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The Darkness II

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The Darkness II
Developer(s)Digital Extremes
Publisher(s)2K Games
Producer(s)Sheldon Carter
Designer(s)Tom Galt
Writer(s)Paul Jenkins
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release
Genre(s)First-person shooter, Psychological thriller
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The Darkness II is a first-person shooter psychological thriller video game developed by Digital Extremes and published by 2K Games. The game is the sequel to 2007's The Darkness. The script for the game was written by comic book writer Paul Jenkins, who previously worked on The Darkness comic series. Originally scheduled to be released on July 10, 2011 and then on October 4, 2011, it was delayed for both dates and instead was released February 7, 2012 in North America, February 10, 2012 in Europe and Australia and February 23, 2012 in Japan.[1] for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.[2]

Plot

In the two years since the events of the first game, Jackie Estacado has become the don of the Franchetti crime family. Though he still wields the Darkness, a malevolent force that has given him supernatural powers, Jackie has supressed the entity, thanks to guidance from estranged occultist Johnny Powell. Jackie still struggles with the death of his girlfriend, Jenny Romano, which the Darkness had prevented him from stopping.

Jackie and his gang are attacked by a rival mob at a restaurant. After being rescued from the building, a mysterious figure appears and tells henchmen working for him to continue pressing the attack. While under attack, the Darkness calls to Jackie, demanding him to embrace the spirit. Jackie relinquishes, and with the Darkness' regenerative powers, stops the attacks and pursues the attackers into the subway. There, he reunites with the Darkling, part of his sub-consciousness created by the Darkness. He observes a vision of Jenny nearby, and ends up being run over by a passing train. As before, the Darkness refuses to allow Jackie to die. Jackie wakes up in what appears to be a psychiatric ward, where Jenny and members of his mob appear as doctors, nurses, and fellow patients, telling him that his mob stories are simply hallucinations inspired by mafia fiction. One of the patients appears to be Johnny, who tells Jackie to find him.

Jackie awakes back in the subway, regroups with his men, and uses them to find and bring Johnny to his penthouse suite. Johnny explains that Jackie is being pursued by an organization called the Brotherhood who seek the Darkness' powers for themselves, using the Siphon, an object created by an entity called the Angelus to contain the Darkness. Johnny provides a lead to the Brotherhood's location at a nearby brothel. Jackie gains entry through help of a prostitute, Venus, and finds that the Brotherhood has been tracking him, his gang, and his family for many years, before he is captured by their leader, Victor Valente. Victor orders Jackie crucified, and demands Jackie release the Darkness to him, revealing they have taken over his suite. Jackie refuses and falls unconscious from blood loss, but after another brief vision of the psychiatric ward, the Darkness heals Jackie and awakens him. Jackie escapes the brothel, set aflame by the Brotherhood, and races for his suite, mounting an attack with his men against the Brotherhood. Jackie's Aunt Sara dies in the attack as they reclaim the suite.

At Sara's funeral, Victor launches another attack against Jackie. In battle with Bragg, one of Victor's henchmen, Bragg reveals that Victor is operating out of an abandoned theme park. Jackie kills Bragg, and then orders his men to stay low while he alone travels to the park, where more visions of Jenny appear. He is soon captured by Victor in an iron maiden, and loses consciousness from blood loss. Again, he wakes in the ward, but the janitor - acting as his Darkling - warns him that this ward is a trap for Jackie to keep him alive and away from Jenny who is still alive but in Hell. Jackie eventually wakens in the real world, the Darkness drained by Victor. The Darkling helps Jackie to escape and defeat Mr. Peevish, another henchmen of Victor given some of the Darkness' powers. Though Jackie recovers these for himself, they are but a shell of the full power of the Darkness, and pursues Victor, discovering they have taken him to his father's mansion. Engaging Victor in battle to recover the Darkness, Victor reveals that Jackie's father had promised the Brotherhood the Darkness but failed to heed this. Eventually, Jackie defeats Victor and recovers the Siphon. Jackie stabs himself with it, retaking the Darkness but forcing him back to the ward dream.

