WHY WOULD THEY PLAY WITH MY EMOTIONS LIKE THIS!

This is everything I could've ever wanted from a sequel. The gun play is bewildering. The Darkness powers are vastly expanded and are fun as hell to use. The more linear approach allows for the story to take a front seat, which to me was the highlight of the first game. I couldn't put it down. Everything just fits together almost perfectly.

Whereas other shooters from the start of the generation like F.E.A.R were stripped down to conform to modern innovations, those same changes in this game immensely help it. I wanted more carnage, they overdelivered. I wanted more of a look into the Mafia storyline, they gave me exactly that. The callbacks to very impactful scenes in the first game are just as heart-wrenching here.

And the graphics and sound design is just a step above now. The cel shaded look calls back to its comic book origins and allows for the lighting and Darkness powers (no pun intended) to really flow nicely together. I'm kind of upset that we didn't get a third title, but now a part of me wishes we do soon.

It lacks some of the unique dark goth texture that the first one had but tottaly brings its own style. It really is a dualogy of games that you cant compare. Luckily this is such a short and fun shooter, that any comparison really doesnt matter. If there was ever a game that made you feel like your an eldrich abomination tearing through your Enemies, its the Darkness 2. And I like the story too, even though it treads some unnecessairly familiar ground. Never say never, but I dont think we will ever get a resolution to this cliffhanger sadly.

Every time I come back to these old games that I last played when I was much younger, I can't help but to temper my expectations, at least a little bit. Old memories has a habit of feeling stronger, or closer, than they actually are. TD2 is one of many games that I had fun with, but I was sure that, in the present, there's a lot of new flaws to be discovered, strong enough to overtake my memories. With a good amount of surprise and delight, I'm have to say that TD2 is still a good-ass game. In fact it's better than I remembered, in the most important ways.

First thing you'll notice is the dark, but vibrant cell shaded art style. Even on the PS3, the graphics are pretty nice to look at, despite the relatively low resolution textures and short draw distance for high LOD textures. I especially adore many of the skyboxes in the levels, it all feels like a well drawn comic book. The characters have slightly cartoonish animations that also fits the look, and thus, the game's overall presentation is quite strong.

There's obviously a lot of violence, dark supernatural elements, and other edgy comic tropes here, but for me, the story of TD2 is all about love. Jackie still grieves over the death of a loved one, despite years distancing the tragedy and his present. He is hopelessly haunted by her, and there are forces that will take advantage of this. It's hard to not be invested in his plight when the game has one of the most effective romantic scene I've seen in games in its first 2 hours, and the first person perspective only makes the intimacy of the story far more potent. The writing is quite solid, backed up with pretty good VO performances, and I like how well the game fleshed out Jackie's inner psyche. I don't exactly care for the Asylum sections that try to blur fact and fiction with embarrassing results, but that's pretty much the only thing that I didn't like.

Okay, that's all for the lovey dovey stuff. TD2 also features a hefty amount of bloody, gratifying first person combat, and it rules. You can carry 2 small arms (pistol & SMG) and 1 assault weapon (rifle and shotgun) with you at all times. You can even dual wield your small arms. But that's not all, since being the host of the Darkness gives you some pretty gnarly quirks. You can slash enemies up with your two snake-like tendrils, and they're quite strong. If you stun enemies you can grab and start an execution move on them, which grants you various effects like extra health or ammo. If you're the kind of guy who looks forward to every fatality you can get in Mortal Kombat, then the execution animations should turn you on as well. There's a bunch of unlockable powers, like being able to throw a black hole that sucks enemies in savagely, or unleashing a swarm of magical dust thingy that temporarily stuns a group of enemies. Killing enemies and eating their hearts will get you "essence" points that you need to unlock these powers.

The core combat mechanics are very solid, as it allows multiple ways of fighting, and rewards you for properly utilizing all your abilities to rip and tear everyone who stands against you. The type of enemies you encounter are varied enough to keep you at your toes, and the game constantly tries to test you by having properly placed light sources all over, which will weaken your powers. Not to mention the feedback for killing the enemies are just fundamentally gratifying, the gore effects are on point. The level design can be too cramped, linear and straightforward at times, but at the very least it helps the game keep a decently fast pace.

Lastly, I appreciate the collectible relics featuring extra lore that interwoves historical/mythological events with its own world of Darkness vs Light. Most of them are pretty fun reads, and there's one that foreshadows an important story event. I can tell that, as somebody who never read the comics or other Darkness media, there's a lot of world building here that the game at least tried to showcase a little.

It's sad that we probably won't see this getting a sequel, because the world of The Darkness is just quite perfect for video games, and this game is the proof of that. Lots of potential to build on that ending too. I guess I have another wish to make.

