The time-traveling shooter, historical FPS is finally here.

You’ve probably already read our couple of previews, but just in case you forgot again, we’ll list the features:

• Wreak Havoc with Future Weapons in Antiquity: Something nearly every gamer that’s ever played a shooter based in the past has always wanted is the ability to bring a futuristic weapon back through history and kick some major butt. How differently would Custer’s last stand have turned out if the General was equipped with an M-16 assault rifle? You’ll be able to answer questions like this in Darkest of Days. While not every battle and situation will allow you to wield weapons from the future, there will be plenty of opportunities for you to unleash futuristic fury on your unsuspecting foes.

• Brand New Engine: The dedicated team at 8monkey Labs has created an all-new, groundbreaking game engine known as Marmoset. The Marmoset Engine not only breaks from the all-too present Unreal engine FPS clones flooding the market, but also allows for some amazing graphical capabilities. You’ll fight through epic battles filled with literally hundreds of NPCs on the screen at the same time, all with an advanced AI and all without a hint of graphical slowdown and all set against wide-open environments that are lushly detailed and dynamically lighted.

• Compelling Storyline: Darkest of Days is a compelling, action-packed first-person shooter to be sure, but it’s not just mindless run-and-gun, blow ‘em up gameplay. You’ll have to not only think about how to approach certain key battles and situations, but you’ll also have to take care when fighting – certain key people that were never meant to die will be marked with a special blue aura. If you kill them, you’ll face dire consequences…

And what else is better than the words from CEO himself, right?:

“For me and everyone else here at Phantom EFX and 8monkey Labs that have been working on Darkest of Days for the past three years, it’s almost hard to believe that launch day is already upon us,” said Aaron Schurman, CEO of Phantom EFX and lead writer for Darkest of Days. “We’ve put our blood, sweat and tears into this game, and we’re extremely proud of what we have accomplished. We feel that Darkest of Days is not only a fantastic game on its own merits, but that it will serve as a breath of fresh air into the somewhat crowded FPS genre and give players across the world a truly memorable, exciting gaming experience.”

Oh RLY?
We have editors already working on the review, so stay close and see if it’s worth your wait.

The price is set to $49.99 on Xbox360 and $39.99 for PC gamers. Soon enough, the digital distribution will be available as well.

Yes, it’s here in our office. Darkest of Days.

Actually, the preview is already out there, on major gaming-related websites right now. And from reading them prior to writing this article, I can see why people would love it and hate it. I also see that many people are being harsh on this title for the wrong reasons, even before they’ve tried the demo. For that reason, I’ll try to keep it short and simple. After all, this is a preview version of the title, not the final.

The storyline for this game is very crucial. You basically time travel back and forth between the past and the future, helping others and sometimes yourself. It can get a little confusing, unless the game tells the story well. In my personal experience, the story of Darkest of Days is somewhat interesting. I expected the worst because time traveling in games isn’t something completely original. But I can tell that Phantom EFX tried to make this title unique. But not everything about the storyline works well in the game; especially the presentation. The storyline itself is interesting, but I wish they had included more about the personal history of the main character. Still, it sure beats another FPS with World War II zombies; at least in my book.

If you are already used to the flashy visuals that even make a dog poop shine, you may not like it. I’m impressed that 8monkey Labs built the Marmoset engine from the ground up. Not a common move for game developing studios making a first FPS ever. So, does it look good? Well, I don’t know. We had some different results with different video cards, but if you adjust the brightness settings and all, it looked pretty good. Many times you’ll end up in the past, like World War I or the Civil War, and so the designs wouldn’t be all shiny and pretty to begin with. But the details are there, and you can see it if you have the video card to show it.

Talking about details, I liked the audio. Music was not too pop or epic, but fit right into the situations. And if you are patient enough to be idling next to the NPC, you’ll hear their random comments, which are many times pretty funny. There are bad voice actings here and there, and some of the recorded voices weren’t consistently high quality, but overall it doesn’t make you cringe. The developers paid close attention to the way people talked in the appropriate time period, with accents and slangs. It adds realism, and for the M-rated game, they sure weren’t shy with their choice of vocabulary.

Another fun aspect of the game is the ability to bring future weapons into the past. Imagine yourself in the middle of battle during the Civil War, with enemies reloading their single shot muskets, while you’re just holding the trigger down on a rapid-fire shotgun.

One thing I noticed is that the game loads rather quickly. Sure, this was the preview version, and may not contain everything the final version will, but it literally took me only a few seconds before I’m able to start the game or enter missions.

For a preview copy, I managed to say quite a bit about Darkest of Days. But let me tell you this again; this is a preview version of the game and we still have months before Phantom EFX and 8monkey Labs are done with their work on Darkest of Days. So far the game looks alright, probably above average, but the level of ambition here isn’t something you see everyday. This is not just a clever rehash of different game elements that worked before. It is something original, and for that, it’s worth our close attention.