Makes me wish I had some killer demon arms.
User Rating: 8 | The Darkness II X360
I finally got around to playing the second darkness. I beat the first one several years ago and really enjoyed it. The second game kind of slipped under my radar while I was playing other stuff, so it took me a while to pick it up. The good news is that when I did buy The Darkness 2 I only paid like 15 bucks for it. The story continues with Jackie Estacado, a ruthless mafia ruffian whom has also experienced tragic loss. This game probes Jackie's psyche a little more and elaborates on his relationship with dead girlfriend Jenny. Two also further explains the darkness and Jackie's family relationship with it. The first big change you will notice is that the game is cell shaded this time. The first game was dark and maybe even a little murky looking. The second game is definitely flashier and for what its worth they did a great job of making it look straight up like a graphic novel come to life, which is appropriate. Despite that I still preferred the first game's look and feel. The combat is much the same except now there are some fairly expansive skill trees to work with. You can focus your efforts on being a proficient gun slinger, a darkness expert, or both. Either way there is a satisfying character progression. There is tons of violence and tons of blood. The controls are smooth and easy to learn. You will quickly find yourself deftly ripping and shredding your enemies in a number of gruesome ways with your always creepy darkness arms. The enemy AI is a little bit stupid, but as long as you crank up the difficulty a little bit they will put up a fair fight. The voice acting is excellent just like before. The sound effects are pretty good too. The music was a little bit forgettable. I've heard complaints about the game being too short. The main campaign is a little bit short, but when you throw in the vendetta missions it gives the game a deeper content pool. The vendetta missions(there are six) fill in the gaps of the main story, so to me it felt like a mini campaign all its own. The game also ran very smoothly for me.
Summary: Great fps with updated visuals. Does a pretty good job of telling a story and being kind of creepy about it.
