Darkness II Demo

At this year at PAX East, The Darkness II was shown. It was not a playable demo but quick game play run through the first few minutes of the game. Obviously the game is a sequel picking up where the first one left off following Jackie Estacado after he takes control of the crime family.

If you missed the first the game, the player starts with the Darkness with some powers not being unlocked until later. The Darkness powers include summoning different types of imp-like “darklings” that can attack, using “dark tentacles” to impale enemies or break down walls, using “creeping dark” tendrils that sneak along floors, walls, and ceilings to take out things from a distance and creating a black hole that sucks anything nearby into it.

During the game, Estacado also comes into possession of the “darkness guns” that are more powerful than many normal weapons but use some amount of darkness energy in order to fire. The darkness guns are held one in each hand, the one on the right being a small minigun, and the other is a sort hand cannon (think desert eagle) that fires powerful rounds. These Darkness powers cannot be used when Estacado is in a well-lit area but become stronger in darker conditions. The player is able to shoot out lights to help increase the amount of dark energy available for their attacks. Additionally, by using the Darkness to consume the hearts of the victims of the attacks, the player can further increase the effects of the Darkness powers.

In the demo many of the games textures were cleaned up and the levels looked even closer to NYC than the original. That is because the game is closer to a graphic novel style which really suits the time period in which this game takes place. The characters seem to pop off the screen. The voice acting seems pretty solid, there wasn’t too much serious dialogue in the demo but I did appreciate that Estacado did not spew one liners while he was doing his dirty deeds.

The major thing that I noticed was that the arms played a larger role in the actual combat, especially the left one. In prior titles the left arm really didn’t do too much except eat the hearts. In this one it is doing more grabbing and is way more useful in the offense. Not to be out done the right arm has directional slashes which makes of interesting combos. Stealth kills and executions make it into this game, one of my favorite ones was a chestburster-esque kill with the arms(I’ve been on an aliens kick this weekend).

The game overall seems as if it is a step up from the previous version and looks way polished in the demo. Hopefully 2k can keep pace and get the game out when it is done and not try to rush I feel that it can be a solid title if it is given the time it needs.