Darkest Of Days

by Phantom EFX

Product Features

• Experience game developer 8Monkey Labs' Marmoset game engine which was designed specifically for this game and allows up to 300 characters on screen at a time facilitating huge, smooth flowing battles.
• Fight in five different time periods from the era of Roman domination, to WWII during which you will fight with weapons from the time period in realistic conditions.
• Play from opposing sides of each conflict as you try to keep history pure and when necessary undo mistakes that you make in order to keep the flow of events through time in their proper place.
• Unleash hell with futuristic weaponry when necessary like an automatic rifles during the civil war, a futuristic laser sighted pulse canon in the trenches of WWI and more.
• Participate in epic battles via a variety of different mission types including stealth, artillery assaults, and sniper attacks.

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B001O2J036
• Item Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: September 20, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,325 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #20 in Video Games > PC Games > Action > Fighting

Product Description

Platform: PC

Amazon.com Product Description

In Darkest of Days, PC gamers get to experience some of the most varied single player first-person shooter gameplay ever released in one title. Things will never get stale as you travel to distant times and fight alongside people from that time period. For example, fighting in Antietam (the bloodiest day of the American Civil War) feels much different than fighting on the side of the Russians at Tannenberg (where the Russians withstood 140,000 casualties in WWI.) Fight key battles from both sides. View larger. Mission play in 5 time periods. View larger. Mix and match weapons across time. View larger. Story In many ways, the history of humanity is the history of our conflicts against one another over the millienia. In Darkest of Days players physically explore this history and endevor to maintain it as it was meant to unfold. As the game opens the player is snatched from grim date with death by a shadow organization. As unlikely as this would seem, this is only the beginning as you are placed in the even more unlikely position of guardian of key conflicts in human history. Shuttled back and forth in time, it is your task to ensure that specific events on both sides of these conflicts occur as they were meant to happen and that mistakes made along the way are fixed. Gameplay Action in Darkest of Days is mission directed. As the player is transported back and forth in time, directives are spelled out that can include anything from victory of one side over the other, to the survival of an individual important to history in an otherwise doomed company and even assasinations. These actions take place in a variety of conflicts within time periods including the Roman era, the American Civil and Indian Wars, WWI and WWII. Mission types include stealth, artillery assaults, and sniper attacks and players can expect in most situations to be called upon to impact events from both sides of the front lines. To make these impacts players will have over 20 weapons on hand, most conflict-specific, but also some futuristic. They will also be able to choose their own means of completing missions according to the resources at hand across wide open battlefields designed to support over 300 combatants, each with their own AI capacities. Key Game Features Fight in Five Different Time Periods - Whether you are on the slopes of vesuvias in Pompeii, on the battlelines and trenches of Antietam and the clashes of WWI, or the American Indian Wars of the late 19th century, you will fight with real weapons from the time period. You will battle against enemies that fight in different ways, all reflective of how fighting was done at the time. Play From Opposing Sides of the Conflict - War is never a one-sided affair, and so the developers of Darkest of Days have ensured that players Nearly every time period offers gameplay from each side of the conflict. In trying to keep history pure, you have to undo mistakes that you make, which may require fighting from the other perspective to "mend" time. Unleash Hell with Futuristic Weaponry - What could you have done with an automatic rifle during the civil war, or some futuristic laser sighted pulse canon in the trenches of WWI? There are times where you have no other choice but to bust out the big guns. Participate in Epic Battle Scenes You will fight against the Confederates (and the Union at times), facing a stagering number of troops, all fighting in unison. Ready, aim...steady men...FIRE! You will jump from the trenches of WWI to lead an attack against the Hun. You will fire artillery to hit distint targets. You will defend to the last man. You will fight in Pompeii, while Mt. Vesuvius is spewing ash and fire into the atmosphere. You will fight amongst a frightened population, fleeing for their lives. Marmoset Game Engine - Game developer 8Monkey Labs' Marmoset game engine was designed specifically for this game and allows up to 300 characters on screen at a time facilitating huge, smooth flowing battles.

