Overview

The Darkness II was a game that I hoped would be good, but had very low expectations for its actual quality.  Much to my surprise, Digital Extremes was actually able to surpass the original game and craft an experience filled with awesome gameplay and stunning presentation.  The only downsides are some occasionally frustrating scenarios and the fact that the whole product only has about 8-12 hours of content in it.  Still if you like grim mafia stories or ridiculous comic book violence the Darkness II is wonderfully entertaining as you follow  Jackie Estacado on his quest for revenge and redemption.

Gameplay

At its core Darkness II is a fairly standard first person shooter.  In the single player campaign you play as Jackie Estacado.  Jackie can carry two one-handed weapons and one two-handed weapon at a time.  These are the usual gambit of shotguns, machine guns, and pistols we have come to expect from these sorts of games.  The gunplay is loose with very forgiving aim, but this suits the game’s fast paced style as you are often duel wielding weapons and running around to dodge enemies.

What sets this apart from other shooters though is the Darkness itself, the demon that possesses Jackie.  The Darkness manifests as a pair of tentacles (Excuse me as I yell at my computer about how it was different in the comics…okay I’m done) and Jackie can make use of them and other abilities to overcome his foes.  The arms can be used to eat hearts to regain health, brutally dismember enemies, pick up and throw objects, or execute melee attacks.  There are a number of non-tentacle powers as well, such as armor or the ability to summon a swarm of flies.  You gain experience points for pretty much everything you do in the game and these points can be used to purchase new powers and upgrade old ones in several different skill trees.  All of the abilities are a lot of fun to use and help break up the tedium of shooting wave after wave of bad guys.  The bad guy killing is also broken up by other types of sequences, but they are tied into the story so I won’t spoil them.

The catch is that all of the abilities only work when you are in shadow, meaning that a lot of the game is spent shooting out lights as these abilities are necessary in the later game encounters.  This isn’t so much a problem in itself, as it has a solid fictional reason for existing and also makes for an interesting gameplay dynamic, especially when you begin to encounter enemies with light based weapons.  Unfortunately much of the late game is spent fighting too many enemies with too many spotlights, and it stops being a fun challenge and just gets annoying.  Boss battles are also tedious, but they are few and far between, so they don’t hurt the game very much.  When you are in the light the screen becomes black and white, making it hard to pick out enemies or light sources.  These scenarios can become quite frustrating, but I never became so upset that I quit out of sheer frustration.  The campaign itself is fairly short, about 8 hours, but it is extremely well paced and doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Once you finish the campaign you can choose to go through it again in a new game plus or move on to the co-op.  The co-op has no splitscreen, but you can choose to play it by yourself, though you will need to turn the difficulty down if you choose too as the missions are designed for multiple players.  You choose from four different characters who work for Jackie.  While none of them have the tentacles but they do have a unique darkness item that they use instead of a second one-handed weapon.  Each one plays pretty similarly, but the different artifacts add some nice variations.  The co-op campaign is about 3 hours and does tie into the main story but not in a significant way, but you can increase its length by playing hit list missions.  These are shorter missions with pretty much no story content that take place on one of the co-op maps.  Overall the co-op is fine, but it is not nearly as fun or interesting as the main campaign.

Graphics

While the first Darkness opted for a fairly standard look, the Darkness II ups the ante with a brand new art style inspired by comic art.  This new visual treatment is awesome with nice details such as hatch marks that look like they came from an artist’s pencil.  The environments look fantastic, but are extremely dark and grim, especially the bordello.  The Darkness related objects are also great looking appropriately demonic and crazy.  As you might expect, the lighting is also great although it can sometimes be hard to distinguish between light that will disable your Darkness abilities and light that won’t.  Some muddy textures, occasional slowdown, and minor graphical glitches mar the experience, but for the most part the presentation is top notch.

Fun Factor

There is a lot of gruesome fun to be had in the Darkness II.  While the shooting feels fairly standard, the gory executions and brutal melee combat make the gameplay extremely satisfying.  Overall, the game has an excellent flow, as long as the shootouts don’t get bogged down, which makes it light and easy fun.

