It was a very close run thing in this week’s poll, but in the dying stages The Darkness II rallied and won selection as the topic of this week’s WeView. The game, released in February, is a sequel to 2007’s The Darkness and is based on the comic series of the same name, something that comes through in the game’s visuals.
However, despite drawing from the comics for its visuals, Dan was pleased to note in his review that the game’s story doesn’t need any knowledge of the comics, or even of the original game. This was, quite obviously, a smart move by developers Digital Extremes, allowing new fans to come in without enraging old ones.
Another smart move from Digital Extremes came in the game’s casting, with Dan calling it one of the best voice casts of the year. For it to earn such an accolade in February it really must be impressive. Dan picked out Brian Bloom’s performance as Jackie as being particularly good, especially as he was replacing Kirk Avecedo, who did a fantastic join in the original.
As for gameplay he also enjoyed the way The Darkness is integrated into the game, with it feeling like an integral part of the experience rather than being crowbarred in or simply tacked on. These positives, along with others, combined to give the game a score of 9/10 with Dan having this to say about the game in conclusion:
The fact that The Darkness II is a sequel to a game with its roots entrenched in a fairly-twisted comic-book canon is irrelevant. There are no barriers to entry here, no homework to catch up with, just a fantastically pieced together tale coupled with a refreshingly creative take on the ever-staling FPS formula. It handles well, looks great, and sounds even better; The Darkness II is 2012′s first home console must-have and marks a promising start to the year for 2K and its upcoming onslaught of beautifully-crafted titles.
Dan clearly found a lot to like in the game but the question is whether or not you did? Did you enjoy the game’s voice cast as much as Dan did, or did you find it a little lacking? Was The Darkness as well integrated into the game as he says, or did you think it really didn’t work? And how about the game’s online? Did it feel like a valid part of the game, or was it just a weak add on?
If you feel like sharing your experience with the game all you need to do is leave a comment below, remembering to attach your rating of the game on the Buy It, Bargain Bin It, Rent It, Avoid It scale. The only condition is that you need to have your comment in by Sunday afternoon if you want to be included in Monday’s verdict article.
The Lone Steven
Now i’ve only played the demo and i know i shouldn’t be giving my opinion based 100% on the demo. Anyway, The Darkness 2 is a fun game. Instead of the generic shoot tons of russains and you are supermarine. You shoot,tear apart, toss,crush mobsters which tends to result in a statisfaction and it feels like the Darkness is truely displaying it’s power. The shooting aspect doesn’t feel any different then anyother game apart from the dual wielding system but if you have come to play D2 as a FPS then you are missing out on a lot and i mean a lot of fun. You may notice that they have ditched the realistic style that D1 had and went with the cell shaded aka comic book style which actually works due to it being based on the comic and imo helps it to stand out amongst the very overfilled FPS market.
The game does have an RPG level up system which i can’t remeber how you level up but it results in your abitilies to be more power or unlock more moves with the Darkness which results in more gore. So judging from the demo(yes, i know i shouldn’t before i get torn apart by tentacles*insert hentai joke here*), Buy it or wait a few more months and Bargain Bin it as it may be £15 or less. Either way tis a worthy of being added to your collection.
Youles
I liked the demo, but even the demo was enough time for me to get bored of the killing animations – that basically stopped me from buying it sadly.
TSBonyman
The demo saved me from buying it. Didn’t like anything about it even though i enjoyed the original.
LTG Davey
The only game I have on my current 360 profile that I have the full 1000 gamerscore on. Love this game, from its decent story to it’s brutal gameplay, its the sort of game you can just sit down and have a blast playing. It’s a bit short however so I highly suggest BARGAIN BINNING it.
AG2297
Bought this after enjoying the first one. The thing I like about the Darkness games is that they are made to be fun to play. You have so many options to kill your enemies from slicing them in half with a car door to impaling them on a wall with a metal rod. I found the story to be quite “meh” in this one, I much preferred the previous game’s story,thanks to the WW1 part of it, but this story isn’t too bad for what is essentially an FPS game. Eventually I stopped playing before I finished the game due to other games grabbing my attention, games which I could play with my mates and have just as much fun.
Basically, if you want to unplug and just have some fun feeling like a powerful badass going around and destroying everyone and everything then you’ll enjoy this game. If you’re after something more than that from it, then you probably wont. I’d recommend Bargain Bin It, as that’s exactly what I did by picking it up during the Steam sale. If I had paid the full RRP then I wouldn’t be as satisfied.
Crazy_Del
I am the fastest Platinum on this game here on TSA Leaderboards.
For those who have played The Darkness will know the combat and the Darklings that was in the game is already in Darkness II.
Jackie Estacado is back and is hungry for a fight!
