The Darkness II Video Review (PlayStation 3)

Here's a tip for people yet to play this: play it on normal difficulty. There's only two difficulty achievements - one for completing it and one for completing it on the hardest difficulty. The two hardest difficulty settings are frustrating beyond belief and will probably ruin the game for you, like I suspect it did for me.

@Strykarr man i totally agreed with you.. Mr. VanOrd should do something else than reviewing games, not an insult or anything but really.. where are the real gamers this days?? we really should appreciate more whats given to us, and if u dont want to spend 60$ then just rent or wait the price go down.. dont try to rush playing everygames that are coming out.. whats the rush for? to be broke before the half of the month?? For example when the PS4 will come out I will still plays the PS3 for another decades if I can...

Gory beyond expectations.

Look good

I just finished this game. All I can say it f****** mental! A lot more messed up than the first. Also I don't know where they got 5 hours from. My Steam says 9. And I haven't played anything else but the campaign yet.

I got The Darkness 2 yesterday for my PC, and I Can't add the title into my GameSpot Account as My Collections, GS do something? :(

I got my 360 because of this game. when I saw The darkness trailer I don't know why but I was hooked even the title draw me into it when I finally got my 360 with The darkness I wasn't disappointed even today I still play it alot. I have both darkness games If they had left every thing that was in the first but the place an kept the graphics an made everything feel more real instead of cartoony and when he releases the darkness out again he should still have the powers he had from the first. also the bosses were super boring being able to use the same attacks not to mention dumb AI. I was hoping the darkness 2 would have the ability to toss cars with the darkness claw. I like the darkness 2 but I was hoping for realism with the same ability's even the up close an personal execution. maybe I'll change my rating after playing it more.

Demo was good, but at 5 hours I'll wait for a price drop. You give me 5 hours, I give you $19.99 not 60.

A 5 hour game is incredibly poor value for money, unless you rent it. It looks like a fun filled 5 hours though.

I feel this review really doesn't do this game justice... It fails to mention the games focus on the inner conflict Jackie feels for his dead girlfriend Jenny and the powerful element this plays in the story. I really felt myself empathizing with Jackie and feeling the lose that he must be going through. If you're a fan of the first game you owe it to yourself to check this game out!

it was kind upseting i expected more :( but not bad

The first game was epic. I bought my PS3 and the first game I got on it was The Darkness. I'd been waiting to play it for so long, and it met my expectations and then some. So sad that Starbreeze isn't in the developer's seat in this installment. Everything they touch turns to gold. Well, here's looking at you, Syndicate.

5hrs? wtf?

I like my shooters linear with dumb enemies, and don't want to have to think while I'm shooting people in the face. I still prefer DOOM and Quake to most FPS.

A 7 for a game that short? Sorry dude but you just shot your own credibility in the foot. Maybe you get your games for free Kevin but the rest of us have to pay for them, those of us in Australia have to pay $100AUD. Any game with a campaign that short should start at a 5/10 & go down from there. There is no excuse other than sheer laziness & lack of creativity to release any game today that short. It's expensive enough for games today & it seems many developers are trying to save cash by cutting corners & charging us the same price. I'm still playing my original Skyrim campaign after 350 hours & I still have a long way to go. What's Digital Extremes/2K Games excuse?

Why do they play on a ps3 on a pc review?

I was thoroughly not impressed with the demo.

Great game. Wasn't really that short. Ya if you play it on easy and just blow through the story and skip dialogue scenes then it would be shorter, but you would be missing the best part of the game. Plus it encourages you to play though it multiple times with a robust upgrade tree that will require multiple plays through the campaign to upgrade everything. The online is also very fun. Each character has their own unique executions and upgrades with a good number of missions.

$60 for 5 hours of entertainment, its no wonder people rent and buy used.

a review is a masked opinion,play it for yourself to truly know what its like

Not to piss anyone off, but I seriously wish reviewers would play games as if they hadn't played anything else. This would help with the bias. Seriously, what could you do in any shooter that hasn't been done. This goes with any game, action, rpg, adventure... You'll find similiar stuff in everything you play giving that been there done that feel. If we look at all game reviews as if the play has been done elsewhere, then we wouldn't be buying anything at all. I support the developers and I am mature enough to make my own decisions. If I spend the money and the game sucked, that's my loss but I wouldn't try to deter someone else from their experience. That's what makes us all exceptional. We all love games and though we may all have different opinions, we are still gamers and love to play. I am so sick of hearing reviews that compare games to others. Honestly, it would be almost impossible to find something that didn't resemble another game. I don't want to hear how a game is like another, I want to hear a real review like sound design, graphics and game play. No whining about how something has been done before. Happy gaming!

i always trust Kevin VanOrd reviews :) gamespot is lucky to have him if he says the games is a 7 then its a 7 unlike other reviews where the darkness II got a 10/10 or 6/10 :/

I think a score of 7.0 is not bad at all. I am going to try this game

5 hours for 60 bucks, naw I can get better value for my money. Maybe when this drops down to 20 bucks I'll get it. A single player game should never only be 5 hours. At least with MW3 and BF3 they have the online aspect to hook you in.