The best part of the Darkness is its story.  Paul Jenkins, a comic book writer who authored the previous games and several issues of the Darkness comic, has crafted a great tale that takes a grim mafia tale and fuses it with demons and insanity.  While the game is a direct continuation from the first Darkness, the previously-on sequence catches you up nicely and tells you everything you need to know.  The story follows the demon possessed Jackie Estacado, who is now the head of a mafia family, as he fights with the Brotherhood for control of the Darkness and struggles to come to terms with the loss of his girlfriend Jenny.  The dialogue is superb and the voice acting is amazing.  Special mentions go to the extremely creepy Mike Patton as the Darkness and David Hoffman as the hilarious Johnny Powell.  It also has one of the best video game endings I’ve seen in a long time, that sets the game up for a sequel yet somehow manages to feel satisfying.

Overall

The Darkness II is not a perfect game.  It’s short, the co-op is not as impressive as the single-player, the bosses are tedious, and some of the combat scenarios are poorly designed, but the game is extremely well-paced and can be great fun to play when everything works right, and it usually does.  Combine that with a phenomenal story and great graphics the Darkness II is a game that I happily recommend.

News

2K Games Announces The Darkness II Limited Edition Pre-Order Incentive

• 04 Oct 2011
• News, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 byJoel

2K Games today announced the pre-order initiatives for The Darkness II for all previously announced video game consoles and PC. From now until the title’s launch, gamers who pre-order The Darkness II will receive a free upgrade to the Limited Edition while supplies last. Launching on February 7, 2012 in North America and February 10, 2012 internationally, The Darkness II delivers a brutal and personal narrative as players take control of Jackie Estacado, head of a New York crime family and wielder of an ancient and ruthless force of chaos and destruction known as the Darkness.

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2K Games Announces The Darkness II to Emerge from the Shadows Starting October 4, 2011

• 04 May 2011
• News, PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 byJoel

2K Games announced today that The Darkness II, the sequel to the million unit-selling 2007 title, The Darkness, will be available for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC on October 4, 2011 in North America and October 7, 2011 internationally. Inspired by the supernatural horror comic book series created by Top Cow Productions, Inc., and developed by Digital Extremes, The Darkness II breaks from the sea of conventional first-person shooters (FPS), and takes players down a brutal and personal path as Jackie Estacado, wielder of Darkness – an ancient and ruthless force of chaos and destruction. Your first look at the world of The Darkness II is in the new debut trailer which can be seen at www.embracethedarkness.com.

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2K Games Partners with Top Cow to Offer Fans The Darkness II: Confession on Free Comic Book Day

• 04 Apr 2011
• News, PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 byJoel

2K Games, Top Cow Productions, Inc., and the Free Comic Book Day Committee announced today that they have teamed up to produce The Darkness II: Confession, an exclusive comic tie-in for The Darkness II video game, for Free Comic Book Day. The 32-page, full-color comic will be a prequel to 2K Games’ upcoming video game, The Darkness II. Produced by Top Cow’s lead artists and writers in partnership with 2K Games, The Darkness II: Confession will be distributed by Diamond Comic Distributors to thousands of independent comic book stores worldwide on May 7, 2011.

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2K Games Signs Mike Patton As “The Darkness” in The Darkness II

• 17 Feb 2011
• News, PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 byJoel

2K Games announced today that acclaimed singer, songwriter and voice actor, Mike Patton, will reprise his role as The Darkness in The Darkness II, the sequel to the beloved 2007 video game release. The avant-garde rock artist, known as the front man of Faith No More, Mr. Bungle and Peeping Tom, lends his unique voice acting talents as The Darkness – a supernatural force of chaos and destruction.Additionally, 2K Games will be showcasing The Darkness II, for the first time to press during the Game Developers Conference 2011 in San Francisco from March 2 – 4. “The story behind The…

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2K Games Calls for Return of Chaos and Destruction with The Darkness II

• 08 Feb 2011
• News, PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 byJoel

2K Games announced today that, the sequel to the million unit-selling 2007 title, The Darkness, will be coming to the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC in fall 2011. Developed by Digital Extremes and based on the supernatural horror comic book series created by Top Cow Productions, Inc., The Darkness II takes players down a brutal and personal path as Jackie Estacado, wielder of The Darkness – an ancient and ruthless force of chaos and destruction. The Darkness II breaks out of the sea of conventional first-person shooters with…

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