The Darkness II

I hadn't bought a new game in a while -- I've been waiting for great sales and the game pass is now more costly too (although by making a new account you might still get that 1€ month) -- yet I wanted to play something I hadn't before. So I went up digging the pile of hidden games in my Steam library. Out came The Darkness II, which I guess was part of some Humble Bundle I bought years ago. The game was developed by Digital Extremes who are best known for Warframe.

Linear comic book action

The Darkness II is a first person shooter based on the comic book of the same name. It is a sequel but the first game developed by Starbreeze Studios was never released on PC. The story is so simple and straightforward that there's nothing lost for not having played the first though; everything is easy to understand. I was also familiar with The Darkness beforehand as I happen to have few random issues of the comic book.

I found the protagonist, mafia boss Jackie Estacado, to be far from the brooding bad-ass I recall him being in the comics. I mean he's still brooding but at the very start he has somehow managed to suppress the primal entity possessing him. He has to embrace the Darkness again soon enough as things go pear-shaped with him barely having the time to look to his other left. (The game surprised me with that practical joke.)

Brian Bloom was excellent as B.J. Blazkowicz (and as Varrick in Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition too) but I didn't like him as Jackie at all. His voice didn't fit the young mafioso in my opinion: it's not how I imagined the character to sound like. I was utterly bored listening to Jackie in the interlude bits between chapters. It's so uninspired. The mental hospital sections were similarly dull since they lack on action and I generally dislike such dream sequences.

The game's short and ends in a cliffhanger to boot. There being no sequel is not surprising. It does have a co-op mode to give it more length but it doesn't offer much more than a chance to play with friends as characters who each have one of Jackie's darkness powers. I played through a few missions solo to get every achievement in the game.

Shooting with supernatural powers

The powers are what make The Darkness II a bit more interesting of a shooter or at least they allow you to play more aggressively than in many others. With experience points you can even improve your powers as well as unlock new ones. Jackie's extra demon arms can grab stuff to provide cover and to throw it at enemies. They can also be used for executions to regain health and ammunition. The tad too lengthy and too little varying animations seem to provide invulnerability so you're safe using the execution even in the thick of things.

Even though you have variety in combat moves, there is not much strategy beyond having to remove bullets blocking shields from some enemies first. Pretty much every mission is a linear tube run from start to finish. Bright lights provide some environmental challenges as they suppress the Darkness and leave Jackie vulnerable. Some lights can't be destroyed directly and you instead have to go around a bit to turn off a generator. I personally found the light vulnerability irritating, particularly when I accidentally ran under some ceiling lamp I hadn't shot yet. Enemies carrying lights and flashbangs was a reasonable challenge though.

As expected, The Darkness II utilizes cel-shading to appear like a comic book. I was surprised however how many functioning mirrors there were since games usually avoid them for the performance cost that having to render the game world twice entails. And even this game only has mirrors in non-combat areas. Still, I approve. It's such an important little detail that adds to immersion.