Now let's get this straight from the start, a Darts based console game will never have the draw of other sports games such as Pro Evolution Soccer 6, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 or even Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. PDC World Darts gives it a good shot but falls short of the mark.
Graphically and sound-wise there is not much more this game can improve on. You can take control of a number of life-like professional darts players (most of whom avid darts fans will recognise, unfortunately I only recognised one or two of them), and you can strut your stuff in some of the games most famous locations in England, Las Vegas, and Holland. The in-game sound effects are realistic too, with the echoing chatter from the crowd to the classic commentary from Sid Waddell.
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The layout of the game is exactly how you see it on television. With the split screen you get to see the close-up of the dart board and your dart player. Everything up until now works a dream but then the game-play comes into effect.
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The game itself is very simple, move your crosshair to the location of the board using the left analogue controller, and then use the right analogue controller to control the strength of the throw using a rocking action similar to the actual motion of throwing a dart. Once you get the knack of the controls the rest of the game is pretty simple, but is still quite difficult.
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It is here that my enjoyment of the game ceased.
When you enter the career mode, it is just a matter of creating your character and going through the different rounds of each tournament. The character generation is a real lacklustre attempt which is blown away by character generation in other games such as WWE wrestling games and NBA basketball games. The only features of your created character that you are allowed to change are the style of shirt you wear and your entrance music.
The first few games are quite fun, as you aim to get your.'One Hundred and EIGHTY!!' but the novelty soon wears off as the matches drag on as there is not enough variation in the game. Considering you are aiming for Treble Twenty most of the time, you don't even have to move the cross hair much which makes the game even more boring.
The repetitiveness of the game is a real disappointment, but there is not much PDC World Darts can do about that except change the rules of the game. Although they do spice things up a bit in Party Mode by including a various other darts based games such as Shanghai and Round the Clock.
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PDC World Darts will really only attract fans of the sport, and won't really pull in gamers that are new to the sport. It's an average game that is good in small doses, long gaming session would bore you to tears.
And I regret having to say this about any game but you would probably get more fun out of just buying a dartboard and playing with your friends.
There's nothing else for me to say other than the words of another darts legend Jim Bowen
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