While developer 8Monkey Labs hasn’t quite succeeded with its inventively fashioned FPS, it’s easy to see the potential behind the game, and that does actually help carry it through a lot of its difficulties. It would seem the game began with a rather broad ‘what if’ scenario, probably arrived at in the pub in an animated discussion between two designers without much aptitude for narrative, but it’s also perfectly understandable how that loose premise seduced the rest of the team.

Beginning with this fascinating plot, you take control of a soldier in the bloodiest encounter of the American Civil War – the Battle of Antietam, which saw over 23,000 casualties inside of 24 hours - who finds himself catapulted into the future after scientists at the KronoteK company need an agent to put right discrepancies cropping up throughout time. It’s a top-notch midnight-showcase, grindhouse sci-fi concept. But, sadly it ultimately finds itself dashed upon the rocks of developer apathy and short measures.

Your character accepts the notion of time travel and active historical preservation with the greatest of ease; all-too readily believing the trite tales spun by a futuristic computer. His task is then a distinctly simple one, given the inherent complexities you’d (rightly) assume is attached to time travel. Choosing from a selection of historical time periods, the game progresses ham-fistedly through an estimation of a branching story, repeatedly hinting at the potential Darkest of Days harbours but rarely delivers on.

There’s a distinct sensation that the developer originally intended to make this temporal adventure far more reaching, but in the end took a much simpler option of monopolising your time by repeatedly visiting the American Civil War and World War I. These scenarios mostly pan out as uninspired (though admittedly suitable) environments populated by pockets of unintelligent, objective-less soldiers to kill, which really highlights the lacklustre FPS gameplay. The assortment of out-of-place and futuristic weaponry is an intriguing twist to the action. Shooting what we consider to be an antiquated weapon in ancient Pompeii is a fascinating experience, as are the moments when you’re fighting alongside NPCs. Yet the obscene dimwittedness of the enemies makes Darkest of Days something of a moron hunt in the woods, which does a huge amount of damage to the satisfaction of a completed level.

The game also telegraphs your targets, turning characters of temporal importance neon-blue, presumably assuming you’re as incapable of engaging in the wasted story as the enemy soldiers are. And it’s here where the game essentially falls apart. It’s unfair to brand the whole of Darkest of Days as a failure, but there’s no avoiding the fact that it fails to maximise on the massive potential the tremendously fun concept promises.

Dreary visuals and goldfish-brained enemies rob the battles of splendour and put up an impassable barrier of ennui that prevents you from ever really engaging the conflicts, the plot or the characters. A strong concept gone to waste feels somehow considerably more disappointing than a banal concept similarly squandered, and in the end the game regrettably lives up to its name.