Your name is Jericho Cross and in the late 1800’s you’re a dying breed of American, the outlaw. But old habits die hard and when you catch wind of some “special” kind of train coming through your neck o’ the woods, your desires get the best of you and you decide to take it down for yourself. But this train carries something that should have been left alone and you’ve set it loose, but not before it gave you a “thank you” gift for freeing it. As the sun rises you find yourself under the watchful eye of a group known as The Darkwatch, who let you in on what’s actually happening to you. For the sake of your soul you reluctantly join them in an attempt to save your life and immortal soul before falling into darkness. Saddle up, lock and load and get ready for the ride of your life.

Darkwatch is a first person shooter set in the old west with a great little twist to it. You’re a quasi-vampire who must seek out and destroy the one who made you before you fall to the blood curse coursing through your body. The only real problem is that along the way you might have to make a few choices between life and death, which may or may not damn you even more, depending on your choices.

Capcom and Highmoon bring you a pretty decent little game that is a unique experience for horror and first person shooter fans. And in tribute to the old west, let’s get to the good, the bad and the ugly of the game.

The Good
Darkwatch: Curse of the West has a good setting and a very cool story line that expands clear back to the origin of the Darkwatch in ancient Rome. The characters are fairly interesting and Cross is the Eastwood-esque outlaw you want to play in a western game. The bad guys are vile and repugnant; my favorites are the three ton, vomit spewing, dual cleaver - wielding beasts known as Oozers. Along with the Oozers you also get many undead versions of banditos, hired guns and a few other creepy and scaly critters to take out.

The game also has a unique look to it with the graphics slightly going with an anime look, but not over-done. I also liked a few of the vampiric powers such as blood vision, frenzy and the ability to leap high into the air and glide back down. Finally there is a lot of gore in this one and even a bit of sex as well.

The Bad
Some of the game play is a bit repetitive at times, defend the position, defeat a set number of creatures to advance and the worst part, destroy the monster generator before you get overrun a’la Gauntlet. Also the weapons lack punch, not that they are not cool looking, but each one seemed to the same amount of damage, except for up-close shotgun use. The other vampire abilities you can acquire throughout the game really did nothing for me, other than frenzy I hardly used any of them. There are also a few moments of choppy game play that mostly occur with shot placement.

The Ugly
Any of the riding segments were pretty much a waste in my book, rather it be horseback or in the steam powered go-kart, it just seemed rushed and too much of a Halo rip off.

All this being said, Darkwatch is still a very entertaining game. Not worth the $50 release price tag, it might be worth the $30 mark down price but for the $20 greatest hit price it’s pretty damn fun.

7 of 10