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Review: The Darkness II

I love comic books. When I was growing up, The Darkness and Witchblade were new to the scene and piqued my attention straight away. Jackie Estacado was one of the anti-heroes that almost brought the comics industry down, admittedly (I really blame Cable and Spawn, to be honest), but his exploits were deliciously rich and more thought-out than most of the anti-establishment fare of the time.

Anyways, I’ll stop showing my age. The long and short of it is this: The Darkness was ripped from the comics and produced as a critically acclaimed game way back in 2007, thanks to Starbreeze Studios. Now, five years later and developed by an entirely new team, Digital Extremes, does the franchise continue to deliver with The Darkness II?

Yes. Decidedly yes.

For those who aren’t aware of The Darkness, this sequel does a brilliant job at catching you up. If you’ve got time, go track down the first game and play it, but if not, just sit back and take in the brilliantly-staged “previously on…” sequence. In short, Jackie Estacado is a Don of an Italian-American mafia; he’s also possessed by the demonic presence known as The Darkness. The Darkness is an ancient power that essentially wishes to burn out Jackie’s own essence, and then use his body as a shell to wreak havoc on the Earth. Jackie spends his days mourning the loss of his girlfriend Jenny, managing the mafia he controls, fighting The Darkness for control of his own self and fighting to keep The Darkness from being siphoned off into the hands of those who wish to use it at its full potential.

Now, let’s put this out there straight away: The Darkness II is damn bloody. In the first several minutes of the game, you see a woman being shot in the head and another getting run over by a car. You see Jackie’s leg get horrifically mangled, and you see Jackie let The Darkness consume him to heal…oh, and also rip several baddies’ bodies in half straight after. Frankly, I’m surprised this game didn’t get a “Refused Classification” from the ratings board here in Australia.

Beyond the bloodiness, The Darkness II is actually a very complex and emotional tale of loss, redemption and revenge. The cell-shaded, delicately hand-drawn nature of the game works well to drive this home, and also pays tribute to the franchise’s comic book roots. The graphics are amazingly detailed and the light and shadow play of Jackie’s struggle are recreated in set pieces with brilliant ingenuity.

Gameplay-wise, the idea of quad-wielding sounds far more complex than it actually is. Jackie and The Darkness have two Darkness tendrils that are controlled by the left- and right-bumpers of your controller, and two guns (one in each hand, or one gun held with both) controlled by your triggers. You don’t need to be gifted to work any of the four action points alone or simultaneously. Eating enemies’ hearts gives Jackie points to upgrade his skills and abilities, and that’s where the fun of combat truly lies. My favourite purchased skill was probably the black hole power, or even the ability that allowed Jackie to throw his Darkling underling at enemies to rip them to shreds. That little guy has QUITE the personality; you’ll see what I mean (and I delved into that with our “First impressions” post).

While you can mix it up with different combat styles, and long- or close-range combat — depending on the abilities you’ve been upgrading — the combat can get a bit stale after a while. Thankfully, the story of Jackie’s mental, physical and emotional struggles is so well-crafted that you’ll gladly put up with combat set pieces purely to find out what happens.

The game also comes with a multiplayer component called “Vendettas” (thankfully, also playable in a single-player format as well), that has you playing as Darkness-enabled colleagues of Jackie’s. They’ve each got their own quirks and Darkness-based powers, so play with all four and get a sense of the style that suits you best. Then, get all Thunderdome-like on waves of baddies, followed by a boss fight with a target you’re supposed to assassinate. The best part about the mode is that it feeds back into the single-player campaign, filling in gaps of the main plotline. While they’re enjoyable, I found it hard to be effective with any of the four allowable characters; once you get going with Jackie, you’ll find his friends a little under-powered.

Overall, The Darkness II is a shooter, but a great story, tons of variety and different ways to kill and maim your antagonists make the game a great shooter. You’ll absolutely get invested in the storyline…and may find yourself hitting up The Darkness on Comixology to continue immersing yourself in Jackie’s world. To us, it’s a must-have game continuing the tradition of this must-have franchise.

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About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.