Darkest of Days

Darkest of Days Official Box Art Release Date: 2009 Developer: 8monkey Labs Publisher: Phantom EFX Valcon Games (Xbox 360) Platforms: Microsoft Windows Xbox 360 Mac OS X Genre: First-Person Shooter

Darkest of Days is a first-person shooter that tells the story of Alexander Morris, a soldier fighting during Custer's Last Stand at Little Bighorn, who is suddenly dragged through time to become a post-22nd century agent for the corporation Kronotek, a corporation who strives to preserve and protect history and whose founder has disappeared leading to various disturbances in time causing various historical figures to be put into danger. Morris as well as fellow agent Dexter go through various time periods to ensure these figures survive, all the while battling a mysterious group called the Opposition. Since the game's main selling point is time travel, Morris goes to a myriad of historical locations, including the Battle of Antietam during the American Civil War, the Battle of Tannenburg during the First World War, a WWII-era POW camp, and Pompeii during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. All these locations come with a group of period weapons to use, though Morris is usually given a weapon from the 22nd Century to "even the odds"; information about these fictional weapons can be found here.

The following weapons appear in the video game Darkest of Days:

Handguns

Colt 1861 Navy

The first weapon that Morris gets is the "Colt Revolver", a Colt 1861 Navy. It is first used at the Little Bighorn battle and later used during the Antietam Campaign. While not packing the punch of the Civil War rifles, it is much faster to reload, achieved by having Morris break the Colt open on a invisible hinge to swap cylinders.

Colt 1861 Navy - .36 caliber.

The in-game model of the Colt 1861.

Morris stands over a battle, Colt 1861 in hand.

Morris aims down the sights.

Later on, during the Battle of Antietam, Morris accidentally breaks his 1861 and promptly swaps cylinders before someone notices. This practice did take place (although not as often as is commonly believed), except for the fact that, of course, the Colt revolvers had a solid frame.

Mauser C96

The Mauser C96 pistol appears during the World War I segments of the game. Similar to the Colt 1861 in the Civil War segments, the C96 is a faster firing and reloading counterpart to the slower bolt-action rifles in the World War I segments. It is shown as a standard Russian Army handgun, when in fact (contrary to the common appearance of the C96 in later Soviet films) was not as common compared to cheaper and more readily available Browning designed pistols such as the M1900 and M1911, not to mention the ubiquitous Nagant M1895. It has an anchronistic post-war short barrel from the 1920 Rework C96s. It also fires fully-automatically, a feature only present on the post-war Mauser M712 Schnellfeuer pistol and not the regular C96 depicted. Morris also reloads by jamming the stripper clip into the rear sight instead of the clip guide on the ejection port; he also loads a full ten rounds regardless of how many remain in the magazine.

Mauser C96 - 7.63x25mm Mauser

Mauser C96 "1920 Rework" - 7.63x25mm Mauser

The in-game model of the C96.

Morris, determined to get a hang of this new-fangled technology, takes aim at a tree...

And within a couple of minutes, learns how to fire the C96.

Slowly grasping how to use his new firearm, he decides to use the iron sights.

While he has gotten the grasp of how to fire it, he has not had the same success with reloading.

Luger LP 08

The main German sidearm for the World War I and World War II segments is the Luger LP 08, referred to simply as the "Luger".

LP 08 - 9x19mm

The in-game model of the Luger LP 08.

Morris, determined to free prisoners and fix some history, holds a Luger he received from Dexter.

He then wonders if the snow conspires against him, and uses his Luger LP 08 to strike fear into it.

Having found that piles of snow can't be scared, he reloads his LP 08 and goes on his way. The toggle lock somehow immediately goes back into battery when Morris fully inserts the magazine.

Rifles

1860 Henry

The Henry 1860 rifle appears during the Antietam missions and the Little Bighorn segment. It is always seen with its leaf sight raised and is inaccurately loaded from a side gate, like the Winchester Model 1866 "Yellow Boy", rather than from the front of the magazine tube.

Henry 1860 brass-frame - .44 Rimfire (RF).

Winchester 1866 "Yellow Boy" Rifle - .44 RF, for comparision.

The in-game model of the Henry Rifle.

Morris and his Henry stare at awe at the forest ahead.

Later on, Morris decides to reload his rifle in the middle of a firefight. Note the inaccurate side gate.

Enfield Pattern 1853

The Enfield Pattern 1853 appears during the Antietam missions, mounted with a bayonet and inaccurately referred to as the "Springfield Musket". Morris also fails to place a percussion cap on the nipple when reloading.

Enfield 1853 - .577 Ball

Morris and his Enfield stare off into the distance.

Fearing the trees may conspire against him, he aims his Enfield.

Having struck fear into the trees, he starts to reload his rifle.

Morgan James Rifle

The Morgan James Rifle is used during the Antietam missions, wrapped in burlap sacking to camouflage it. The rifle in the game is almost twice as short as in real life, presumably to facilitate reusing the the Enfield's animations (and commit the same percussion cap error).