I hope during the game I can stop for 1 1/2 hours to watch a full movie in it

Its a shame they didnt retain the epic music from the original, other than that looks a like a great game to play in between lengthy rpg's

Not as turned on for the sequel (liked the first one) but will likely get it when I can get it cheaper. Cell shaded actually looks pretty cool.

I prefer the first games visual style but still this looks nice, hope it has good music.

There really needs to be a change in the pricing strategy. They must be priced accordingly to the content and length of a game. You can't expect people to pay the same for a game that is 5 hours long compared to one that is 10s to 100s hours long. I would gladly pay £20 for a game of this length but never full price. It's a shame as if it was priced cheaper the developers would see some of that money, but as it stands I will probably get this pre-owned in a few months and they will get nothing...

this review is garbage: 1- 5 hours? (yeah, possible on an EASY difficulty and rushing through the game like u already know where to go n how many to kill) 2- the gunning is typical? (DUH, this game's main aspect is on darkness n its powers not rifles n MWIII action Sequels, it encourages u to cut more n shoot less, yeah it would seem typical if u start playing this game like u played MWIII , BF3 etc...) ... THIS WAS A DESCENT GAME, NOT LIKE ANYTHING I'VE SEEN OR PLAYED FOR A WHILE, IT'S SO ENTERTAINING AND, THE STORYBOARD WAS SIMPLE BUT THE TWISTS THEY PUT IN IT MADE IT OUTSTANDING, I THINK IT'S WORTH A PURCHASE, YEAH U'LL PAY $60 FOR THIS N OF COURSE THE SAME FOR MASS EFFECT 3, 2 DIFFERENT WORLDS, I KNOW...BUT THE GAME THAT MAKES U GO BACK N PLAY IT AGAIN AFTER 2 OR 3 YS OF ITS RELEASE IS WORTH PAYING N SO IS THIS GAME...

I won't buyin this, 5hours campaign is too low

Just completed the game for the 1st time, WHAT A BLAST! Fantastic fun, had a very good time with the first playthrough... The length... 7 hours for me, i enjoyed every detail and played it on the toughest difficulty, game wasn't that short AT ALL! perfect length for me, buy the game folks, instead of renting...

This looks like a descent game. Might just get it pre-owned.

Anyone else notice Kevin just sounds bored in all the video reviews lately?

Looks clunky and repetitive, just like the original. Really cool concept - awful execution.

5 hours seriously? no way im paying full price for something i will complete in one afternoon, guess i will just rent this one

just finished the game,it took me 8h and 27 minutes on normal difficulty,i died maybe 5 times,it's not long as the first one but it's also not short as they say,all i can say is that it's a great game,not a 7,but 8.5.story in the game is awsome and i enjoyed every minute of it.

@brianhockey1350 You just didn't compared a pure RPG with a FPS... right?

@mikmck2006 You gotta be kidding, or trolling... both maybe? The Modern Warfare series, is a complete joke. In EVERY sense of the word. If the modern warfare campaign is top notch, then GRAW has to be OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! MW campaign's are a complete wash of past games... entirely too easy, predictable, and most of all, "run of the mill" Black ops being a great example. Its MP falls under the same cata's too... too easy. ---- As for Darkness II... already beat the game, took 4 hours 40 minutes.... shortest game that ive spent full price on, ever.

waiting till it's 15 to 20 dollars

Man, I can't believe developers are still expecting gamers to pay full price for a game thats under 10 hours.. i mean this looks great and all, but considering I put nearly 200 hours into something like Skyrim or Dragon Age it just feels hard to shell out what little money I have for an afternoon's worth of content

Really liked the first one and was looking forward to this but a 5 hour campaign means that this has just gone from being a buy to a rent.

Loved the first game this one looks good but I'm not a fan of the comic book look, played the demo felt like a wii game but I'll give it a go.

No way am I paying full price for a 5 hour game... Those days have been over for a long time.

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I don't really care about the score here, the first one was SUPERB and this one looks pretty good, that's enough for me :)

They rave about how EPIC every cod is with their 4-5 hour sp and rag on TD2... they are forgetting the darkness 2 have some very intresting looking co-op

:o I didn't see that coming especially since I played the demo and loved it

I dont mind a 5 hour game as long as its an astonishing 5 hours packed with great gameplay and story. I never liked the look of the original darkness but when I played it I was instantly hooked. I actually prefer the look of this one but that low score has me doubting it.

To hell with paying premium prices for 5 hours. Thats ridiculous. One of those times I dust down my console and rent it. £5 and completed.