One step backwards or one step sideways?
Anyways, the first game featured a gritty, dark, bloody and somewhat authentic (Hollywood movie-wise) mobster underworld. But that game did not have you fight hordes and hordes of oncoming identical enemies. There was an unpredictable pacing and you could not always tell what kind of enemies would be attacking you or how many of them there would be. You also had room to explore, take subways to various locations and even run around the Downtown New York area, which was conveniently walled off for some reason, as if it were a Warsaw ghetto.
There was plenty of originality, character development, minor "wow factors" and plot twists. And there was little to no auto-aim, which is good when playing with a mouse but not so good when playing with two sticks. Plus, every time you killed someone and had the demons eat hearts, it actually felt like it was happening because there weren't that many enemies to deal with. (think of killing zombies individually in Dead Island and killing hordes of them in sheer seconds in Left4Dead).
This time around, The Darkness II pretty much turned everything around 180 degrees. They scrapped the realistic looking engine and replaced it with the cell shaded comic-like, Borderlands type of engine. It looks like they combined crayon coloring and heavy lighting, so what you end up with is a Scanner Darkly type of graphics. You can't see your legs this time and you cast no shadow (unlike in part 1). They threw in tons of enemies at you so you can't really feel the difference between killing 10 or 20 enemies. So basically, you are a cartoon character killing other cartoon characters in various cartoonish, albeit brutal ways. Your British sidekick, darkling, helps you out on occasion by going through the vents, scratching faces and pissing & farting on bodies. Cute.
I must say, the pacing of this game is very predictable. lots of enemies pop up every 20 paces or so, I kid you not. It's like a constant murder-spree marathon where you want to keep the momentum. 90% of these enemies are completely identical, and it's quite noticeable. So you keep running straight whilst killing them either with thrown objects, bullets or demon arms. You seriously do not need to stop in this game to count your breath or think tactics. Other enemies appear later on carrying industrial flashlights to blind you and take away your ability to use the demon arms. But they too can be quickly dispatched.
Needless to say, the game does suck you in though and you CAN finish it in one sitting. But in my case it is so because it is quite easy and not challenging. I started off the game on the hard difficulty but then switched to the easiest difficulty because I just wanted to run through the game and finish it, I didn't feel challenged and I did not feel the need to be challenged.
As mentioned above, the first game had little to no auto-aim, hence my frustrations. This game however has incredible auto aim. You can get headshots from afar with little effort. There's barely any difference between a pistol, an AK-47, an UZI and a revolver; the shotgun delivers though. And you can't even turn the damn thing off! I play with a mouse now, I can get headshots by myself , thank you very much.
Anyways, you get points of "essence" for each various kill and then use the essense points to get new finishing kills, new abilities, faster health regeneration, etc. However, I am pretty sure I could beat the game on hard difficulty without resorting to any one of these upgrades. They should have made an achievement for that.
There's no need to spoil the story (secret societies and all...) It's okaish, and the ending is somewhat satisfying too.
Oh and you also have a personality and character (a rare feat in FPS genre).
Basically this is an arcade rail corridor shooter with few new gameplay mechanics, so at least you can't be mad at the developers since their demo showed the game exactly for what it is. You rush, shoot, slice, dice, dismember, devour, crush, blow up, even disembowel your enemies. It's pretty mindless and without any substance. The city is apparently devoid of civilians (the first game had more), and there are apparently hundreds of armed goons that are on the payroll to kill you. Also, you are the Don, yet you are the one killing everyone, not your employees or the members of your crime family (yeah I know you got the demon arms but still, I didn't feel like the Don). The pacing of the game stalls when you hang out at your mansion built on top of a New York City skyscraper, but there is little to do there but turn on water faucets, view yourself in the mirror and exchange a few words with people. It's all pretty glamorous and unrealistic, or so it seems at first (DOT DOT DOOOT)...
In the end, I'm not sure if the developers wanted anyone to take the game seriously or if they just wanted to deliver a comic-book style arcade shooting along with the M-rated narrative. I don't think any new ground was broken here but I am definitely sure that this game is not an improvement over the first game.
I didn't play the co-op yet, but from the looks of it, it's just mindless shooting at hordes of enemy AI.