Pre-E3 2006: Seeing in The Darkness
IGN speaks with the Chronicles of Riddick design team about its evil new FPS. New information, screens, and artwork.
May 2, 2006 - Last year Majesco signed several excellent movie licenses, nearly all of which have been cancelled or shifted to other publishers. Remember Demonik? Cancelled. Jaws? Still coming to a current generation system near you (maybe this spring). Taxi Driver? Cancelled. Ghost Rider? Gobbled by 2K Games. One of the biggest draws, however, was the Top Cow-based comic The Darkness, which thankfully was not killed in the chaos. The Darkness, a third-person shooter based on the popular Top Cow comic book, is in the works with the talented developer Starbreeze AB and publisher 2K Games. Working with VU Games in 2004, the Swedish team seemingly came out of nowhere to produce a startlingly dark, moody, and high-quality Xbox first-party shooter, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Riddick, besides mixing good first-person shooting, hand-to-hand combat, and stealth, and using a movies' license intelligently and productively, was the first game to successfully introduce the technical effect normal mapping.
The story behind The Darkness is not only dark, it's murky, gritty, and evil. Based on the best-selling Top Cow comic book by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis, and David Wohl, this Xbox 360 and PS3 FPS also will be a major motion picture by Dimension Films. The game puts players in the shoes of Jackie Estacado, an intrepid Mafia hitman who works for the Franchetti crime family. The story tells how Estacado is suddenly possessed by the horrifying and stunning powers of The Darkness, with which he grapples throughout the narrative. Over the course of the game, players learn to control and manipulate the Darkness powers to confront the vicious mob boss and serve another, stranger power.
We recently spoke with Starbreeze's design team about the game's direction, the technical differences between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, and how the designers are implementing their skills learned from the atmospheric Chronicles of Riddick into The Darkness. In this interview we spoke with Jens Andersson, lead designer, Enclave, Riddick, Mikael Säker, story and game designer, Riddick, Magnus Högdahl, technical director, Enclave, Riddick, and Gustaf Grefberg, sound designer and composer, Enclave, Riddick to get a keener sense of the game's development, its sound design, and the online components, among other things.
IGN: Will you give us a little primer on the concept behind the Darkness? While some of our readers are very comic book savvy, some don't even know who Spider-Man is.
Jens Andersson: The Darkness is about Jackie Estacado, a mafia hitman. On his 21st birthday, Jackie gets possessed by the Darkness. This ancient and evil entity goes from father to son and gives Jackie spectacular powers whenever he is in the dark. In the game we've chosen to retell the story of the original comics about the day when Jackie receives the Darkness powers as well as the story about Jackie's only real family; the mafia.
IGN: In what way are you working with Top Cow? Are they purely consultants? Or is there more?
Jens Andersson: Top Cow has been really awesome to work with. They've allowed us to retell the original story and make the changes necessary to make it into a great video-game. Of course, having a guy like Paul Jenkins with us makes it much easier. Paul has written many Darkness comics and that really helps in staying true to the comic.
IGN: The Darkness is a pretty evil little comic book series, but it might be tough to translate that feeling to the videogame screen. Starbreeze was really good about creating an oppressive mood and a feeling of dread and darkness with The Chronicles of Riddick. So, what techniques will you use to capture the mood of The Darkness comic book?
Jens Andersson: The Darkness comic is dark, gritty and evil; basically all the things we love at Starbreeze. Also, the engine we've been developing since way back emphasizes light and shadows and that comes really handy both from an atmosphere and game-play aspect. This in combination with an in-depth story about the main characters creates the special mood we're after.
IGN: What kinds of elements translate well from comic books to the videogame screen?
Mikael Säker: The most obvious elements are the Darkness Powers that have been efficiently translated into gameplay. The "Resurrection" story that the game is based upon has some really strong dramatic moments that we have kept and tried to deliver as efficiently as possible. There are also a number of fun characters and villains in the comic which all come beautifully to life in the game. We have a really strong lineup of actors and they have all done marvelous performances. And then, of course, we have the Darklings... So players can look forward to meeting Jenny, Butcher, Sarah and other characters from the comic. They can expect Darklings running around under their command, raising hell, and they can surely expect being able to do really spectacular stuff with Jackie's Darkness powers.
IGN: What will the music be like? Can you rip your own music? Also, how will you use Dolby 5.1 to your advantage?
Gustaf Grefberg: The music is very dynamic. The main focus is on a cinematic soundtrack, influenced with choirs and rock in certain places. The score changes depending on what happens, and when the Darkness powers emerge. There will also be music playing from boomboxes throughout the game, as part of the urban setting. The entire sound engine is adapted to 5.1 sound. Every sound is mixed and positioned in a full surround environment, and any additional static sounds are mixed with a proper 5.1 speaker placement. We have no plans to support import of custom music in the game due to the complexity of the soundtrack that follows the mood of the game.