Product Description

In DARKEST OF DAYS, you'll get to experience some of the most varied gameplay ever released in one title. Things will never get stale as you travel to distant times and fight alongside people from that time period. Fighting in Antietam (the bloodiest day of the American Civil War) feels much different than fighting on the side of the Russians at Tannenberg (where the Russians withstood 140,000 casualties in WWI.) Fight in FIVE different Time Periods: Whether its in Pompeii, Antietam, WW or two other unannounced time periods, you will fight with real weapons from the time period. You will battle against enemies that fight in different ways, all reflective of how fighting was done at the time.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A lot of potential, doesn't quite reach it, September 11, 2009

By 

Lisa Shea "medieval swordfighting enthusiast" - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Darkest Of Days (DVD-ROM)

A first-person shooter that uses Time Travel as its main gimmick, Darkest of Days is a solid game with a lot of potential that never quite gets around to really exploring it.

The game casts you as one of General Custer's cavalrymen at Little Bighorn. After the famous ambush is sprung and your fellows are cut down, an armored soldier bursts from a time portal and rescues you from certain death. Erased from history and saved from your fate, your role becomes that of a time policeman. In the actual game, this means you alternate between going back between two main time periods: the Eastern Front of World War I, and the Battle of Antietam in the American Civil War. There isn't really a far-reaching time travel aspect; those time periods are basically all you get to see.

The game's gunplay handles pretty well. You use a lot of period weaponry to maintain your disguise as a denizen of that time; in the Civil War, you're using muskets and revolvers, while in World War 1 you have more powerful bolt-action rifles. However, you also have the option of using future weapons, when you can get them; the rarity of these weapons shows their power, as an assault rifle or shotgun can make a battle much easier than it would normally be. Oddly, though, nobody ever notices you using these weapons, which makes one wonder why the Time Police bother to send you in the past with historically accurate weapons.

Your mission objectives range from the linear ("go forward, attack enemies at this location") to the open-ended ("sneak around and plant locator beacons in a German camp"). The game does a good job with atmospheric stuff; forests and cornfields are dense and give feelings of being in a tightly-enclosed area where enemy attacks can happen at any moment. The actual battles are pretty cover-intensive, too, primarily when you have primitive weapons. Using Civil War-era guns means that you have to reload very often (after every shot in the case of muskets), so finding cover is an important part of the game. There is an active reload system similar to Gears of War that allows for faster reloading (and your gun jams if you screw it up), so reloading isn't entirely tedious.

One of the only Time Travel-related gameplay points is the existence of Important People. These are otherwise normal enemies who have blue auras around them; this aura means that killing them will upset the timestream, and therefore you must shoot to wound (hitting either the arms or legs). If you avoid killing these people, then you will end up with more upgrade points to increase weapon stats. However, if you do kill those people, rival time-travelers will use the distortion of time to find you and try to kill you. Killing these enemies, though, will allow you to take their futuristic weapons for your own use. Therefore, if you're in a pinch, they can serve both as a handy armory and a nasty enemy.

The graphics are okay, but not great. They look a few years outdated, but not in such an obnoxious way as to detract from the game as a whole. The sound is pretty good in some respects (gunshot noises, environmental noises) and not so great in others (voice acting).

On the whole, Darkest of Days is a decent game - not great, not revolutionary, but pretty well made overall. The time travel thing doesn't get used as much as it ought to, but it provides some interesting levels, at least. The most annoying part of the game, though, was the fact that before and after every mission you're trapped in an unskippable cutscene where a computer screen talks at you. These sequences, reminiscent of similar ones in Half Life 2, belied the fact that the story was actually pretty one-dimensional, and mission briefings were unimportant due to the fact that your map just tells you where to go and what to do.

As a whole, Darkest of Days gets a 7/10.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting premise but a mediocre FPS overall, November 17, 2011

By 

Media Man (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Darkest Of Days (DVD-ROM)

Developed by 8monkey Labs and published by Phantom EFX in 2009, Darkest of Days is a FPS that takes the player through time where you fight in historic battles in efforts to save key individuals from certain death. Battles cover various time periods including the Great Sioux War, American Civil War, World War I, World War II and even during the fiery destruction of Pompeii. You take the role of Alexander Morris, a soldier fighting with General Custer during the Battle of the Little Bighorn. During the battle you're wounded but suddenly are rescued by futuristic military forces for reasons unknown. Later when you awake you find yourself in the headquarters of Kronotek, an organization which has developed time travel technology and has dedicated themselves to researching and protecting history. For reasons unknown you've been recruited by Kronotek travel through history in efforts to correct recent disturbances that have begun to happen in the world's timeline. Here are my thoughts on Darkest of Days;

Pros

+ Realistic period piece guns are nice to look at and have some great after effects like smoking barrels and firing clouds.

