Dual-wielding is for n00bs. The Darkness 2 takes the story-arc created with the first Darkness game and puts it on a linear shooter through a short psychosomatic made-for-television movie, of sorts. The biggest change, if you enjoyed the first Darkness, is the change in how the game itself plays. Darkness 2 is more of a Battlefield or Call of Duty-style game where the first Darkness had more of a role-playing/adventure feel for your character and his ties with the Mafia.
However, there is a silver lining to Darkness 2 – pun intended – it’s fun. Let me put it this way: if you laughed like a maniac throughout Blood or Splatterhouse, than Darkness 2 is for you.
Darkness 2 starts off with a typical story-line about a mobster who picks up “The Darkness,” which is how you gain your demonic powers. The darkness power gives you two new arms; a left which bashes everything in sight and a right arm which grabs and flings. Using the darkness, you can grab an enemy and whip them across the building or what is more fun for me: ripping them in half. The Darkness 2 is super-violent, hyper-bloody and with all the animation and graphics the level Darkness 2 has: fun to rip things apart. These “things” being people.
As you progress through the game, you’ll notice a few aggravating things: the first is the “help” which is as useful as a help desk agent who doesn’t speak English attempting to read from the big book of computer help. Turn it off as soon as you can, since it will annoy the hell out of you more than the help desk agent ever could. The second annoyance is the repetitiveness of the game. You can upgrade spells or abilities and do some excellent and unique things to your poor enemies, however in reality, you don’t need to. The rip and throw works great by themselves.
The worst part of all: the game can take less than five hours to complete from start to finish and around two hours to do the co-op “Vendetta” mode. There’s not much story to go on, minimalist at best, however, there is something which must be said about the sheer fun in ripping people apart for no reason.
As a gross afterthought: when your health becomes low, you can use your darkness arms to feed on those you’ve already destroyed and refuel in a sickening crunching.
The graphics and sounds are incredible, with a good amount of time and patience being spent on detail in these areas. I would have enjoyed a longer game, however it’s nice to see a game not take itself too serious and have fun for a change.
Bottom Line: If you laughed during Faces of Death, boy is this game for you.
Rating System: (0-10 ranking) |
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|---|---|---|
| Graphics: | Vivid colors and active animations. I don’t get the feeling I’m throwing light-poles at bad guys (and I don’t want to) however the sights and sounds are the pieces which stick with you the most after the game is over. | 9 |
| Storyline: | Minimal at best. You’re a Mafia guy who gets infected with “The Darkness” and keeps seeing visions of his dead girlfriend. Not much else to say without spoiling the ending… | 6 |
| Controls: | Standard FPS controls. I would like the mouse-wheel to change special abilities, however I’m sure I can change a setting somewhere. I didn’t have time to worry about it. | 7 |
| Replayability: | Similar to Diablo 2, you can replay the game on a harder difficulty once you beat the game and you get to keep all the upgrades and powers you found along the way. I’m not sure I’ll be doing this, however it is a nice option. | 8 |
| Value: | Depends how much you enjoy blood, guts and ripping people into Christmas dinner. Eww. | 8 |
| Total: | 76% | |
- Chris Tallant
