Preview | The Darkness II
The surprise comic-inspired hit of 2007 will soon make a return to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. It may be under the guidance of a new developer but The Darkness II looks to have retained the same nifty mechanics and morbid sense of humour that gave the original its impact.
For the uninitiated, The Darkness refers to an ancient supernatural force that has been bothering the family of gangster Jackie Estacado for generations. After inheriting the unholy ability to feed off the dark on his 21st birthday Estacado promptly brutalises his way from street punk to mob boss, though not without cost to his mortal soul.
Part two kicks off a few years after Estacado’s bloody rise to power, he’s top of the crime world but the realm of the occult and supernatural goes way beyond the mafia’s reach. Pursued by a shadowy cult, wrestling with guilt over a dead girlfriend and struggling to come to grips with the Darkness’ true nature, the super-mobster still has his work cut out for him.
Starbreeze, the Swedish developer of the first darkness game, has been replaced on development duties by Canadian-based Digital Extremes, best known for creating portions of the Ultima series. Despite the switch-up those familiar with the demonic mayhem of the earlier game will feel immediately familiar.
A couple of demos have been released in advance of the game’s early February release and they showcase gameplay that remains fundamentally unchanged though slightly tweaked. The players can still call on all manner of ghastly dark powers to rend enemies limb from limb as well as mowing them down in more traditional gangland style. One important change is the shift from control over many different kinds of slave ‘darklings’ to a single sidekick able to perform a wider range of torturous activities.
Visually the game has also undergone a substantial change, with much of the environment hand-painted and inserted into the game with a cel-shaded approach. What we’ve seen so far looks very authentically comic book-ish.
The original surprised a lot of people as a rare instance of a licensed title doing something clever and new – while the sequel likely won’t be as shocking it certainly looks to have held the fort quality-wise.
