I'm level 3 & still on the first Darkness Zone, but I've had a LOT of family obligations since the game came out so I probably haven't clocked a full hour straight with it yet, just short blocks of a few minutes each.

I've really had fun with it so far though.

I think it might be scarier, but storywise, it's tough to top The Last of Us.. so no.

Yes, it's violent. You can use guns, knives, bricks, poles, bombs, boards, etc to assault/kill people. Zombies can essentially rip your throat out.

It's definitely not designed for kids.

That said, to me, all the violence has a point, there's not a lot of violence-for-the-sake-of-violence.