Despite his tapping around the streets of Liberty with his cane, no one really knows if his blindness is for real or an affectation to give him an edge. Either way, his tangible aroma and maniacal mutterings give this walking trash pile a soapbox from which he can spout his bizarre requests.
He can be generous if his requests are granted/achieved and the Player will learn to listen for the telltale tap-tap-tap of his cane.
Darkel's rewards may range fom a jar of stinky mixture or a flattened cat, to special weapons, defences or access to special areas of the city.”
Darkel was scheduled to be a main character in Grand Theft Auto III, but was removed during the game's development. He was intended to be voiced by the late Bill Fiore, of Tales from the Darkside fame.
Despite being taken out, Darkel remains listed in the GTA III manual credits and the character texture remains in the game's data files.
History[]
Events of Grand Theft Auto III[]
Darkel was originally used both as a payphone mission giver contact, as well as a replacement for the Kill Frenzies from the previous games. None of his missions were intended to have an impact on the storyline, serving only as secondary missions, including "special jobs" used to unlock unique items and unlock previously inaccessible areas.
His role was similar to the Guider from Grand Theft Auto 2, an omnipresent fourth-wall-breaking character who gives the player the instructions for the Kill Frenzies, introduces the player to each area of the city, and gives the final mission of each area.
It is assumed that Darkel may have been removed during the game's development after August 2001, when the game's Liberty Tree promotional website was updated with an in-universe newspaper article titled Strange Tramps Seen All Over Liberty City.
Kill Frenzies[]
As a Kill Frenzy replacement and a "collectible" type of character, Darkel was originally meant to be found hidden in many different areas of Liberty City, including alleys. When interacting with him, Darkel would give the Kill Frenzy objective, telling the player to kill a certain number of specific pedestrians (e.g. businessmen) in a specific time.
The player would identify Darkel's random positions through pedestrian reactions. They would originally hold their breath and comment about the bad smell whenever they were close to Darkel's Kill Frenzy contact areas.
Darkel was also set to be invincible, so the game could trigger the Kill Frenzy regardless if he was run over by a vehicle. If a Kill Frenzy given by him in a specific area was failed, Darkel would move that specific failed mission trigger to another area of the city.
Payphone Missions[]
In addition to Kill Frenzies, Darkel was originally meant to give the player five missions via payphone, and they were slowly all cut during development. Some of the missions were later adapted to be given by the other payphone mission bosses. The only confirmed Darkel payphone mission that "survived" the game changes was I Scream, You Scream, given by El Burro in the final version.
Removal from Grand Theft Auto III[]
It was originally speculated that he was removed due to the 9/11 attacks. However, in a Rockstar Newswire Q&A post about Grand Theft Auto III in 2011, Rockstar Games revealed that Darkel was removed simply due to the fact that his character felt out of place alongside the other characters – pedestrians are never targeted by that type of missions in the final version of the game.
In the final game, the Kill Frenzies are rebranded as "Rampages", and the targets are always armed gang members. They kept the same form as the previous Kill Frenzies, being triggered by collecting a hidden "skull" pickup. The mission fail system that moves the pickup to another area is kept in the game, but is dropped in subsequent titles, where the Rampages are always set to spawn in a specific area regardless if the player fails the mission.
Debunked Myths[]
All of the previous speculations over deleted terrorist missions are debunked as simply rumours after the 2021 release by GTA Series Videos of the information contained in GTA III: The Game Design Document[1], a DMA Design/Rockstar North document dated from 2000, confirming Rockstar's statement about Darkel being true.
The document also debunks Darkel's speculated mission Love Hurts, which supposedly had the player being tasked with crashing a Dodo into the Love Media Building, as well as a mission involving destroying a school bus with children – the Dodo (referred to as "Wingless cessna" in the 2000 document) was indeed never meant to be flown by the player, there were never any missions involving school buses, and Donald Love did not exist as a character until several months after Darkel was cut.
Gallery[]
![Early sketch of Darkel in GTA III: The Game Design Document. A colored version of this sketch is seen in a 2001 photo of Rockstar North offices.[2]](/wiki/File:Beta-GTAIII-DesignDocument-Characters-Darkel.png "Beta-GTAIII-DesignDocument-Characters-Darkel.png (335 KB)")
References[]
- ↑ GTA III: The Game Design Document. (Link to video)
- ↑ Leslie Benzies pointing at the colored sketch art of Darkel:
Sources[]
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