I’m a really big fan of the first game but for some reason I never got around to playing this sequel until just now and it was solid but flawed.
I knew when the first action I did in the game was turn to check out a waistress’ tits to learn how to control the camera I was in for a good time. This game ditches the dark and serious broodiness of the first in exchange for a more over the top and comedic tone. The cell shaded art style and color pallete enhances this decision with the bright red blood really popping everytime you disemember an enemy. It’s clear a ton of effort went into the script for this game with tons of dialogue with various characters that are all fleshed out pretty well and given their own personalities. The story comes pretty natural from where the first game left off. There’s a lot of comedy and one liners here but still maintains an emotional hook through the game and the relationship between Jenny and Jackie is believable.
The gameplay is similar to the first but more streamlined with the open areas and side missions removed now in favor of more linear levels which I don’t hate but it always felt like I was spending more time in dialogue, dream sequences and cutscenes than plowing through enemies.
The shooting feels great and feedback is very responsive. Your darkness powers are what separate this from an average shooter and they really shine here with your abilities to slash enemies vertically or horizontally. You can also pick up many objects in the levels and use them as shields or hurl them at enemies to impale them or slice them in half. You’ll also be able to grab stunned enemies and perform executions and depending what execution you do you’ll get back ammo, health, shields, etc which is a mechanic I really enjoy. The more violently you play the higher your score gets and then in turn these score points can be used to buy upgrades and new moves at checkpoints. Including a new game plus to unlock all the abilities is a nice touch too.
The other main gimmick in this game like the predecessor is staying out of the light as you can’t use your powers in light. You’ll neee to shoot them out or avoid them. This game has some annoying ass enemies that shine flashlights at you and throw blinding flash grenades. It makes sense in the story but these enemies are never much fun to fight since the only real tool you have to stop them is shooting their flashlight out which can be a pain while you’re swarmed with other enemies and can’t use any of your powers.
The game is too short too clocking in at around 5 hours including all the optional dialogue and cutscenes. I really felt like I was only in the action for 2-3 hours and kept getting frustrated as it would end so briefly and go back to story moments.

All in all the gameplay is extremely satisfying outside some annoying enemies and some frustration with the pacing. There’s a couple sections you play as your darkling sidekick which are pseudo stealth sections that are awful but very brief and there’s an on rails section that’s also brief but equally as pointless.

I wish this game played more to its strength and gave me more time eviscerating enemies because that’s really what you’re there for. This game is really fun when you actually get to play but there’s just too much holding it back from being great.
6/10

I LOVE playing this game. It's really fun to play; its mechanics are unique, and the sound design is top notch.

The Darkness II is FUN.

But it's way too short. I clocked the main story at four hours when I finished it.

But worst of all that ending was bullshit. I really hated it. For the longest time I didn't want to play the game again just because of it. It almost ruined my experience, especially now that the game never got a sequel nor downloadable content,

I guess the Vendettas are a consolation? They're kind of fun at least.

Yeah, I know, The Darkness II isn't the most high brow first person shooter. It is just an angst ridden mess with janky gameplay. The story is shit and it shouldn't be rated higher than a 3/5... but you see, I don't care.

This year has been awful for me so far. I'm not going to get into details, but I have just wanted to give up at so many different points. There hasn't been much bringing me from one objective in life to another. The Darkness II is easily the most pleasure and joy I've had so far this year. Just a game I could turn my brain off to and play before and after work. Something that made me forget about bills and my Grandma's death. It just distracted me from life and to give it anything below a 5/5 doesn't seem right to me.

I can't necessarily say I recommend this game, but I will say that if you ever are in a rough spot, remember to pick up a game and enjoy it despite what critical reception might say of it.

Rating: S
Genre(s): First person shooter

keyboard and mouse sure does feel a hell of a lot better for this kind of game than a controller does but apart from being an (arguable) improvement in terms of gameplay and making it feel faster and more responsive (although the gimmicky enemies get way too annoying sometimes) I feel it misses the mark on all other fronts, the more comic booky style may allegedly be better representetive of the source material but it just has nothing on the atmosphere of 1, the music is just generic now and doesn't have any memorable metal of 1 in it whatsoever, (apparently the soundtrack used to have tons of licensed music in it??? I guess the license must have expired????) and the story starts of ok but just gets so fucking messy towards the end and ends on a strange cliffhanger, it's definitely a fun game maybe even more fun to play than 1 depending on who you ask but it's so short and just has way less of an idenitity of its own compared to its predecessor and it sucks that we're probably never going to see a continuation that builds on the ideas of both 1 and 2