Morgan James Rifle.

The in-game model of the Morgan James Rifle.

Mauser Gewehr 1898

The Mauser Gewehr 1898 is seen in the hands of German troops in both the WWI and WWII time periods. It comes in two versions: a standard infantry version with iron sights, which appears only in the WWI levels, and a sniper version fitted with an ZF41 scope (anachronistic for the WWI levels, and inaccurate in general for the Gewehr 1898 as it was made for the Kar98k), which appears in the WWI levels alongside the infantry version, and is the only German rifle to appear in the WWII levels.

Mauser Gewehr 1898 7.92x57mm Mauser

The in-game model of the Gewehr 1898 rifle.

Morris sights up a German's crotch and Gewehr 98.

Having procured his own Gewehr 98, Morris encounters a demonic flying thing. Note the odd downturned bolt handle.

After fleeing to safety, Morris takes aim through the misaligned sights at the floating demon.

Finding that the "demon" is nothing more than a balloon, Morris reloads his Gewehr 1898. He will load a full five rounds regardless of how many remain in the magazine.

Karabiner 98k with Zeiss ZF41 1.5x scope and hooded front sight - 7.92x57mm Mauser

The in-game model of the scoped Gewehr 1898 rifle.

Having climbed into the beast, Morris adds yet another anachronistic weapon to his arsenal.

Morris holds a scoped Gewehr 98 during his escape.

Morris reloads his scoped Gewehr 98.

Mosin Nagant M91/30

The Mosin Nagant Rifle appears during the WWI missions, simply referred to as the "Nagant" (although Nagant owns only some ideas for the magazine, and this separate name itself is associated with a revolver). This is actually modeled after the later M91/30, slightly different from the original model of the period.

Full-length, Soviet Mosin Nagant M91/30 - 7.62x54mm R

The in-game model of the Mosin-Nagant.

While Dexter talks to Morris, Morris stares at his Mosin and wonders how the bayonet is supposed to work. Note that the rifle is fitted with a sword bayonet (that appears to be a German M98/05) instead of the correct spike bayonet. While there was a rare M1905 Modrakh sword bayonet for the Mosin, and German-captured Mosins were equipped with mounts for the M98/05, this is not the case either way.

Morris, having grabbed a Mosin for himself, prepares for a Russian attack in the woods.

Having found no such attack, he begrudgingly reloads his rifle.

Submachine Guns

MP34

The Steyr MP34 submachine gun appears during the World War II segments in the hands of German troops, inaccurately depicted as a closed-bolt weapon. Strangely, instead of using its actual stick magazine, the in-game MP34 uses a Trommelmagazin 08 (a 32-round drum magazine for the MP18 and P08) inserted upside-down. It also somehow holds 50 rounds.

Steyr-Solothurn S1-100/MP34 submachine gun - 9mm.

Morris holds his new-found MP34.

He then inspects a fence while aiming down the sights..

Not seeing anything interesting, Morris inserts a new Trommelmagazin into his MP34. While he pulls the bolt back as makes sense for an open-bolt weapon before doing this, the bolt then slams forward when the magazine is inserted.

Machine Guns

Maxim Gun

The standard German machine gun seen during the World War I and World War II segments appears to be a Maxim Gun, featuring a MG 08's sledge mount and a Maxim M1910/30's barrel jacket.

Maxim MG 08 on 'sledge' mount - 7.92x57 Mauser.

Maxim M1910/30 - 7.62x54R.

Morris looks at the weird franken-Maxim.

He then decides to see if it actually works.

Grenades

Hybrid hand grenade

A fictional hybrid hand grenade can be found and used in missions set in World War 1 and World War 2. It appears to be a Model 24 with the head replaced with a Mills Bomb. It may have been done to make something similar to the Model 13/15 Kugelhandgranate

Model 24 Stielhandgranate "Potato Masher" stick grenade with fragmentation sleeve

No. 36M Mk.I "Mills Bomb" High-Explosive Fragmentation hand grenade.

Model 13/15 with "Poppenberg'sche" System.

Morris looks at the weird franken-grenade.

Cannons

Civil War Cannon

In the Civil War missions, various cannons can be seen used by both Union and Confederate troops. Morris can also use one at one point.

A Confederate artillery battery commences volley fire with their cannons.

Morris prepares to unleash some Civil War era fury upon some Confederate troops with his cannon.

21 cm Mörser 16

During the World War 1 Missions, Morris can run into some unusable German Krupp 21 cm Mörser 16 Howitzers. Their appearance during the Battle of Tannenberg is anachronistic, as they would not be introduced until two years later.

Langer 21 cm Mörser Model 16, displayed at the Finnish Artillery Museum in Hämeenlinna - 210mm

Morris looks at the Mörser 16, disappointed at the fact he can't use it himself.