I never played the original console exclusive 'The Darkness' back in 2007 when it was released because frankly, it looked bad and i heard bad things. Now four and a half years later the sequel is being released and why should you care if you never bothered with the first like myself?
Well from the first footage shown, it was obvious the game was going for a different feel. I kind of liked what i saw and was all the more interested knowing that a different developer had taken over the reigns of creating the title from Starbreeze Studios. Digital Extremes, best known for their work on the Unreal Tournament, Bioshock and Homefront Games have their own vision of what they want from the comic book adapted 'The Darkness 2'. Now sporting cell-shaded graphics and a quad wielding system, it immediately catches the eye. So when i noticed the demo appear on Steam i was inclined to give it a try.
Taking place 2 years after the previous game the story continues with you re-taking the role of the current holder of The Darkness. The demo begins with seeing yourself with your hands nailed brutally into wood behind you, and in it's own special way the new art style makes it look beautiful. And of course the guy doing to you is wanting to take your Darkness powers and you're provided with a variety of flashbacks. Firstly we're treated to a walk through a posh restaurant, showing off the new art style to full effect. And while it isn't the prettiest thing on PC by a long shot, it's better than most other console ports. Anyway I'm not going to talk you through ever scene, let's get to the action (I'm sorry that sounded gay, it won't happen again in this article.)
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| Yes you can do that while not in a cut-scene, seriously. |
After a bit of a commotion we get a nice hand-held tutorial section beginning with being dragged backwards to safety by a friend whilst having to shoot pop-up enemies with the aid of some very console aim-assist. I'm not sure if there's an option to turn this off, i hope so it made me feel nauseous (but not as much as the console FOV...) After some more pretty explosions and cut scenes the demo gets very interesting. The game introduces us to quad wielding, that's fucking right. Whereas the first game allowed us to dual-wield guns OR The Darkness demon arms, we can now use both at the same time and it works, really damn well. You know you're having fun when you could easily be shooting your enemies and winning, but choose not to and instead go for the slower option of taking them out with your Darkness demon arms because it's so satisfying! One arm slashes and the over grabs, combine their uses and pick up a bad guy, throw him up in the air and tear him in half. The animations are beautiful and the art style fits like a glove. This continues for the rest of the demo with the odd cut-scene and flashback and also with everything you do you earn points that you can spend on new abilities. It all plays pretty well and i had a smile on my face the whole time.
Sure i didn't take much notice of the story, i don't really care, it was fun. While it is a console port the frame rate stayed at a steady 60fps on highest settings on my system apart from the odd slowdown and stutter, which I'm sure will be fixed by release. The game will be using Steamworks integration and is due for release on February 7th 2012 in the US, and the 10th in the UK.
Buy it here and/or download the demo - http://store.steampowered.com/app/67370/
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