I want to start out by saying I have no nostalgia for this game unlike the first game since I never played it when it first came out. All my thoughts are in the moment and while there are a lot of things I love about this game more than the first, there's just as many I don't and they kinda even each other out, making both games about equal. I wish I could take all the great things about each game and combined them together to make the best of both worlds.
The Darkness II is a direct sequel to The Darkness (2007) and picks up 2 years after the events of the first game. You still play as Jackie Estacado who is now head of the Franchetti crime family. The game opens up with this neat Goodfellas styled scene where Jackie is walking through a restaurant as his right hand man Vinnie is welcoming everyone one by one and it wastes no time getting to the action because as soon as Jackie sits down at a table there's an attempted hit on his life. Just to survive Jackie is forced to unleash The Darkness who he hasn't let out in 2 years since the ending of the first game and now must figure out just who would put out this hit on him. From here on out the story doesn't let up and the breakneck pacing is good since it's so short (You can finish the main campaign in about 5-6 hours).
I do want to say what made the narrative of the first Darkness so good was how grounded in realistic mob drama it was, but I have mixed feelings on the complete tonal shift to a much more 'epic' supernatural comic book plotline that mostly drops the mob drama in The Darkness II. It is still a good narrative with some great moments, but not quite up to par with the first game and the fact there's a massive cliffhanger that will probably never get resolved is also disappointing.
There's a lot more side characters in The Darkness II since Jackie is the head of the family and has a whole squad of boys to back him up and I really found them all entertaining even if they're some of the most stereotypical mob-like characters. I mean I kid you not, there's literally a guy named Fat Tony who just has a bunch of food related dialogue. You can tell the writer was influenced by Goodfellas because everyone is super sarcastic and witty, they really capture that 'wiseguy' feeling. The voice acting cast is great with Brian Bloom replacing Kirk Acevedo as Jackie's voice and while I prefer Kirk, Brian still does a good job and fits this older, more angry, PTSD-ridden version of Jackie. Mike Patton of course still steals the show with his inhuman performance as The Darkness itself and the new main antagonist Victor voiced by William Salyers is very eccentric and over-the-top, perfect for a comic book villain.
The Darkness II much like the first game is still an FPS, but this time the gameplay has been completely overhauled and for the better at that, this is one of the main areas the game excels at. In the first Darkness your demon arms were mostly for show and you couldn't control them, but now there's what the developers call a 'quad wielding' system in place. You have 2 demon arms (The one on the left for grabbing and the one on the right for slicing and smashing) and 2 guns. The gunplay feels much better, but I do miss being able to carry a whole arsenal instead of just one assault rifle/shotgun and 2 pistols/smgs at a time.
That said in the first Darkness Jackie was just learning how to use his powers, but giving the player control over the demon arms makes him feel more experienced here and by the end of the game he actually feels like a terrifying force of Darkness and part of that is thanks to the new RPG elements added like experience points and a good sized skill tree that you can't unlock everything on in one playthrough (Thankfully there's a new game+ mode) gives a decent sense of progression. Many of the powers from the first like Darkness Guns, Black Holes or the ability to eat hearts are now unlocked through the skill tree and many new powers like Darkness Armor or Swarm are unlocked as well.
Another area where The Darkness II excels over the first is the level design. Some might not like how linear it is and I admit it does take away a bit of the uniqueness of the first game being semi-open world, but unique isn't always good and I'll take more straightforward linear levels over bland, empty and confusing open ones any day. Also levels are much easier to traverse now that Jackie can actually sprint. I do miss the Trench segments from the first which added a kind of horror atmosphere to the game, but the new One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest style institutionalized narrative segments that replaced the Trenches were pretty creative and entertaining in their own way.
The graphics in the first Darkness were very realistic and it was another thing that added to the great atmosphere and uniqueness of the game, this game has stylized cell shaded graphics and while it fits for the more comic book style the game is going for and they've aged better for sure, it also gives the game a more generic look and I miss the realistic graphics especially since the design for The Darkness itself looked cooler.
I think the most disappointing part of the game for me though was the OST. The first game's OST blew me away with how good it was, from the calming ambient tracks while walking around the world to the shift to heavy metal as soon as fighting starts or the bombastic film score parts they were all highly memorable compositions and all of that was lost here since The Darkness II mainly just features a bunch of licensed music and what little original score there is just wasn't memorable in any way to me.
Overall The Darkness II much like the first is a good, but very flawed game and while it excels over the first in both more enjoyable gameplay and better level design, thanks to changes in tone, atmosphere, more generic graphical design and a lackluster OST it also loses a lot of what made the first game such a creative and unique experience. However the game does make up for this with entertaining characters, a great voice cast and an epic plot that despite not being quite as good as the first is short and sweet and still a very compelling wild ride from start to finish and I can only hope that one day we'll get to step into the shoes of Jackie Estacado one last time and see a proper resolution to his tragic story.
