My Darkness 2 review

User Rating: 7.5 | The Darkness II PC
By kenjing1 | Review Date:
Having played the demo, I knew experiencing the full game was a must. This game is bloody and full of shooting action. After tapping into Jackie's dark powers, it dawns on you that this game is quite different than most other games. Especially if you never played the first "Darkness" game. It plays out like a first person shooter and adds a "power" element that leaves your character sprouting 2 demonic tentacles, dual wielding weapons (making for some nice quad wielding mayhem), and abilities that will leave your victims in vain. From ripping torso's to chucking debris at foes, all of these elements make "The Darkness 2" stand out and you start to believe the comic book style art that breathe's life into Jackie's world. The story tells a tale about Jackie Estacado, a don in the Franchetti crime family, who battles opposing mobsters, while the death of his former girlfriend, Jenny Romano, haunts him and soon visions of her start to run rampant in his mind. Jackie's nemesis, Victor Valente, has captured Jackie and tries to drain the darkness from his body. Victor keeps Jackie suspended from reality with dreams in a psychiatric ward that populate members of his crime family who pose as nurses, doctors, and patients. While the believed deceased Jenny is really trapped in the darkness realm and soon Jackie will perish with Victor claiming the darkness power, unless Jackie can fight it and realize what is happening around him. This all make's for some interesting story telling that can leave the player trying to decipher whats real and whats not.

Maneuvering through the world in mostly dark lit areas is a must because Jackie's darkness ability leaves him vulnerable to the light. So avoiding flash beams, street lights, and indoor fixtures becomes integral to advancing areas and staying alive, which can make for some difficult situations while battling enemies that give this game an element all on it's own. Upgrading your powers and abilities is nice, hence you can pull them off with dandy button pressing in the fray of gun battles. Replenishing health consist of eating dead enemies hearts via the demonic tentacles. The game never felt incredibly difficult, giving you had enough resources at your disposal to take out enemies with and having the ability to melee your victims with your demonic tentacles and having checkpoints spread out conveniently, left you feeling like a powerful adversary. It's quite a fun game and leaves fan's of first person shooters, as well as others, a variety of gameplay elements that tells a dark tale and provokes a mood that get's your blood pumping.

Some of the things that I believe could have made it even more interesting would have been the ability to control vehicles, interactive segments that left the player choosing their fate and consequences that would reflect those choices, instead of the branching ending that concluded the game. Mini areas that provided side quests or alternate paths and perhaps some weapon customization that gives the player a unique experience. However, the "darkling"(sidekick companion) being used as a weapon was a nice feature. These are just the minor things, giving they added the "Vendetta" mode, which further adds to the replayability. You and friends (or go solo) can play through the missions, that may be fun....for awhile. This game sets out to be a dark, blood thirsty, provocative, linear shooter with an interesting story, but comes short lived with a short campaign and enemy A.I. that is questionable. It might keep you entertained until you complete the game and either love or hate the ending. Worth a playthrough from beginning to end, but after it's all said and done, it may leave you in the darkness.

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