Jackie still has the curse with him a supernatural powers in which he can unleash his darklings and tentacle snake like to kill and devour enemies hearts. Jackie can only unleash these powers when he is in the dark. The light prevents his powers from being used.
The game starts off great and the graphics are very different compared to the first one. The Darkness II uses a comic feel graphics like Borderlands which is absolutely a genius as The Darkness are from the comics and books aswell, so it has a great feel towards it any Darkness fan will love this. The characters are back and are brilliant. There are new characters aswell which were great. Also a new enemy called ‘Brotherhood’ I will not spoil it but the story is fantastic and has a plot twist. At first it can be very confusing but eventually it all makes sense. I absolutely loved the story. The characters are top notch even Jimmy and Auntie Sarah are the same from the 1st one. Great characters aswell as great conversations on the family and the story on The Darkness background.
The combat in The Darkness II has been improved from the first one and it even has more deathly executions aswell. Jackie can still use the Darkness and weapons from the enemies. There are upgrades to make Jackie even more deadly by upgrading execution kills and supernatural powers such as Black Hole and Darklings. There are also new powers aswell. The Darkling will always be with you and can guide you the right path of the story and he is funny and cool as ever, also very rude but still funny.
The upgrades on all powers and weapons etc… is a great addition in the game. Upgrades can be found through-out the game by collecting a ‘Darkness Shrine’ there are scattered throughout the story-mode.
Also as for the Darkling you can however control him only for small missions like getting into the ventilation that Jackie cannot go through or any other certain areas. Playing as a darkling is a new feature in The Darkness II
There is another new mode in the Darkness which involves co-op is called ‘The Vendetta’
There are roughly 4 characters that can be chosen for the Vendetta Missions. These co-op missions are different from the Darkness campaign but have the same enemies and is on the same level but is a side version of it. What you do in the Vendetta is similarly but completely different from the campaign. This is actually really good as it is still fresh but can be repetitive at certain times. Also these 4 characters have their own ‘unique’ special moves. It’s great to try them out and change from different missions etc……
The Darkness II is a fantastic shooter/thriller game with great twists from the plot and the game itself is amazing especially when you unleash the Darkness itself.
BUY IT!
GregHorrorShow
One of the better stories I’ve played through recently and I enjoyed the game’s combat mechanics. I’m teetering between buy it and bargain bin it – there’s not much incentive to replay it so I’ll go for Bargain Bin It.
Forrest_01
Thinking about it, wouldn’t all purchases this far after release generally be ‘bargain bin’, even if you were ‘buy’ing it?
Unfortunately, i haven’t played enough of this game to warrant a decent comment on my part – Once again, something shinier (or just as shiny perhaps) came along & took my attention, but i do recall that tearing people in half was fun.
XisTG
I just got my platinum this week, so the game is still pretty fresh on my mind.
First of all, let me just say that I think the first one is better. In terms of graphics it’s a matter of taste; at first, The Darkness II’s cell-shaded seemed to be not a good choice, but they quickly won me over. But story wise, the first one is much better.
The Darkness II has you handling the Darkness in a whole new way: long gone are the “stealth” moves a different powers given to each of its arms. Instead, you now use them as extensions of your arms, hacking and slashing away, with the much need executions making it all look cooler, although boring over time. This quad-wielding system (two guns + two tentacles) is fun but can be a bit too much sometimes.
Like the first game, voice casting is brilliant, and this time around even more so. All the characters sound more alive, specially “the family”. So good that I kept exhausting all the dialogue options in the game (a sad thing because it led me to one of the characters basically spoiling the end of the game. WTF was that!?) It’s a pity the same can’t be said for the Darkness itself. While on the first game its voice made you tremble every time it spoke to you, this time around it speaks less and, when it does, its usually to say kill them, feed me and so one. A shame, really.
As for the online part, I didn’t really feel there was one. The co-op missions are fun, as they let you play with different characters, but that runs out shortly after. Either way, I never thought this game was multiplayer material in the first place, so…
But this is all analyzing the game in detail. Overall, this is a fun game, with a good story driving it forward, albeit a very short one.
I can’t really choose between BUY IT or RENT IT. I bought it for 30€ on Amazon, and because I really liked it I think it was money well spent; but seeing has you can finish the game in less than 10h on the hardest of difficulty, maybe a rental is in order. Heck, you don’t even need more than 2 days to get the Platinum.
P.S.: The original game doesn’t have trophies (it is that old!), but it’s one of my favorite. If you find it cheap anywhere, buy it, it’s worth it.
MadBoJangles
Great game.
Very short, but a lot of fun.
Did get a bit repetitive towards the end though.
Personally loved the art style too :)
Bargain Bin it.