+ Your character can sprint quite fast to avoid being shot, although he will tire eventually.

+ Game is historically/geographically educational even though the story is largely fictional.

+ While time travel is rather common in shooters the idea is rather unique in this game.

+ Gears of War style reload reward system.

+ Futuristic weapons were extremely fun to use, especially against severely under armed period opponents.

+ Final levels of the game were excellent! Specifically the Pompeii and German Concentration Camp levels.

+ Large scale battles with immense amounts of enemies/allies on the screen at once were fun to see. It really drew you into the game.

Cons

- Limited environmental movement in areas that look completely open. Too many invisible walls. Very frustrating when you trying to run from enemies gunfire or reach your objective from another angle.

- Bland voice acting.

- Some mediocre graphics.

- Poor AI.

- Non-stop chatter and yelling of enemy/ally soldiers gets old fast.

- Repetitive environments. The majority of the game takes place in hilly forests or flat open fields.

- Near silent footfalls while running from your character or the NPCs. Yet you make normal noise when you run through water or rows of corn.

- Convoluted story.

- Mother's voice is awfully annoying.

- Agent Dexter's overuse of profanity feels forced at times as do his bizarre analogies.

- Civil War period is too heavily used. Using a one shot rifle becomes tiresome quickly.

I was very unsure of this game at the start as historical period games can really be hit or miss with me. Some of the missions begin to feel repetitive along with the environments, especially during the Civil War period. However, as the game continues things pick up a bit and the fun factor increases. At the end of the game during the Pompeii levels I was having an absolute blast and marveling at the landscape, fleeing people and events that were unfolding around me. I just kept thinking, "Why couldn't the rest of the game have been this entertaining?" But alas, it wasn't. Darkest of Days wasn't a bad game by any means and for the most part it was fun to play through despite its repetition. If you're a fan of historical period shooters it may be worth your while to check out.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting concept, poor construction, December 29, 2009

By 

Samuel Johnson "Sam" (Wonderland, CA USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Darkest Of Days (DVD-ROM)

What made me attracted to this game was the prospect of mass infantry battles, mainly the civil war era with musketeers. I wasn't dissapointed with that part, but everyone else is downhill.

NOTE: CONTAINS WEAPON SPOILERS

Pros

-Epic battles, especially the Civil War era battles. My favorite part had you walking in line towards the enemy and firing at the enemy line. So, so epic. Reminds of Empire Total War in FPS.

-Using future weapons to kill enemy troops using muskets. Yeah, pretty rigged xD

-Part with a portable artillery rocket launcher. Didn't come with instructions and let me thinking I was being shelled on by the enemy when it was my own rockets. Once I figured it out, it was a blast to use.

-Shooting Germans with the maxim gun as they pour out of the woods. Epic.

-Frickin' shooting a wall of Roman LEGIONAIRES with SWORDS and SHIELDS with an automatic shotgun.Doesn't get more hilarious than that.

Cons

-Biggest gripe ever: crappy A.I. I cannot stress this enough. Once I accidentally slipped into a trench and was faced with like 9 soldiers just sitting there staring into space like they were mentally retarded or something. Meleed them all down and had zero resistance. WTF?? I don't recall the union sending idiots to battle.

-Repetitive at parts. Mainly the parts where you just walk to x location and shoot y amounts of people to win.

-Bad death animations. One part you fire a cannon at massed infantry. It looks like they just decided to lie down and take a break instead of dying.

-Future battles were EXTREMELY boring. Way too hauntingly similar to CoD except with dumbed down combat mechanics. Pretty much just plot filler than something of interest.

Conclusion
This game had so much potential. Add multiplayer, like 50v50? Then some pople would buy it just for the multiplayer....The game seems capable of supporting that many units. I suppose the game semi-justified its pricetag. Introduced an interesting concept, but failed at making it shine as brightly as it could've.

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