The Darkness II Review — IGN
The Darkness 2
By Anthony Gallegos
Updated: Feb 7, 2012 10:20 pm
Posted: Feb 7, 2012 1:00 pm
The comic book style violence of The Darkness II doesn’t merely shock, but delivers a sense of empowerment. Series protagonist Jackie Estacado rampages through his enemies, ripping them limb from limb in a bloody dance. The way he bounds through environments, tossing parking meters, car doors and more this way and that, utilizing it to flaunt his destructive abilities is almost artful.
The combat in The Darkness II is vastly superior to that of its predecessor, but the story takes time to warm up. As an origin story, the original game was immediately interesting, as we got to know Jackie as he was introduced to the titular Darkness. In the new game, though, Jackie controls the Darkness, much as he controls his mob family. He’s managed to keep his powers in check for some time following the events of the first game, but an attack on his organization by unknown forces brings out the monster inside. Now Jackie must confront not only the creature he’s become, but also the painful memories of losing Jenny, the love of his life.
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The story feels a bit lazy at times, especially since it copies plot devices straight from the original game, but comes into its own by the end. Jackie’s struggle to deal with Jenny’s death is touching, reminding us that even «evil» people like him feel love and loss. He was irrevocably harmed by Jenny’s death, and the scenes between them in the second game are touching, making The Darkness II feel like a more personal story, especially compared to most other shooters. The story of Jackie’s battle with evil forces remains important, but it always comes back to Jenny and his inner conflict, something that’s easy to identify and empathize with.
Slower, more story-focused scenes help The Darkness II’s pacing, giving it some comparatively less intense moments before ramping it back up with the next epic fight. With Jackie’s demon powers he has four arms at his disposal: two human two demonic.
His extra limbs allow him to dual wield guns with his human limbs, while simultaneously using his beastly extremities to maim opponents with slashes and toss around pieces of the environment. Because of Jackie’s extra limbs and the options they afford every encounter becomes more exciting, a time when you aren’t necessarily worried about how you’re going to survive, but more about how you’re going to have the most fun dismembering all who stand against you.
Achievements GuideRelic LocationsDarkness 2 WalkthroughSend us your tips »Tweet us your tips » Finding new ways to kill people is entertaining enough, but you’re also enticed into experimenting thanks to The Darkness II’s experience system. Kill a guy with bullets and you’ll gain 10 experience, but if you manage to wing him and then rip him into pieces with your demon arms you’ll get three times as much. Experience matters, too, as it grants Jackie access to more powers, which help reinvigorate combat as the enemies get more challenging.
You’ll always have staple moves that you come back to time and again throughout the campaign, but the array of powers Jackie has make fighting feel as fun and inspiring as being a kid digging through a toy box..
Despite its strengths, polish issues mar the campaign. On top of potential game ending bugs, broken animations, enemies falling through the floor and other minor issues occur frequently. More noticeably, enemies are often clones of one another, which breaks the experience a bit and makes some would-be nerve-racking moments feel silly. Also a bit frustrating are the occasional frame-rate issues in multiplayer during the more intense firefights. None of the issues made it feel unplayable, but did make The Darkness II feel unfinished.
Guns and demon arms? Yes, please.
The Darkness II’s multiplayer extends the narrative and the life of the game well after the relatively short campaign. The multiplayer isn’t like the original’s — a forced-in and boring competitive multiplayer — but instead ties directly into the story.
You play as one of four Darkness-powered assassins in Jackie’s employ, taking on missions that his normal henchmen can’t accomplish. The missions generally tie into parts of the story, like kidnapping a guy that Jackie asks for during the campaign, giving them a narrative component that makes them more significant. Even the missions that don’t link to the campaign’s story are worthwhile, as they give you and your buddies more fights to test your skills on. Most importantly, though, they’re fun. They may not be the types of things that grow into an addiction, but the multiplayer modes provide hours of extra gameplay, and give you a good reason to play with friends.
Despite some problems with polish and a story that takes time to develop into something great, The Darkness II ends up as an early treat in the new year. The narrative elements help the pacing considerably, breaking up Jackie’s engaging and brutal murderfests. It may not end up being the best shooter of 2012, but it could very well be the one that makes you feel the most powerful.
