The Darkness II Xbox 360 game

The Darkness II

2012

Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5

from 3892 members

The Darkness is back, and it's darker (of course!) and bloodier than ever! It's about Jackie Estacado, a mobster who, on his 21st birthday, wound up hosting the Darkness, a sentient demonic force from the dawn of time. This demonic force has suitably demonic plans for Jackie but, having risen to the top of the mob, he's been keeping it in check for the last couple of years. It's all based on the comic of the same name (created by Marc Silvestri and Garth Ennis), though developer Digital Extremes (like Starbreeze before it) has taken a grittier, less fantasy-oriented direction than the source materiel. This sequel, at first glance, is a slightly odd beast. While in the first game demonic powers complemented first-person shooter mechanics as auxiliary gameplay mechanics, in The Darkness II your supernatural abilities are pushed right into the foreground from the word go. In the first game, you might remember, the Darkness was something you had to charge up and use judiciously. Here, it's something you're encouraged to use as much as possible, with Digital Extremes even going so far as to offer points for more elaborate kills, a la Bulletstorm. This makes for a shift in gameplay where the first game was about thinking your way through situations and managing resources (providing a note of survival horror), the sequel is faster and tends to encourage wholesale slaughter (as the 18+ BBFC rating indicates, this isn't a title for younger gamers). The primary manifestations of your Darkness powers are the tentacles that accompany you everywhere. Their main uses are slashing at opponents and using them to lift and fling things around the environment. There is, however, some subtlety to it. A key move, for example, is the execution. There is a range of these. They involve hoisting an opponent into the air and killing them in various unpleasant ways. Depending on the unpleasant murder method you choose, you'll receive benefits such as increased health or ammo. The Darkness's aversion to light makes a welcome return. You can't use your powers while you're being illuminated and your health won't regenerate. Add in the fact that you can't see a thing while a light's being shone in your face and it's a pretty good idea to shoot them out. It makes for an interesting strategic twist and stops the game being a mindless slaughter-fest. Overall, if you can stomach a bit of gore, The Darkness II offers a smart mash-up of FPS shooter and brawler play with a surprising amount of depth!

The Darkness II details

Formats:	18 PS3, Xbox 360
Players:	1-4
Genres:	Adventure, Role-playing, Shooter
Collections:	February - Games
Developers:	DIGITAL EXTREMES
Rental release:	10 Feb 2012

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Most helpful review The Darkness II

Jackie Mayhem!

By UsTlexi (34 reviews) from York, England , 13 Feb 2012

[Highly rated reviewer]

Awesome! The story line is amazing but it is very easy and very short. I managed to complete two playthroughs within 10 hours. The online mode has two sides; the hit list and co-op campaign. The achievements are very easy to get and should have 1000GS after 12 hours. None the less, i would highly recommend it.
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Story of the year.

By MDReview (8 reviews) , 27 Nov 2012

[Highly rated reviewer]

What a fantastic story!

It has been a while since I was so immersed in a story with some pretty interesting twists and turns.

The combat is pretty slick and has some awesome upgrades available.

Downside?

Enemies are copied and pasted and just thrown at you. Plus boss battles are done in seconds.

Pick it up though, fantastic game.
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not bad but not great

By denzul (1 review) , 02 Nov 2012

this game is ok but it is difficult not to compare it to the 1st and i found it was lacking in many areas. To put it bluntly, its not as good as the first title, i was particularly dissapointed with the lack of the minons and how quick the main storyline was over. In addition i was not keen on the comic book style graphics. I thought it detracted from the darkness of the game.
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Awesome but...

By Dannyboii1295 (4 reviews) from Stafford , 01 Nov 2012

This is a game packed with Gore, Violence and a decent yet relatively unbelievable storyline, while I did love the action and the perks involved were a nice touch, it never got old picking someone up and ripping them in two, giving you an awesome feeling of power. Still if Gore isn't your thing then steer clear, and the story line, while good was short taking me around 6-8 hours on the hardest difficulty, if you want a game that you can get through quickly then there aren't many short games I could recommend better than this one.
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great title

By zombiedave (2 reviews) , 01 Nov 2012

Great title, the comic book graphics are very nice and suit the game world perfectly. The violence is relentless with a huge array of ways to kill and dismember your victims. Multiplayer is pretty dead at this point I managed to get a few games and it's entertaining when you do get a game.
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Let the darkness out

By AbusedWomble (11 reviews) from Birkenhead , 22 Oct 2012

I rented this after playing the demo and as I really enjoyed it I looked forward to playing the full game. I wasn't disappointed this game delivers on fun, gore, emotions, shooting, well voiced cast great graphics. Only small thing I can find a issue with is the game length I had it on hard and completed it in 7 hours, don't take that as a bad thing though because it's an awesome game short but sweet.
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