Going into The Darkness II, I felt as if I was some sort of veteran at it already. I had played The Darkness when it came out in 2007 and as far as I knew, I felt I was the only one who played this niche title (much like Just Cause before the sequel came out). So, because of that, I had high hopes for this sequel. I loved the first, so why wouldn’t I at least enjoy the second?

Note: This was written to highlight my experiences on the PC. Please refer to the Xbox 360 review as well if you would like two opinions before making your purchase. PC gaming can be considered drastically different from console gaming in many cases, especially on ported games (like this one). Think of this as a companion review to the Xbox 360 one here.

The Story – The Darkness II takes place several years after the first. By this time, Jackie has become a mob boss and is not someone to be messed with. In the first game, the love of his life, Jenny, was murdered in front of him while the Darkness made him watch and kept him submissive. This time around, Jackie has kept the Darkness under control and hidden until he is ambushed at a restaurant, queue the start of The Darkness II.

PRAISE:

• Visuals: Now, usually I am not one to boast about visuals because I feel it does NOT make or break a game, but in the case of The Darkness II, I feel it helps it drastically. The Darkness II uses a very clever type of cell shading. While the majority of the game does not appear to be cell shaded, when you stop for a moment and take it in, it is one of the best looking games I have seen in a while (in its own right, I am not saying it is Battlefield 3 or anything).
• Quad-wielding: One of the highlighted features for The Darkness II was the use of “quad-wielding” or in other words, duel wielding guns plus duel wielding the Darkness itself. The Darkness is two demonic snakes that hover over your shoulders, and now, you can control them while shooting. You can whip people and shoot, grab people and shoot, grab car doors to use as a shield…. it gives you many possibilities in game for replayablity on “how will I kill this goon.”
• Previously on… : One thing I thought was a necessity for The Darkness II was to bring people up to speed. It has been 5 years since the previous game, and not many people had even played it in the first place. I feel that it was a necessity to garner new fans and refresh the previous fans on what had happened.
• Talent Trees: Yes, you read that right, talent trees. While most first-person shooters will not do anything like this, The Darkness II decided to play on this mechanic. Essentially, you spend “dark essence” to level up and learn new abilities for the Darkness inside you. This adds more depth to the combat that is already very good to start with. It also offers the player the option to play how they want, whether it be guns blazing or more Darkness.
• House of Horrors: I will leave this spoiler free in terms of story, but this is an area you get to visit later in game and it was easily my favorite settings that was given to us.
• New Game + : Because it is highly unlikely you will learn all the talents, the devs were smart enough to give us a New Game +, which in my opinion, should be included in all games if possible.
• Decisions, Decisions: To keep this point short, you are given a few options to choose from in game that will dictate the story to an extent, not many, but there are enough to make this a point.
• JACKIE!!! : A weird title, I know, but I say this in reference to the voice acting of the Darkness (and the rest of the cast for that matter). While the original Jackie voice did not return, we did get to see the Darkness’s original voice actor return. He does an AMAZING job of delivering that creepy, guttural, demonic voice of the Darkness, much like the first game. Jackie’s voice actor was different, but still did a rather good job of delivering the role.

AWKWARD SILENCE:

• Boss Fights: They felt rather tacked on and were unnecessary for the gameplay as a whole. They could have delivered a boss’s death in a much different way other than a fight scene with a health bar and the works. It was fun to an extent, but was it necessary? They felt a little unoriginal as well. I don’t think this is a bad point, but something that could be fixed for a possible sequel (oh no, I have said too much).
• Executions: While very enjoyable when you first execute someone, they do get a little old. There are, in total, roughly 8 animations, and while cool looking, it just felt repetitive to watch these guys die in the same way every time.
• Music: The game uses licensed tracks in a few instances in the game, such as a bar and a little later, a diner. But for the most part, I felt the musical atmosphere was just missing. It was there during some points, but a game like this, being very dark and dramatic, you want a very good musical score to go along with it. I do not list this as a bad point though, simply because when the music was there, it was quite nice to have especially near the end of the game.
• Co-op: This is the only form of multiplayer for The Darkness II. This pits up to 4 players working together on a side-campaign, much like how Battlefield 3 had done their co-op campaign. While I did not get to extensively test this (I do not know anyone who owns this on the PC), I could imagine playing this with 4 friends being a load of fun. A side note, I could play with strangers, but without communication, the humor just won’t be there.

WELL-DESERVED CRITICISMS:

• Easy Peasy: While I did play this game on easy, I later tried a harder difficulty and I have to say, it was still a little too easy. Compared to The Darkness 1, this game was a walk in the park when it comes to difficulty. I feel the devs should have strengthened the enemies a little bit, not to a “Demon Souls” caliber, but closer to the original.
• Game Time: And no, I do not mean that in a good way. On easy, this game took me 4 hours to complete. That is not good. On easy, I still feel most, if not all, games should take at LEAST 5-6 hours. On a harder difficulty, this may be different, but for my reviewing purposes, 4 hours is nothing. I felt like I was short-changed on the game, but not as badly because I loved the story.
• PC Controls: The PC controls were rather solid, but I did have one gripe. When I am duel wielding, why is my right gun firing with my left button and my left gun firing with my right? It sounds odd, yes, but when you are playing it, you want that uniformity, and honestly it was not there. A small gripe, I know, but it could not be remedied with key binding.

CONCLUSION:

All in all, was I personally happy with The Darkness II? I can say “hell yes” to that one, pun intended on the “hell” for those of you who have played the first game. But anyways, I would recommend this to those who want a good, dark story with some pretty good gameplay. I would also recommend you buying the first one beforehand so you can draw your own conclusions on if D2 was better than the first. If you are still skeptical, especially about the Game Time, then I would wait and pick it up on Steam at a later price, or the bargain bin. Either way, this is a must buy in my eyes, even if you do wait a little bit.

About Bryan Allbright

I am a student at Missouri State University and I am studying Computer Information Systems. I am all about gaming, movies, music, anime, manga, and technology. I am a big computer geek who loves to write about the things I care about. Feel free to contact me at bryan@geekrevolt.com for anything.