In This Article
The Darkness II
Digital Extremes
Rating
ESRB: Mature
Platforms
PlayStation 3PCXbox 360
The Darkness II Review
great
Anthony Gallegos
The Darkness II for PlayStation 3 Reviews
LONG REVIEW, SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN ONLY
The Darkness II is, simply put, a balls-out action game. A good balls-out action game, mind you,LONG REVIEW, SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN ONLY
The Darkness II is, simply put, a balls-out action game. A good balls-out action game, mind you, yet if not for its finely crafted narrative, it would be a mindless one. The only reason I bring this up is because this facet of the game appears in stark contrast to the deliberately slow moving, intelligent prequel.
The first game had you exploring a quasi-open world in attempt to exact revenge on those who wronged you.
You could simply meander around grim feeling subway stations, converse with the interesting cast of characters, or just watch entire movies on television if you felt like it. Along with this open world came intelligently designed puzzles, that if left unsolved, would hinder your progress through the game’s narrative. None of this is in The Darness II.
This is a striking change to this franchise, and one I don’t particularly care for. That being said, I do believe The Darkness II, in context of itself, works perfectly fine for what it’s trying to achieve. It’s just not the groundbreaking, artistically sound game the original is.
As you take the role of Jackie Estacado, throughout the game you’ll pass through surprisingly linear levels, shooting your enemies with weapons that handle beautifully, and using your Darkness tendrils to eviscerate your enemies. In between these linear, set-piece stages are down moments, where you spend time at Jackie’s mansion, talking to the one note, often stereotypical characters.
The shooting mechanics and Darkness powers are sound, but it won’t be long into the game before you realize that’s all the game has to offer.
That isn’t to say there isn’t depth, however. There is a surprisingly large skill tree that Jackie can use to level his powers up. Through gaining «Dark Essence» (the game’s version of experience points), Jackie can invest perks into gun handling, Darkness execution moves, or throwing your Darkling sidekick around to pounce on enemies, which will inevitably lead to the Darkling pissing on their corpses. The small moments like this, such as impaling your enemies with parking meters, are what makes the game’s combat fun and interesting. It also doesn’t hurt that you can dual-wield most weapons, and the gunplay here is extremely solid, if a tad too auto-aimey and sticky. Thankfully, you can turn the aim assist off in the options menu.
Without spoiling anything, the narrative The Darkness II presents is a strong one. It’s just a shame it wasn’t implemented into the actual gameplay in a more efficient manner.
You’ll hear characters endlessly spout exposition on your post-level trips to your mansion, and while the voice acting presented is certainly top-notch, particularly Mike Patton reprising his role as the titular Darkness, most of the characters are all way too one-dimensional. They won’t have much of anything to say aside from critical narrative points or stereotypical mob chatter. It’s a shame, as the characters in the original were all well fleshed out, interesting, and didn’t come off as parodies of themselves. Though the narrative is strong, and will ultimately be the driving force of what sees you through this action-fest, the characters can sometimes do their best to make sure you won’t want to care. Luckily the story here is as enjoyable as it is, presentation gripes aside, and is absolutely worth seeing through to the end.
Graphically, the game opts for a cel-shaded style, and most of the time, it looks gorgeous. Framerate drops are minimal, and the textures (when they decide to pop-in after an occasional hiccup) are sharp and artistically beautiful.
Light and shadows are used to great extent, which is a good thing, as a gameplay mechanic revolves around shooting lights out to make sure Jackie can regenerate health when he’s actually in the shadows. The screen effects used for when Jackie is exposed to light are aptly disorienting and do their job wonderfully. All in all, it’s a great looking game, but it’s missing the dreary tone the first game was praised for. It’s still a great looking game, it’s just not atmospheric, and the linear levels and stereotypical mob guy characters really enforce this notion.
All this being said, I would still recommend The Darkness II. If you’re into modern FPS games. The game does play smoothly, and The Darkness powers implemented are interesting enough as a gameplay mechanic to keep you playing. Ultimately, though, the strong story here is what will keep you invested, even if it doesn’t quite reach the level of greatness as the original. It’s a good game, but its shockingly short length clocking in at a measly 6 hours, and overall shortcomings when compared to the original hold it back from being great.
… Expand
The Darkness 2 — Game review
The Darkness II reviews
2012-04-24 14:53:12
4441
LID2PRO
The Darkness 2 is a dark mystical first-person shooter. We again have to play the role of Jackie Estacado , in which Darkness has infused. The plot of the second part is quite independent, but there are moments referring to the first game. However, we will be told briefly about the past history here, so you can start the game without being familiar with The Darkness. Jackie in the final of the first game became the boss of the mafia group, and we will start the game in this role.
