Review

The Darkness II

The Darkness II is an amazing game! I know, I know. Normally, my reviews have a nice intro that usually connects the reviewed title with some general aspect of the gaming industry. However, Digital Extremes newest title is so good that I wanted to get straight to the point. They have done an excellent job following up a great title and staying true to Top Cow’s comic book series. I know the year is young, but we may be looking at game of the year material. Heck, they’d have my vote!

The Darkness II picks up the story of Jackie Estacado, two years after the events of the first game. Using the powers of the Darkness, a living entity of destructive power residing inside Jackie, he’s become the Don of the Franchetti crime family. Jackie, now extremely wealthy and powerful, is trying to put the past behind him in hopes of a better future. Even though the powers of the Darkness were beneficial to him in the past, he chose to have them contained; in fear of them eventually taking over his body. This seemed to work well, that is until a hit was put out on him. At the start of the game we find Jackie trying to enjoy him self with friends and fellow mobsters at a fancy restaurant. And, just like in the first game, his plans are interrupted by inconsiderate henchmen and their obnoxious bullets. This action inadvertently forces Jackie to release the Darkness held inside and lash out at his attackers. What follows is an emotional, action packed ride through a living comic book!

Moving away from the story for a second, the gameplay elements found in this title make it stand out from other FPS’s. For those that don’t know, the Darkness manifests itself in a couple of different ways. One of those manifestations happens to be two demon-headed tentacles that sprout out from Jackie’s back. Like in the first title, Jackie can use them to pick up hard to reach items, kill bad guys, and otherwise wreak havoc. This time around they can be used much more extensively; Digital Extremes treated them as if they were an extra pair of arms. This allows gamers to fight with both tentacles and both of Jackie’s hands simultaneously; the combat possibilities are almost endless! Using the right tentacle, I can rip the door off of a car and use it to shield myself from gunfire while blasting fools with a shotgun. Have to reload? No problem. I’ll just throw the car door, slicing the goon running up to me in half. Or I could pull out two pistols then use my left tentacle to slash upward, popping the guy into the air. Once he’s airborne, I can use my pistols to fill him with holes before he hits the ground. You have a lot of options and all can be used while still shooting and reloading guns with Jackie’s hands!

At first I thought that the tentacles would become a gimmick. You know; a mechanic that goes stale fairly quickly as the game relies too much on it. But that wasn’t the case. Once you get the hang of using all four of your “limbs”, The Darkness II becomes a violent playground, and a whole lot of fun. The amusement is increased with the option to unlock special abilities for the Darkness.. Dark essence, the currency used to purchase said abilities,  can be collected when killing enemies or from acquiring objects that have come in contact with the darkness over the years. Players can spend dark essence at magical shrines scattered around each level. When you activate one, you will be taken to a screen showcasing different skill trees based on how you want to play. If you went down the weapons skill tree, for example, you’d find abilities that improve your more traditional firearms, like Gun Channeling. This is the ability to use the Darkness to give the player unlimited ammunition while making their guns deal an extreme amount of damage for a shot period of time. Continue down that tree you will come across better skills, like being able to see through walls or having explosive ammo when in the dark. Each skill tree is worth looking at as all of the abilities come in handy. Being able to send a swarm of bugs to briefly incapacitate enemies makes it easier to dispatch them. Throwing a black hole (yes, I said throwing a black hole) into a group of enemies and watching them get sucked in is pretty cool by itself. Being able to do that and fight with four limbs at the same time is awesome!

Of course, those abilities are all made possible through the help of the Darkness. This means that if Jackie steps into bright light that he will temporally loose the Darkness, becoming vulnerable to a quick death. Digital Extremes took this idea from the comic and smartly used it to enhance the gameplay. Like the first title, you will have to find ways to destroy light sources so you can keep your powers. The same thing goes for Jackie’s Darkling friend (think of a British sounding gremlin that can teleport) who helps take down mobsters. If he gets caught in the light, he’ll vanish and will only respawn when Jackie is back in darkness. The main difference from the last game is that the enemies are aware of your weakness. It’s hard to hide in the shadows when a spotlight carrying enemy is tracking you. Some enemies will throw flash bangs or will turn on search lights, making it harder to find a dark place to regroup. Then there are the enemies that have come in contact with the dark essence and gained special abilities, like teleportation. One character uses a dark essence infused whip to pull weapons out of your hands. Because of the tactics they use, enemies can be tough to take down in groups. Most fights are intense affairs but not frustratingly so.

To break up the somewhat constant shooting, a few portions of the game will have you using Jackie’s Darkling friend to find ways around obstacles. These are slower interactions where being stealthy is the key to survival. Going back to the story, there are also cool moments where there isn’t any fighting going on at all. Instead of a cinematic, you play though some scripted segments almost like a playable cutscene where you get to learn more about what’s going on from Jackie’s perspective in realtime. Because you’re looking through Jackie’s eyes, it’s like you’re really part of the story. These moments are also great because of the awesome voice acting. Paul Jenkins, a writer that’s worked on multiple comics including The Darkness, did a great job of writing a compelling story. That would have been for not if the voice actors weren’t doing their job so well. I also have to give kudos to Mike Patton on reprising his role as the Darkness. His vocal personification of this entity was the creepiest thing in gaming I have ever heard…period.

In addition to the main story mode, there is the four player co-op mode called Vendettas. This mode shows the story from the point of view of four powerful henchmen that work for Jackie. There are times in the main story where Jackie orders for someone to be picked up or for a lead to be followed up on. Well, you get to see who was doing all of the grunt work. While these guys (and gal) don’t have Jackie’s powers, they do have magical weapons filled with dark essence. For instance, Shoshanna has a powerful sawed-off shotgun that can be charged by holding the fire button. Once it’s fully charged she can unleash a super blast of darkness filled lead which will lay waste to most enemies. They all can purchase passive abilities as well, like buffing the melee damage of those in close proximity of you. These upgrades, also purchased with dark essence, are necessary to survive this short campaign. Large hoards of baddies and difficulty scaled to your party size make Vendettas a challenging and fun diversion from the main story.

Moving to visuals, I was afraid when I heard that Digital Extremes was not going to use the more realistic look of the first title. “They are going to mess it up” was my first thought. I am happy to say that I stand corrected. The Darkness II looks just like a comic book complete with exposed pencil marks throughout the environments. It reminds me of Ubisoft’s XIII title, except grittier and less cell-shaded. The graphics are so good that I can’t imagine going back to the way the first title looked. I mean, the game is based on a comic book series. It makes sense for it to look the part!

All and all, I am super pleased with this title. There are some kinks in its armor though. Sometimes you’ll get enemies that, instead of staying behind cover, run out into the open just to get shot, the multiplayer components aren’t as plentiful as say a COD title, it can be stereotypical (almost every mob story has a Fat Tony character, this one included), and the main game is pretty linear. None of these things really hurt the overall experience though. The Darkness II is a combination of all the things I mentioned in this review. Awesome graphics, story, voice work, and gameplay are what you have here. All the other bells and whistles that extend a game’s length can be nice to have, but that doesn’t mean a game without those elements can’t be considered great. Like I said earlier, the year is young but this is one of the best games out so far!