Aware now that the ward is a dream, Jackie attempts to kill himself within it, the Darkling sacrificing itself to aid in this effort. Here, the player can decide to stay with Jenny on the belief this is reality, upon which Jackie and Jenny slowly dance to "I Only Have Eyes for You". Instead, the player can opt to throw Jackie over the edge of the building, sending Jackie into the Darkness' realm. Jackie fights the Darkness' forces to release Jenny, who at first thanks Jackie for his help, but soon is transformed into the Angelus. Though Jenny is still alive within her and loves Jackie, the Angelus has seen the destruction that Jackie and the Darkness have caused, and leaves them trapped in Hell as she leaves.

Gameplay

The Darkness II follows a similar combat template as the first game with the introduction of new features, such as a tactic dubbed "quad wielding," a technique which allows the protagonist Jackie Estacado to use both The Darkness and firearms simultaneously. There is a greater emphasis on the aspect of Darklings, with there now being only one primary Darkling who holds greater importance and is more involved in the storyline and who is useful in all situations; able to go to and lead Jackie to certain waypoints and show him important items during boss fights, and allow Jackie to use him to go into hard-to-reach areas and kill enemies at a distance, while looking through the Darkling's eyes. The Darkling is able to interact with the environment by using items such as a worker drills to attack and torture Jackie's enemies and he can also use standard weaponry such as pistols to attack or threaten them. Jackie can use the environment to his advantage, by using car doors as shields and parking meters to kill enemies. Unlike in the first game, Jackie can use both his weaponry and The Darkness in public places. The Darkness only disappears while in the light or for story purposes.

Each kill, heart collected, and enemy urinated on add towards Jackie's 'dark essence', a substance that clings to people and objects that have come in contact with The Darkness, which can be used to make purchases from a tree of abilities from 'talent shrines', such as 'black hole' which allows Jackie to charge an enemies' heart with energy and throw it to create a void of vacuum encased in darkness, the ability to see and attack through walls, 'swarm' which allows Jackie to summon a swarm of flies to disable and stun multiple enemies at once, and 'gun channeling' which gives Jackie unlimited ammunition and deals supernatural damage for a short period of time. The character and player feel more uncomfortable in light, with exposure to light resulting in blurring of vision occupied with a high pitched ringing.[3] Light is more of a physical threat as well with a 'light vs. darkness' feel throughout the game.

Vendettas

"Vendettas" is a mode where the player plays as one of four hitmen who each have specific Darkness powers and go on missions for Jackie. The Vendettas campaign happens at the same time as the game's main campaign and focuses on securing artifacts from Brotherhood agents. The campaign has both single player and online co-operative play options. There is also a "Hit List" option where players can replay specific missions from the Vendettas campaign as well as new ones specific to the Hit List mode. Each character has two unique upgrade trees corresponding to their unique weapon and Darkness power, and a third tree improves the characters skill with guns.

The player(s) are tasked to assault settlements belonging to the Brotherhood to gain information, eliminate a target, or obtain an artifact. The campaign requires you to find and bring Johnny Powell to the Mansion and look for the Spear of Destiny at a heavily armed business facility owned by a millionaire named David Graves. Once David has been found, David plunges the Spear of Destiny, (which was used to contain a fragment of the Darkness following Jackie's capture), into his chest, transforming himself into a flying dragon-like hell-beast. Once David is defeated, the four characters return to the mission table and are congratulated upon their success. The campaign ends with the mob leaving the four to carry on with their own motives, but being told not to leave the city as the mob will likely require their help again in the near future.