The plot of the game for this genre is very good, but not perfect, because. some points are not entirely logical or not fully thought out. This time, Jackie’s power was hunted by a certain Brotherhood who wanted to rule the world. Players will again see the ghost of the deceased girl Jackie.
It is her soul that needs to be saved. Great use of the idea of two parallel, mutually exclusive worlds. So, there is a world where Jackie is the boss of a criminal group and the owner of a dark force, but at other moments the hero finds himself in a psychiatric hospital, where we see people familiar in the story in the role of doctors or patients. It is up to the player to decide which of these two worlds is real. And only in the final you can find out the clue to what is happening. This technique made the game much more interesting. Surreal coloring, emotionality, illusory nature of what is happening make the game world much more expressive and brighter.
Admit it: you’ve always wanted to do this with guys with sunglasses at night.
The Darkness 2 is surprisingly beautifully stylized as a comic book, although such attempts at stylization usually fail. The work of artists deserves high praise. The textures are very clear, good shading is done, only clouds of replicas are missing to perceive the game as a real comic book.
The setting and background are well drawn. Each character, even the minor ones, was treated with close attention. We thought over the conversations, gestures and facial expressions of random people. For example, gangsters in a bar reflect on life in a funny way. They are even fun to watch.
The special effects here, although not very complex, are beautiful. Jackie still has his tentacles, which can be used to throw objects, break through obstacles, tear enemies apart. Using bloody finishing moves, we get additional points for pumping. There is a lot of blood and cruelty here, the atmosphere is dark and gloomy everywhere. There is a bit of humor, rude jokes, vulgarity, which in this case adorns such a horror movie. Unfortunately, the Russian localization is not done very conscientiously. The voice acting is generally good, but the translation is often inexpressive or even inaccurate. However, the situation is saved by the choice of English voice acting, and it is unique. Foreign actors with excellent voices did a good job on it, which in itself deserves attention.
Without the original voices, part of the atmosphere is still lost.
Jackie will have only one assistant for this part. He is constantly accompanied by a faithful demon with a colorful accent, who comes to the rescue in certain situations, often jokes, clowns, rushes into crowds of enemies. And still, from behind the frame, an ominous voice of Darkness is heard from time to time. There are hints of psychological drama and its own philosophy in the game, but most of the time is occupied by skirmishes with numerous opponents who everywhere use the same means of struggle, both on earth and in hell. However, the action turned out to be quite fervent and varied. Some locations look very beautiful and realistic. It’s nice to wander around the villa, admire the well-designed interiors, shoot pigeons.
This is Jimmy’s older brother.
As the hero progresses and develops, new useful skills will open up: we will be able to throw miniature black holes that suck up living organisms, set a flock of bloodthirsty flies on enemies.
Mostly, however, victory is ensured with the help of firearms. Estacado has become stronger than in the last game. It has become more difficult to kill him with bullets, but the player will still have to be careful not to get caught in the crossfire. Darkness is still afraid of bright light, and the player has to prudently break light bulbs and lanterns before each battle.
In general, we can say that the second part of The Darkness turned out to be quite interesting. Many elements here are worked out better than in the first. The plot is interesting, expressive music is chosen, there is a lot of action, there is a mystical atmosphere. This is a good, solidly made representative of the genre. The only pity is that the passage of the game takes only about 5 hours, so The Darkness can be run in just one evening.
LID2PRO reviewer’s verdict
Playability
The environment is well designed, both in single and multiplayer games.
Graphics
The graphics in The Darkness II are stylized as comics and look very good. Recurring character models? Tolerable.
Multiplayer
Co-op mode for 4 people.
Single Player Campaign
Campaign is quite short, but you can replay it with all abilities unlocked.
Control
—
Overall score
—
Risen 2: Dark Waters PS3 review
Good day to all our visitors. Today I would
I wanted to share with you my impressions of the previously released on the PC, and
this week for the PlayStation 3 «pirated» game Risen 2: Dark Waters . I’ve been used to it for a long time
do not expect too much from projects, so as not to feel later
yourself in a bummer, and therefore from the new creation of Piranha Bytes a special
didn’t expect epic.
In general, the approach turned out to be more than ever
by the way.