IGN: What kind of first-person shooter is this? Slow-paced? Fast and frenetic? Stealthy? There are vast possibilities with this character and his serpent-like appendages. Will the game in any way resemble Chronicles of Riddick with its mixture of stealth, fighting, and first-person shooting?
Jens Andersson: The variety of ways to play the game that you saw in Riddick are exactly what we are looking for, but in The Darkness things are a bit different. You are a professional hit-man so guns will be plentiful, whereas in Riddick we devised ways to control the player's access to weapons. This leads us in other directions regarding what the player would expect to do in a specific situation. This is where the Darkness powers come in and they are really what will make a difference in terms of actual gameplay. The powers will grow during the game and constantly give the player new ways to play the game. We've also taken the adventure aspects further, since this gives great tools to mix up the pacing and to have a chance to tell a story that will make people involved in the game and gives the player a greater sense of freedom.
IGN: What is it like to program and design the game for Xbox 360 versus the PlayStation 3? We're not looking to start a blood war here. We're more interested in what it's like to program for each, and what each one's strengths and weaknesses seem to be? Also, how do you foresee the two versions differing in the final product visually, gameplay-wise, sound wise?
Magnus Högdahl: The PS3 will have a content size advantage with blu-ray and a CPU advantage for titles that are able to utilize a lot of the SPUs. The Xbox360 has a slight GPU advantage and its general purpose triple-core CPU is relatively easy to utilize compared to SPUs. I expect that it will be near impossible to tell Xbox360 and PS3 screenshots apart.
IGN: Does the game follow any particular story path? In other words, how does the game relate to the movie? And how does it glean story bits from the comics? How does it fit into the universe of the Darkness?
Mikael Säker: The game tells a self-contained story which is based on the "Resurrection" comics written by Paul Jenkins. It is a separate and unique storyline that takes the player through some of the defining moments in Jackie's life. There have been some changes in the adaption process, but we have worked closely with Paul and made sure that the story of the game captures the core spirit of the comic. When it comes to the movie, we cannot really say what that will be about. You will have to wait for news about that.
IGN: Does the game reveal anything new or different about Jackie Estacado, the lead character's history or unveil any new kinds of powers or moves? Or was anything slightly re-interpreted for the game?
Mikael Säker: Yes, with our interpretation and adaption of the comic you will see some new exciting stuff. Jackie's supernatural powers have been carefully defined and made into consistent gameplay. How Darklings come into the world by Jackie's command is one of those things, but there are others. The relation between The Darkness entity and Jackie is also something we have dug into, and the same goes for the story of Jenny and Jackie.
IGN: We know you want to talk about the online portion of the game, but apparently you have to wait til later. What can you tell us about the online portion of the game? What kinds of achievements or unlockables are you thinking of including? And if you really have to be lean here, then please just answer this: What little gem can you leave behind fans of Riddick and long-time Darkness aficionados?
Mikael Säker: The game will of course feature on-line material. There's the multiplayer component, which is really exciting, and there will be loads of collectibles and achievements, pre-production stuff and also a few surprises. We also have TV-sets with movies in-game and those are absolutely awesome.
IGN: How do the Darklings work into the game? Are they simply optional? Or will you need them to complete missions?
Jens Andersson: These small, mischievous creatures will accompany Jackie. The player can find them in the bodies of really evil people and they are scattered throughout the game for the player to find. Once found, each specific darkling can be summoned from patches of dark, and they will help Jackie with the means of their disposal, be it a golf-club, hammer or an industrial jackhammer. The game won't force the player to use them, but they will be extremely effective in certain situations. And they are extremely funny to watch!
IGN: What kinds of weapons will be available in the game? What kinds of powers will be used?
Jens Andersson: Even if The Darkness is to its core a first person shooter, Darkness powers are key. But rather than tone down the shooter elements, we've spent a lot of effort designing darkness powers that will complement the gunplay rather than replace it. The Darkness powers in combat are therefore more used to cause havoc to your surroundings, and destroy the cover of your enemies, than to directly kill them.
IGN: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter created a seamless experience and in doing so delivered a real new feel for a console game of that type. Given your drive to be a top-flight technology developer, in what ways will The Darkness create a next gen feel, look or gameplay experiences?
Jens Andersson: We have always had a lot of focus on believability in our games. The world should look real and the characters should feel real. There are a lot of examples where we've tried to take this to the next level with rendering, sound, animation and lighting. For example, one thing that worked really well in our previous game Riddick was that each character had a unique model and voice which directly gave them a sense of personality. To take this further in Darkness we're doing something we call VoCap, where we simultaneously record both voice as well as full facial and body motion capture for every line in the game. This gives a tremendous improvement of the believability of the characters in the game.
Starbreeze Studios. 
ing amazing. A top five anticipated title, for me.
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