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.
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.
Reviewed on May 31, 2023
cowboyjosh
10 months ago