Out now; Xbox 360, PS3; £44.99

Jackie Estacado just turned 21. He’s a hitman for the Franchetti crime family in New York, run by his uncle Paulie. But Paulie’s one nasty-piece-of-work wiseguy muddafuggah, and Jackie wants control
of the family. So far, so Sopranos.

However, luckily for Jackie, his 21st birthday has coincided with him realising he possesses (or is possessed by) mysterious powers known as The Darkness, which give him a series of terrifying minions under his control, including a troop of Gollum-like creatures that he can send on errands to savage his foes, and two razor-toothed snake monsters stuck to his shoulders, that eat the blackness out of his enemies’ hearts to maintain his powers.

As Jackie, you work your way through the seedy underbelly of New York City, as well as a nightmarish bastardised-World-War-One-trenches ‘Otherworld’, a place described as “worse than hell”, your Darkness powers growing as you learn more about what is really happening to you.

The result is a well-paced shooter with an intriguing storyline from the team that brought us the surprisingly excellent movie-to-game offering Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay back in 2004. Getting Mike Patton in to voice (or rather, rasp) the creepy Darkness was just an extra stroke of genius.