There's nothing special about The Darkness II, but it still manages to offer a gripping story and plenty of gore.
The story picks up two years after the events of The Darkness, with cursed protagonist Jackie Estacado now the leader of his family's crime syndicate. Still brooding over the loss of his girlfriend Jenny Romano, Jackie continues leading his crew of men and combatting the monstrous entity, The Darkness, that gives him superhuman abilities. When Jackie's syndicate is attacked by a rival gang, Jackie begins having visions of Jenny along with an alternate reality where he is an inmate in an insane asylum. Turns out that The Darkness doesn't want to leave his body, but once an occult organization called The Brotherhood bursts onto the scene, Jackie is forced to take action and use The Darkness, whether he likes it or not. The story, despite its angsty protagonist and somewhat boring antagonist, is a very well-represented narrative. The tug-of-war between Jackie and The Darkness is fantastically presented, usurping focus from the dull Brotherhood. Even the goofy romantic dialogue from Jenny seems to have a place in The Darkness II. As far as FPS stories go, The Darkness II doesn't hold back in giving the player something to work for when unfolding the narrative. It's a dynamic and intense tale that sets the bar high for shooter storylines.
The Darkness II plays very much like any other first-person shooter game in its generation. You can do the archetypal techniques like dual-wield different guns, melee attack, and the like. Enemies will swarm into your very linear path and start shooting or rushing you with melee attacks. Defeat the enemies to progress through the path. The shooting controls feel very good, especially the dual-wielding of guns, but enemies are downright stupid and rely mostly on numbers and the occasional armor upgrade to force the player's hand. The AI will run at you while you deliver headshots, wait for you to reload from around a corner or even stand in one place as their teammates are mowed down by a barrage of submachine gun bullets. The Darkness II's template is riddled with so many tropes and issues from the shooter genre that staying interested in the game relies almost entirely on the story.
The Darkness II's major combat draw is that Jackie isn't limited to guns alone. Using the power of The Darkness, Jackie can "quad-wield" with two guns and two dark tentacle-like appendages to attack with. The Darkness "arms" expand Jackie's abilities considerably. Jackie can grab weakened enemies to execute them, reach for environmental objects to equip, or simply beat a thug senseless with a quick swipe. The catch is that The Darkness can only be used in the shadows, so bright flood lights or lampposts must be taken care of to use the shadow skills much more frequently. The Darkness can also be used to harvest hearts from enemies to restore health on the fly. The Darkness opens a lot of doors for Jackie and the player to try out gorier and more complex moves, but normally, running and gunning is the most efficient way to deal with the herds of enemies that burst onto the scene.
Jackie can expand his skillset even more with Dark Essence, which is earned by taking out enemies with different skills or finding rare Relics scattered about each area. The Essence is spent in a "store" of sorts. The available skills follow a skill tree, which can offer abilities like earning health or ammo when executing an enemy, summoning a swarm of insects to distract enemies, or faster reload times for certain guns. While it's nice to see a solid amount of variety in the available skills (the insect swarm is particularly useful), the overall framework of The Darkness II doesn't reward that variety nearly as much as a game like, say, Bulletstorm. You can pretty much use the same skills repeatedly. Buying the new skills is fun, but some skills also feel incredibly overpowered. Being able to earn health by quick executions is almost cheap in a way and using the same moves over and over doesn't show any kind of serious penalty. Earning Essence is rewarding and purchasing a new skill on the skill tree is exciting; it's just a shame that the game doesn't offer any major incentive for the player to try something outside of their established comfort zone.
The Darkness II's single-player story mode is a brief adventure, lasting only a handful of hours. Though the game's combat is intense and even the lighter stealth missions from the tag-along Darkling are fun distractions, The Darkness II doesn't divert enough from its core values to make a serious impression on the genre. The gameplay does take a cooperative shift in the Vendettas mode, where players can work together in a collection of other missions. Vendettas is a fine addition with a solid focus, but the running and gunning seen in the story mode transfers over, so don't expect a huge amount of variety in the game mode.
With its cel-shaded aesthetic and constant parallel between light and shadow, The Darkness II is a surprisingly sharp-looking shooter. The different cinematic sequences have a rugged and aged artistic design. The high amount of cel-shading definitely shows a stark contrast between the light and darkness, which complements The Darkness II at every turn. The environments can feel a bit stale at times, though the high amount of equippable objects add a dynamic element to the game design. For audio, Faith no More's Mike Patton makes a return to the voice acting circuit as The Darkness. Along with Brian Bloom as Jackie, the tension between the two makes the conflict captivating. The voice acting on the whole is quite good, as each character, no matter how small, makes an impact on what Jackie does. Though the sound effects and music can feel a bit stale, The Darkness II has a high amount of style in tow, something that keeps it going, even throughout its gameplay tedium.
The Darkness II delivers a fully functional and occasionally creative shooter experience, but that creativity doesn't last nearly as long as expected. The "quad-wielding" is mildly interesting at best, gimmicky at worst. There are many ways to disembowel, decapitate, and destroy your enemies; however, the game doesn't offer any serious incentive to break outside the player's norms. You don't even have to use The Darkness in combat; guns work exceptionally well. Still, The Darkness II holds a narrative that really draws the player in, despite the gameplay stagnancy. The graphic design is also incredibly atmospheric. You will want to persevere through the stale environments and surprise enemies just to see how Jackie's story unfolds. The Darkness II's simplistic enemy swarms may harken back to the dated decades of the shooter genre, but at the end of the day, there's still enough fun to be had butchering up thugs, throwing beams through their chests, and having your Darkness tendrils gobble up their still-beating hearts. It's a brief, simplistic, and unimaginatively designed first-person shooter, but during the few hours it lasts, it's also a surprisingly enjoyable one.