The Darkness 2 Review

When Starbreeze’s The Darkness reached its bloody climax, the closing scene lingered on Jackie Estacado and the spirit of his dead girlfriend, Jenny, as they embraced on a Central Park bench.

One of the many quieter, more sensitive moments that punctuated the violence, it not only reaffirmed the strong character development that had come to epitomise Starbreeze’s work to date, but also left players in no doubt as to its tone; this was a dark tale in every sense.

Jackie’s life, and curse, all of it couldn’t allow for a happy ending and the original game terminated with a shocking but inevitable sense of closure. 

The story could quite happily have stayed there, but the ongoing exploits of The Darkness comics have provided countless more opportunities for mayhem.

For Digital Extremes, the chance to evolve the gameplay and continue the story must have seemed like a no-brainer. And so we rejoin Jackie, now the head of the family, successfully repressing the evil force within him as a rival family attempt a classic Mafioso hit.

An event we’re sure would force many of us to reveal our darker sides, it literally rips The Darkness from within Jackie, saving his life, while simultaneously re-revealing his power to the world. 

While the original game offered a coming-of-age tale of sorts, Digital Extremes’ sequel kicks off the first of its many changes by opening the game with a twist of mystery.

The art style is easily one of the reasons to get on board with Darkness 2.

With The Darkness unleashed, Jackie’s life begins to unravel, visions of Jenny begin to trick his senses, and he discovers the true reason behind the attempt on his life. Things go from bad to worse for Jackie, with the involvement of a secret society known as The Brotherhood.

It was always going to be a tough act to follow, and Digital Extremes not only had to accommodate the high expectations of the fans but also had to let its own take on the game shine through.

Starbreeze’s original earned itself a cult following over the years and it’s easy to see why. Here, its core – hub environments, gory action, RPG-like character conversations, strong narrative pull – are still all on display, but unfortunately lack Starbreeze’s intelligence and deft touch of ingenuity.

The Darkness II is a far more structured affair in many ways, and in the Call Of Duty-focused world we have today, we can see why Starbreeze went in this direction. 

Unfortunately, as a direct result, The Darkness II does feel limited. Long corridors of the COD variety are the order of the day, and there are only two locations that Jackie continually returns to: his skyrise penthouse and an insane asylum he finds himself in whenever he loses consciousness.

While in the previous game you were able to explore your surroundings as and when you wanted to, soaking up New York’s grimy atmosphere, Digital Extremes’ game runs along at a fierce pace with little downtime and almost no opportunity for exploration.

Despite this, there’s a surprising amount of mileage made in Jackie’s relationship with both Jenny and The Darkness. Those iconic moments, such as watching To Kill A Mocking Bird and sharing an intimate smooch with Jenny, all find equally moving beats in the sequel.

Quad-wielding is still as much fun as it was in the original.

As Jackie tracks down The Brotherhood, he finds himself exploring many of New York’s mobster cliché locales (docklands, whore houses), but every so often the lighting will soften, Jenny will appear and the violence will melt away. 

Though they can feel fleeting and under-explored, these moments are well handled and when they present themselves, they show that there was no lack of ambition for the project.

It’s just a shame that The Darkness II’s short playtime limits what should be an engrossing experience. In between the carnage you’ll see glimpses of what Starbreeze accomplished previously, but nothing here is really approaching the depth or understanding of the original game.

Still, it’s clear that Digital Extremes has paid a lot of attention to the way the first game built on The Darkness comic, and interpreted its ideas into a playable form, which is great for fans of either.

Other than the change to a ‘comic noir’ look, it’s the focus on combat that gives the new game its notable style. This is first and foremost an inventive shooter in the same vein as People Can Fly’s Bulletstorm, with a similar XP reward system that allows for new Darkness abilities.

Some of which are reminiscent of the previous game, many are new, but all are equally violent and disgusting. It appeases The Darkness to see horrendous moments of mutilation, so limbs, legs and heads go flying in all directions, and the more pain you cause, the more XP you’ll gain.

But unlike the use of Bulletstorm’s humour to alleviate the horror, Jackie’s increasingly violent behaviour quickly begins to feel at odds with his growing disgust, and Digital Extremes fails to address this dichotomy convincingly.

Darkness 2 is particularly gory.

A new cel-shaded visual style is at the heart of this contradiction. Digital Extremes goes out of its way to present shocking ‘adult’ imagery by including various sex scenes and an absurd level of violence.

But the cartoon style works against it, undermining the attempt to present a complex adult world with meaning and pathos. This is, essentially, a child’s portrayal of violence and represents one of The Darkness II’s greatest missteps.

It fails to continue or evolve from the original game’s near-perfect mix of the same ingredients. This is most noticeable when there are moments within The Darkness II that do reveal a level of genuine sensitivity, but are followed through with neither elegance nor passion.

Despite the presence of The Darkness’ trademark tentacles, and their empowering effects, there’s a depressing lack of the titular beast itself. It feels much less like an omnipresent threat this time around, and without the inspired moments, such as Jackie’s acceptance of his fate in the Other World, there is an odd distance between the two characters.

And things aren’t helped by the repetitive and bland combat. Samey enemies, random boss encounters and confused AI all combine to create impressively dull corridors of death.

And while you will find car doors, gas tanks, massive pipes and other pieces of improvised weaponry to lob about, your artillery never advances beyond what you see during the opening level. 

Even The Brotherhood, aware of Jackie’s weaknesses, only present you with a limited variety of attacks and then repeat them, so it feels like Jackie is continuously going up against the same five guys over and over.

Light is still your enemy here, especially with torch-wielding bad guys.

Core combat becomes tiring long before the short single-player campaign comes to a head, which shouldn’t happen in any game let alone one with such a predecessor to live up to.

It’s painfully obvious, by the time the game’s big twist presents itself, that despite showing such great promise, Digital Extremes has exhausted the innovative combination of combat and story present in The Darkness. 

Despite these shortcomings, the game does sporadically hit the mark. Though no one area is consistently excellent, all aspects of the game from combat to level design do have something to be positive about.

The locations prove that the new art style can be manipulated to create atmospheric and sometimes beautiful landscapes. A derelict theme park shows a stunning contrast between colourful light and intense brooding dark, but also represents the complex relationships between Jackie, The Darkness, the Brotherhood and Jenny.

There are flashes of brilliance like this throughout, but despite a clever use of character here, a brief section of furious combat there, rarely does the game come together as well as Starbreeze’s original. 

Digital Extremes has successfully reinvigorated a series that could easily have been assigned to the bargain bin. Though it offers a much more straightforward and simple slice of comic book action, and falls short of replicating the original game’s narrative highs, The Darkness II is still worth a look.