The Darkness II is based on the comic books, and a sequel to a game that isn’t available on the PC. I thought it could be a scary game but it isn't - more of a mob story with mystical/occult elements; and you are the demon. It can be very gory with you executing your enemies. There's some violent scenes against you and others too. The cel shaded graphical style is perfect for the source material, and I always think cel shading is pretty timeless so it still looks great today.
Jackie Estacado, now the head of a crime family, meets up with some of his acquiatances at a restaurant. As he sits down with two women, one of them is shot, then a van ploughs through the wall killing the other, and injuring Jackie. With his legs useless, your first gun play is being on the ground while you are dragged away by an accomplice. He then heals by unleashing The Darkness that he has been supressing.
The Darkness is some kind of demon that uses Jackie as a host, and allows him to heal. Its weakness is light, so you must stay away from light sources in order to use its powers. Part of its abilities are in the form of two tentacle arms. Each arm does a different thing; the left arm can grab and toss enemies or objects in the environment, and the right arm can be used for melee attacks. When enemies are in a weakened state and you are in grabbing distance, you can execute them in gory ways for extra points.
You can dual wield guns, and still have access to your demon arms for slashing and grabbing which makes you feel powerful, and makes the combat more interesting than the usual FPS. Mixing up your attacks over a short period of time is incredibly satisfying, and usually there’s enough objects to toss and use as makeshift weapons such as chairs, poles, barrels, car doors.
Often, you will need to open a door or remove an obstacle which for some reason requires the demon arms to crush rather than Jackie just kicking it open. Often the door will have a light shining on it, which means you first have to turn off the light by disabling the power.
It can be quite easy to run out of ammo which makes you try to use environmental damage and close range executions as much as possible. I think a reason I ran out of ammo so often is that you often have to switch your guns with your fallen enemies. You are encouraged to go for alternative kills because you get more rewards. There are also relics to look out for an additional 300 points.
You can use your points in the skill trees. There's upgrades for certain weapons, then some demon abilities like a "Bee swarm" which stuns multiple enemies, a black hole to suck close enemies in for an easy kill, or "gun channelling" which temporarily doesn't consume bullets and can allow you to shoot through walls/obstacles. You won’t be able to invest in all the skills, but I presume New Game + carries them over.
At a certain point in the game, a rival gang "Brotherhood" is revealed to be after your Darkness powers. They are well aware of your weakness so will throw light grenades, and have enemies carrying powerful spotlights, or carry strong shields. Another uses a magical whip to grab your weapon right out of your hands. Other enemies possess supernatural powers themselves such as being able to teleport.
What makes the spotlight enemies so frustrating is that when you are exposed to light, a really intense and blurry white effect fills the screen, making it really difficult to pinpoint where the lightsource is in order to shoot it. This problem generally happens as you navigate the environment, meaning you need to spot and shoot out street lights and building lights as you walk, but being caught in combat can be frustrating as bullets are hitting you but you can't see your enemies or where to escape to.
You have limited healing ability when not in combat, but mostly you recover by eating the hearts of your enemies.
You also have a small demon friend to accompany you called Darkling, weirdly wearing a British flag shirt and affectionately calling you “Monkey”. He can help guide you, running ahead to show you the way. It often feels like you are helping each other as he won't even step into lights, meaning sometimes you have to run through a well-lit door, and switch off the light for him to pass. There's a couple of stealth sections where you take control of him directly and run through vents, and can perform stealth takedowns.
The story often sees Jackie struggling with the loss of his dead girlfriend Jenny and will often hallucinate about her, featuring brief flashback scenes. Part of his struggles give him delusions in an asylum where his mob acquaintances are either patients or staff members. Jenny is one of the main doctors there. These scenes make the player wonder if Jackie is actually in an asylum and his delusions are his mob life, or vice-versa. It's quite a short game at around 5.5 hours, but then when you have the walking sections in the mansion and in the asylum then it seems a bit padded. There’s extra content like the Vendetta missions.
While the campaign length might be a bit disappointing, the engaging storytelling, violent and dark fantasy elements presented in a comic book style create a compelling experience. The dual-wielding gunplay combined with the demonic abilities offers a unique twist to the first-person shooter genre, encouraging creativity in combat.