The Darkness II is a direct sequel to The Darkness (2007) and picks up 2 years after the events of the first game. You still play as Jackie Estacado who is now head of the Franchetti crime family. The game opens up with this neat Goodfellas styled scene where Jackie is walking through a restaurant as his right hand man Vinnie is welcoming everyone one by one and it wastes no time getting to the action because as soon as Jackie sits down at a table there's an attempted hit on his life. Just to survive Jackie is forced to unleash The Darkness who he hasn't let out in 2 years since the ending of the first game and now must figure out just who would put out this hit on him. From here on out the story doesn't let up and the breakneck pacing is good since it's so short (You can finish the main campaign in about 5-6 hours).
I do want to say what made the narrative of the first Darkness so good was how grounded in realistic mob drama it was, but I have mixed feelings on the complete tonal shift to a much more 'epic' supernatural comic book plotline that mostly drops the mob drama in The Darkness II. It is still a good narrative with some great moments, but not quite up to par with the first game and the fact there's a massive cliffhanger that will probably never get resolved is also disappointing.
There's a lot more side characters in The Darkness II since Jackie is the head of the family and has a whole squad of boys to back him up and I really found them all entertaining even if they're some of the most stereotypical mob-like characters. I mean I kid you not, there's literally a guy named Fat Tony who just has a bunch of food related dialogue. You can tell the writer was influenced by Goodfellas because everyone is super sarcastic and witty, they really capture that 'wiseguy' feeling. The voice acting cast is great with Brian Bloom replacing Kirk Acevedo as Jackie's voice and while I prefer Kirk, Brian still does a good job and fits this older, more angry, PTSD-ridden version of Jackie. Mike Patton of course still steals the show with his inhuman performance as The Darkness itself and the new main antagonist Victor voiced by William Salyers is very eccentric and over-the-top, perfect for a comic book villain.
The Darkness II much like the first game is still an FPS, but this time the gameplay has been completely overhauled and for the better at that, this is one of the main areas the game excels at. In the first Darkness your demon arms were mostly for show and you couldn't control them, but now there's what the developers call a 'quad wielding' system in place. You have 2 demon arms (The one on the left for grabbing and the one on the right for slicing and smashing) and 2 guns. The gunplay feels much better, but I do miss being able to carry a whole arsenal instead of just one assault rifle/shotgun and 2 pistols/smgs at a time.
That said in the first Darkness Jackie was just learning how to use his powers, but giving the player control over the demon arms makes him feel more experienced here and by the end of the game he actually feels like a terrifying force of Darkness and part of that is thanks to the new RPG elements added like experience points and a good sized skill tree that you can't unlock everything on in one playthrough (Thankfully there's a new game+ mode) gives a decent sense of progression. Many of the powers from the first like Darkness Guns, Black Holes or the ability to eat hearts are now unlocked through the skill tree and many new powers like Darkness Armor or Swarm are unlocked as well.
Another area where The Darkness II excels over the first is the level design. Some might not like how linear it is and I admit it does take away a bit of the uniqueness of the first game being semi-open world, but unique isn't always good and I'll take more straightforward linear levels over bland, empty and confusing open ones any day. Also levels are much easier to traverse now that Jackie can actually sprint. I do miss the Trench segments from the first which added a kind of horror atmosphere to the game, but the new One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest style institutionalized narrative segments that replaced the Trenches were pretty creative and entertaining in their own way.
The graphics in the first Darkness were very realistic and it was another thing that added to the great atmosphere and uniqueness of the game, this game has stylized cell shaded graphics and while it fits for the more comic book style the game is going for and they've aged better for sure, it also gives the game a more generic look and I miss the realistic graphics especially since the design for The Darkness itself looked cooler.
I think the most disappointing part of the game for me though was the OST. The first game's OST blew me away with how good it was, from the calming ambient tracks while walking around the world to the shift to heavy metal as soon as fighting starts or the bombastic film score parts they were all highly memorable compositions and all of that was lost here since The Darkness II mainly just features a bunch of licensed music and what little original score there is just wasn't memorable in any way to me.
Overall The Darkness II much like the first is a good, but very flawed game and while it excels over the first in both more enjoyable gameplay and better level design, thanks to changes in tone, atmosphere, more generic graphical design and a lackluster OST it also loses a lot of what made the first game such a creative and unique experience. However the game does make up for this with entertaining characters, a great voice cast and an epic plot that despite not being quite as good as the first is short and sweet and still a very compelling wild ride from start to finish and I can only hope that one day we'll get to step into the shoes of Jackie Estacado one last time and see a proper resolution to his tragic story.