Title: The Darkness II

Genre: First-person shooter

Platform Reviewed On: PC

Also Available On: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Mac

Developer: Digital Extremes

Publisher: 2K Games

Release Date: February 7, 2012

In Digital Extremes' twisted shooter The Darkness II, protagonist Jackie Estacado is a monster -- and players will probably feel like one, too. Jackie's excuse for being such a beast is that he has been possessed by the titular demonic force. For Jackie, this means myriad psychological issues and internal torment. For players, it grants the ability to utterly eviscerate enemies in a large volume of sadistic ways. 

Considering that it's seemingly so concerned with using over-the-top gore to grab players' attention, The Darkness II tells a surprisingly competent story. Taking place two years after the events of the first game, Jackie is now the boss of the Franchetti crime family, and he's still distraught over the death of his girlfriend, Jenny, in the first game. A mysterious attack on his family causes Jackie to lose control of his suppressed Darkness abilities, and he's soon set forth on a bloody rampage of destruction to seek revenge on the aggressors. 

The setup sounds mundane, but the narrative evolves in some interesting ways. Though the overarching, "evil versus more evil" conflict is never hugely compelling, developer Digital Extremes surrounds this archetypal revenge tale with some well-crafted personal development of the protagonist. The narrative had me largely engaged and actively questioning Jackie's reality. A compelling final choice sets the stage for what should be a grand finale, but instead, The Darkness II stumbles during its tail end, resulting in an anticlimactic final encounter and ending with a ludicrous cliffhanger that will likely never be explained. 

The gameplay has players stomping through forgettable environments and taking down hordes of nameless goons, courtesy of the game's amusing "quad-wielding" mechanic. On top of being able to dual-wield a pair of firearms, players control Jackie's two Darkness tentacles, which are capable of whacking, chomping, dismembering, and generally laying waste to all who stand in Jackie's way. The system may sound convoluted, but it's impressively user-friendly and controls well enough once players have gotten the hang of the unconventional scheme. Though I often found myself struggling to devote the necessary focus to use Jackie's gunplay skills and Darkness powers in tandem, switching between the two methods of enemy disposal makes for entertaining, varied combat encounters. And occasionally, I'd manage to tie my tentacles and guns together into some gruesome, seamless whole.

Unfortunately, there's sometimes simply too much happening on-screen. This issue is most prevalent when Jackie is being continually exposed to light and then cloaked in darkness, because doing so triggers an elaborate animation and nauseating visual filter wherein the demonic arms fizzle as Jackie's powers subside. 

Gunplay has a loose, arcade-y feel that fits the game's exaggerated style and lends itself well to the impreciseness inherent in quad-wielding mayhem. The tentacles are, obviously, Jackie's more unique combat option. The left tentacle can be used to grab items and enemies, and to eat (yes, eat) their hearts to regain health, while the right is used mainly as a bludgeon. The Darkness II manages to throw enough entertaining toys into the mix, like throwable spears, shields, and black holes, to keep the tentacles' relatively small ability set interesting. The title's inconsequential RPG-system tries to add longevity and is fun at first, but useful upgrades soon run dry, and I finished the game with a large pool of unspent points. Still, The Darkness II's relatively brief, six-and-a-half hour duration ensures that the chaotic gameplay doesn't overstay its welcome. 

The brutality that players are capable of inflicting upon enemies is entertaining at first, but it begins to grow tiresome as the game progresses. The gore lacks the inflated, tongue-in-cheek cheesiness of something like Mortal Kombat, which can lead to it sometimes feeling unnecessary, and, worse yet, simply disgusting -- especially when the small batch of execution animations begins to repeat itself ad nauseam. 

The game's cartoon-ish visuals can help to offset the gross-factor to an extent. As a whole, though, The Darkness II is a mixed bag in the graphics department. Darkness abilities look sleek, and certain environments showcase some nice lighting effects, but characters are another story. Facial animations are distractingly rough for such a narrative-heavy game, movements are stiff and un-lifelike, and models are embarrassingly jaggy in places. These problems are more noticeable during The Darkness II's quieter moments, because when you're tearing enemies to shreds with demonic arms, it's hard to stop and notice the ugly textures on display.

The Darkness II is at its best when distracting players from its issues with relentlessly frantic action. When the chaos becomes too much, the game is good at taking a moment to slow down and introduce a compelling story segment, or to temporarily place players in the shoes of their ape-like Darkling companion.

In spite of its apparent flaws, the game succeeds at making players feel like unstoppable monsters, albeit at the frequent expense of decency and difficulty. Gamers not looking for either of those things should have a bloody good time. 

Score: 3/5 stars

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