Development

Unlike the first game, the graphics for The Darkness II were developed using a cel-shading technique, emulating the aesthetic of its graphic novel namesake. The style was achieved with the development artists hand painting the majority of the game's assets, instead of relying on digital methods to create a comic book style.[4]

Musician Mike Patton reprises his role as the voice of The Darkness, but this time sharing the voice acting with actor Brian Bloom. Brian Bloom furthermore replaces the role of Kirk Acevedo, who provided the voice of Jackie Estacado in the previous game.[5]

Reception

The Darkness II received positive reviews from critics. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Xbox 360 version 81.45% and 80/100,[6][9] the PlayStation 3 version 77.68% and 79/100[7][10] and the PC version 76.37% and 77/100.[8][11] PSM3 and Xbox World magazines awarded the game 8.1 out of 10 and said that the game is "Not perfect, but deeply satisfying to blast through."[12] Both Official Xbox Magazine U.S.[13] and Official Xbox Magazine UK[14] awarded the game a 9 out of 10, with the U.S. edition praising the dark story, "excellent" combination of Darkness powers and gunplay, brutal finishing moves, and fun cooperative multiplayer, while criticizing the campaign's relatively short length and problems reviving allies in multiplayer. The UK edition said "It's one of the best shooter-stories we've seen in years - justifying its own ludicrous nature in interesting and unexpected ways. If the ending didn't feel like such a cop-out, The Darkness II could have been on par with BioShock. As it is, the gripping narrative and wonderfully empowering combat mean you'll be talking about it for months after completing it." X360 magazine listed the game with its predecessor as one of their "Favourite Shooters With More Than Just Guns".[15]

Playstation Official Magazine gave the game 9 out of 10,[16] stating "no graphic novel has been brought to life in such a deliciously gory manner, with offing goons turned an art form." Gameshark gave the game 9.1 out of 10,[17] praising the heavy focus on storyline and the action packed gameplay. IGN gave the game an 8 out of 10, praising the visuals and gameplay, but suggested the game lacks polish and the story, while enjoyable, isn't as strong as the original. [18] GameSpot gave it a 7 out of 10, praising the gameplay, story, skill tree, and sound. The negative aspects of the game, in their view, include the short campaign, predictable enemy A.I, unsatisfactory multiplayer and linear level design.[19] Gametrailers gave it a 7.4 out of 10.[20]

Soundtracks

Trailer Version

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Take-Two Interactive Software - Investor Relations - Take-Two News Release". Phx.corporate-ir.net. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  2. ^ "The Darkness 2 Announced". GameTrailers.com. 2011-02-08. Retrieved 2011-03-21.
  3. ^ Susan Arendt. "The Darkness 2 First Look". The Escapist.
  4. ^ IGN Staff. "Darkness II: The Basics". IGN.
  5. ^ "Brian Bloom confirmed as the new voice of Jackie Estacado". The Gaming Liberty.
  6. ^ a b "The Darkness II (Xbox 360)". GameRankings. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  7. ^ a b "The Darkness II (PlayStation 3)". GameRankings. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  8. ^ a b "The Darkness II (PC)". GameRankings. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  9. ^ a b "The Darkness II for Xbox 360 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  10. ^ a b "The Darkness II for PlayStation 3 Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  11. ^ a b "The Darkness II for PC Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More at Metacritic". Metacritic.com. 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2012-03-20.
  12. ^ "Review: The Darkness 2 Review". ComputerAndVideoGames.com. 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  13. ^ "Official XBOX Magazine | The Darkness II review". Oxmonline.com. 2012-02-03. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  14. ^ "Xbox 360 Review: The Darkness II Review - Xbox 360 - The Official Magazine". Oxm.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  15. ^ "BioShock Infinite, Syndicate and the Darkness II : Our Favourite Shooters With More Than Just Guns". X360 Magazine. 2012-02-22. Retrieved 2012-03-22.
  16. ^ "The Darkness 2 PS3 review". Official PlayStation Magazine. 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  17. ^ Author: Brandon "Dark Essence" Cackowski-Schnell (2012-02-07). "Reviews | The Darkness II Review". GameShark. Retrieved 2012-02-19. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  18. ^ Anthony Gallegos (2012-02-07). "The Darkness II Review - Xbox 360 Review at IGN". Xbox360.ign.com. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  19. ^ "The Darkness II Review". GameSpot.com. 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2012-02-19.
  20. ^ Posted: Feb 7, 2012 (2012-02-07). "The Darkness II Video Game, Review | Video Clip | Game Trailers & Videos". GameTrailers.com. Retrieved 2012-02-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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