Cheat Index - Darkwatch XBox Review

If you like nothing better than spending a couple of hours sitting in front of the television set competing in multiplayer sessions with your buddies, then High Moon Studios' long-awaited Darkwatch is exactly the game you're looking for. Intentionally designed as a cross between Halo and Silverado, Darkwatch was created by a dedicated team of first-person shooter fans that wanted to make an FPS for guys like themselves. Spend enough time with the game on your own and you'll be able to identify their enthusiasm for the genre too, as there are obvious references to titles such as Half-Life, Medal of Honor, and the aforementioned Halo everywhere you look.

The good news is that Darkwatch manages to pull off the majority of its tributes rather successfully (whether you're talking about the obvious Halo Warthog copy known as "The Coyote" or the excellent use of the Havok physics engine found in most modern PC shooters). So while you can certainly see the game's various inspirations, Darkwatch never really exudes that tired "rip-off" vibe associated with most of today's lesser known first-person actioners. In essence, it's a product that manages to stand on its own two feet without having to work some kind of revolutionary new mechanic or engine to do so.

That doesn't mean that Darkwatch isn't without its cool little gimmicks, though. At the forefront of its marketing pitch, for example, is a Knights of the Old Republic-style morality system that challenges players to choose between good and evil. The choices they make will then alter their path as well as the abilities of the main character, which creates some differentiation in level progression. Unlike some titles that keep the consequences of your decision-making somewhat subtle, however, Darkwatch always makes it obvious when the time comes to make a choice (thanks to a simple "good or evil" menu that pops up when these situations arise). Sure it takes away from the flow of the action a little bit, but at least it's helpful.

In fact, this morality system is a fairly prevalent aspect of the single-player campaign, as earning the super powers associated with your alignment can improve the amount of attacks for use against the horde of angry undead. When used in conjunction with the "vampire jump" and "vampire vision" abilities, you're potentially quite the formidable force. Unfortunately for you evil folk out there, Darkwatch does seem to favor good-hearted users over the bad ones as the nice guy powers are a lot more useful than the wicked bits. But at least High Moon penalizes you for being indecisive, since teetering between the two forces doesn't reward you with anything but wasted cutscenes... so kudos to that.

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