In Darkest of Days, players travel back and forth through the annals time to relive some mankind’s most dire hours, when human society was at its lowest points. By fighting through terrible events such as The Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest conflict of the Civil War, and the volcanic eruption in Pompeii in the year 79, the player attempts to save certain key individuals who were never meant to become involved in these truly monstrous events and thereby change human history for the better.


<b><big>Gameplay</b></big>
Darkest of Days takes the player through time into historic battles to save key soldiers. These soldiers can be identified in the game by the blue aura they are marked with. The player takes part in many historic key battles from being a member of General Custer's unit trying to fend off Native American warriors during the Battle of Little Bighorn, to fighting in Pompeii as ash and fire rain down from an erupting Mt. Vesuvius. Other locations include the battles of Antietam and Tannenberg, and a German World War II P.O.W. camp. There are different missions in every time period and overall the game should take about 20 – 25 hours to complete.

There are over twenty weapons to fight with, both from the original time period as well as those brought back from the future. In addition, you can man machine guns or cannons to help your allied friends survive on the battlefield.

The goal of the game is not simply to kill all enemies encountered; players are also required to save certain individuals who are important to the continuity of history. These characters are marked with a blue aura and can be saved by being shot in the arm or the leg. This way the characters are taken out of the battle, while not suffering any life threatening injuries.


Plot

In Darkest of Days, the action begins with the player being ripped from his period in time by a mysterious organization moments before his grisly death. In order to ensure the future of mankind, he is then tasked with the mission to travel back and forth through time – to famous, turning-point battle campaigns in world history – acting as the organization’s agent in a larger, seemingly otherworldly, battle between good and evil.

Using a combination of both futuristic and historical weapons, players will be immersed in a world where in one instant they will be fighting against the Germans in the First World War and the next find themselves battling at Antietam in the U.S. Civil War. A variety of combat missions, such as stealth, artillery assaults, and sniper attacks will keep players on their toes through dozens of levels spread out over five historical time periods – all while discovering the secrets of the mysterious organization for which they have been working. Fighting on one side of the action, then sometimes coming back to fix mistakes on the opposing side gives the player a chance to experience conflicts from both sides.


<b><big>Development</big></b>
Since the premise of Darkest of Days leans heavily on the historical aspect of its story, the developers are attempting to make the battles as historically accurate as possible. They have incorporated their extensive research on the time periods, locations, and weapons for each of the battles depicted in the game. The only battle that intentionally contains a major inaccuracy is the Battle of Little Bighorn, where "Custer's Last Stand" takes place on a hill instead of on an open plain.

One of the more important things about Darkest of Days was the creation of the Battle Realistic; they wanted to display how tough the battle really was during the different time periods. You will hear screaming soldiers and see the smoke from their weapons rise out over the battlefield where the soldiers are mostly dying.

Darkest of Days uses NVIDIA PhysX, a hardware-accelerated physics engine.

“It was critical to the success of Darkest of Days that these epic moments in world history are experienced in eerily accurate detail, and NVIDIA PhysX technology helped us achieve that goal,” said Mark Doeden, Art Director at 8monkey Labs. “Our Marmoset Engine brings these battles to life with a completely unique look, and the PhysX technology was instrumental in making the game feel alive and real.”

8Monkey Labs designed the Marmoset engine specifically for the game. The Marmoset engine can handle over 300 characters on the screen at one time, enabling the game to have densely populated battle scenes, all with their own AI and pathfinding. Darkest of Days also contains wide open battlefields, allowing players to choose their own course of action to accomplish the goals set in the game. The player is also equipped with futuristic weapons adding a unique twist to classic battles. Marmoset's AI is able to drive behaviors for hundreds of characters simultaneously, and yet provide convincing detail for one-on-one encounters with the player. All actions share a common set of sensory data - audio, vision, navigation, teammate signals, enemy fire detection, and object finding and following are all efficiently and easily made available to all behaviors.