers during your journey as you fill up your power
meter. Your good powers are; Silver Bullet, Fear,
Mystic Armor & Vindicator; the evil powers are; Blood
Frenzy, Turn, Black Shroud and Soul Stealer.

The missions are varied, with some allowing you to
ride on your trusty steed shadow, trying to take down
skeletons on horseback or trying to get close enough
to jump on a train. You also ride a steam wagon & can
mow down a line of the undead as you go on your way.

Overall the gameplay is fun and can be slightly
challenging depending on what difficulty level you
play it on. My complaint is that the game play is
short, i have played and beateb it on greenhorn,
cowboy & shootist level, taking me just 315 minutes to
be it on the scond hardest level, to me it should take
more than five hours to beat a game and when i sit
down to play a game i want it to take days completely
pull me in. With the shortness of gameplay, there is a
bit of loss of the story, it just isnt very indepth
and to me just leaves a bit of a gap.

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: August 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is awesome! Great graphics, awesome story line, also a challenge! I love this game. Its the shoot em` up bang em` up game I like. But it very very very very mature. Lots of blood and gore, alot of crazy (and somtimes creepy) guns.So like I said with house of the dead 3, DO NOT LET A 5 YEAR OLD PLAY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They may want to, but do not let them. I mean Im 10 years old and my mom still will not let me play most of it. So what ever you do, do not let a 5 year old play it.

Addictive, easy to play violent fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Not sure why this addictive, fun, easy to play shooter-upper hasn't gotten more press. Gorgeous graphics, innovative weapon design, and smooth rendering are just some of Darkwatch's features. I also love the whole "Spaghetti Western meets a Zombie Flick" mashup going on. I was at the launch party for this title and I was sure it would rise to the top. The only thing keeping this one down is media noise from the other big title games. I would definitley give this one a try if you like FPSs that don't waste a lot of your time with tedious zillion-step puzzles that necessitate level repeats.

Darkwatch is the best first person shooter on the PS2

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: August 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have been waiting for a PS2 shooter to come out that would top the experience I've had on my PC for years. This is it. The weapons are well balanced in their shooting ability, but also in their melee attacks. The combination of melee with the vampire powers (especially the vampire jump) create a freedom of movement and attack that I have never experienced. The single player story is entertaining and after finishing the game in about 12 hours on the easiest setting, I'm playing through again on the second hardest. It's very challenging and difficult to put down.
The AI characters are very creative and challenging. The flying Banshee character will fly through windows and they gang up and work together to flush you out. The physics, explosions, effects and sound are all top notch. You gotta throw this game on a stereo system to hear it in all its glory!

I don't play online games, but I'm going to try the cooperative mode. That looks like fun.

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