![]() ![]() ![]() It's not that Vendettas is bad, exactly, but it's even more linear than the main game, and each of the four available characters possesses a single Darkness power and a melee weapon. And going from that to the included co-operative Vendettas mode was tonally jarring. And even now, I'm still not sure of what the "right" choice was.Īfter finishing the main game, I was emotionally drained. And later, when I had to make a specific choice, I hesitated over something that had zero gameplay ramifications. In this one, important respect, the sequel lives up to its predecessor and then some. Jackie's guilt over Jenny's death, his baggage over his responsibility for that, carries The Darkness II's narrative into interesting, heart-wrenching places. These things have been done before, but as Jackie flashes back, his desperation is so well depicted that it's hard not to be taken in as he dances with the memory of his dead girlfriend to "I Only Have Eyes For You." The tension and emotion isn't hinted at it's there. Same as any other shooter.Īs The Darkness whispers to Jackie in tones of violence and madness, he starts to see visions of Jenny that transition into full-on hallucinations and flashbacks. But take enough damage in a firefight and it's back to a checkpoint just a little further back than it feels like it should be. In fact, this is used in the story several times. The Darkness's fiction establishes that Jackie can't die - The Darkness won't let him. ![]() The Darkness II gets bogged down in genre conventions in other ways as well. But when the screen goes bright white for as much as 20 to 30 seconds and you die again from an enemy that you couldn't even see, it's not the Darkness that's nowhere to be found, it's the fun. The Darkness loses its power in light, and sure, it makes sense that enemies would make use of that. The problem with these moments lies in Digital Extremes' seeming inability to differentiate between establishing a challenge and screwing you over. And they're all universally boring - when they're not busy being terrible. And yes, there are a number of sections so clearly marked and littered with contrived limitations that to call them anything but boss battles would be a lie. While the arms' repertoire is a bit limited - the left head grabs, while the right arm strikes - the relatively wide open combat arenas and the first few levels filled with fodder wiseguys encourage experimentation, with some fun and gory resultsīut then the first boss battle happens. These additional appendages open the combat up like so many eviscerated mob goons. Jackie's serpent-like demon arms make their return in a more vicious, hungry state. Any trick of Jackie's dark side predicated on exploration or subterfuge has been jettisoned in favor of a more agile, combat focused pair of projections. Jackie's abilities from the previous Darkness title have been streamlined. Eventually you'll find guns that seem more effective, but the real killing gets done with the Darkness itself. It's smarter just to pump a hail of bullets in the direction of trouble and let things sort themselves out. The gunplay and shooting are functional, but not great. The Darkness II does best, mechanically speaking, when it diverges the most from its first-person peers. Until the requisite "but then" goes down: A secret society called The Brotherhood drags Jackie into a supernatural turf war with the power of The Darkness itself at stake. Still reeling from the loss of his girlfriend Jenny, he's buried The Darkness down deep and resolved to keep it there. The Darkness II opens several years after the first game, with protagonist and titular wielder of The Darkness itself, Jackie Estacado, growing complacent and glassy-eyed as the head of the Franchetti crime family. As a sequel to a sleeper title that defied genre conventions at every turn, the announcement of The Darkness II seemed a bit tawdry, but new developer Digital Extremes has managed to respect the original, flawed game, even if they can't quite share the same success. Which is exactly where The Darkness II finds itself. ![]() But take a sequel to a game that managed to set itself apart through good ideas that haven't been successfully duplicated since, and you're swimming against the current. A game that coasts on convention can get by on just that. ![]()
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