The story of Risen 2: Dark Waters tells us about entertaining
adventures of a lieutenant of the Inquisition, a drunkard and slob who
was entrusted with a very serious mission: to find a way to destroy Mara,
suddenly awakened ancient sea goddess, or as preferred
call creatures like her in the game — Titan. A sort of Dana, only
evil. Four famous and strongest pirate captains,
went to the legendary Temple of Water and plundered it, awakened and
pissed off Mara, having received a curse on their greedy heads. BUT
to clear up everything for us now. The purpose of the event: to collect the necessary
to fight the sea goddess with artifacts, and shove them deeper into her
so that it doesn’t show up again. To achieve the goal, the player
to visit several rather big islands and pieces
mainland, take a number of interesting decisions that are capable of
diversify ways to achieve your goal. For example, going to
path of Voodoo, the player will be able to create dolls of certain characters, with
the goal is to take possession of their body and get in this guise to where in
in the usual form, you will have to break through with a sword.
On the other hand,
choosing the side of «gunpowder», the player will be able to wield
deadly muskets, greatly facilitating the passage
games.
Speaking about the technical part of the project, it is difficult to say a lot of good things.
The fact is that the same people who created
legendary Gothic, the first two parts of which won the hearts of
many, and the third, in general, came out very, very well. Distinctive
the technical point of the games from these guys, Piranha Bytes, is
the clumsiness of the combat system and the engine as a whole. Graphically, we have
beautiful nature and surroundings in general, good models, rough
animation and great game design. Over the latest developers
worked hard for excellence. Jungle, strongholds of civilization, small
havens, resting places, caves and temples — everything is done on
high level, logically and competently located, and able to please
the eye of every adventure game fan. As you know,
claims to locations and their design tend to zero.
And here’s another
moment of the technical part of the game, which seriously affects its gameplay,
definitely upsetting. The combat system in the new creation of Piranha Bytes
can make even the most patient players angry, and sucked
from the “slow-mo” finger to the limit clumsily. While even
having learned the techniques of parrying and counterattacking, you will not always succeed
interrupt a series of blows of the enemy, your blows can interrupt almost
always. A noticeable imbalance in the game towards firearms,
God forbid you get into a fight with a couple of hand-to-hand fighters and
two or three Musketeers. Soap, rope and a stool, in that case,
seems like a very rosy choice. And the point is not the complexity of the enemies, but
clumsiness of the combat system as a whole, and often belated response
character to the player’s team. Sometimes brings developers and
a camera that chooses very unfavorable angles, especially in
game videos, sometimes turning out, in the literal sense, then in the language
one of the characters participating in the video, then in the chest, then
behind your shoulder.
What we see at the same time, I believe, there is no explanation
need.
Content and freedom to explore the game world in Risen 2: Dark
Waters is more than enough, and this is a definite plus of the project, albeit not
able to cover its bright cons. Here we have a lot of weapons and
clothes, everything is as it should be, when used accordingly
changes the appearance of our unlucky hero. Many ancient
temple ruins scattered over almost all islands and pieces
mainland accessible to the player can entertain and provide
a thousand or two gold coins, when selling stolen treasures
natives, but also capable of depressing with their blatant monotony.
However, to get angry at this, to a certain extent, is stupid, since, to
for example, the temples of the Incas and other natives of a real
«pirate archipelago» were built on virtually identical
projects, therefore in the middle, often, were almost
twins.
«Pirate atmosphere» in Risen 2: Dark Waters transferred to hard
four, and why not more — I will explain a little further.
Beautiful
ships under different flags, pirate havens that have collected
selected bastard of the southern seas, taverns with port whores, strongholds
colonists, in this case the Inquisition, an impenetrable jungle with
dangerous predators, aboriginal tribes, revived ancient legends and
myths. All this awaits us in this game, and it seems to fully create
the necessary atmosphere. But this is only at first glance. Shelters
unnecessarily friendly and open to the newly-minted pirate of no family and
tribes, port whores are more of a decoration that can train the player
“communicate more convincingly with other people”, there are no rivers in taverns
rum and drunken fights, in the strongholds of the Inquisition you are met quite
openly, and the Aboriginal tribes are somehow strange — almost all
know the normal language spoken in the civilized world,
moreover, claiming that it is the language of their ancestors. Chi! And what’s more
just spoils the whole «pirate» side of the game — the presence of a ship and a map
«archipelago», but the absence of naval battles and, as a result,
piracy.
But the jungle can please virtually anyone
adventure games fan: a lot of secrets, all sorts of
paths, caves, ledges and ruins of ancient temples. There are places to run and
what to look for.
Of particular interest in the game are skills, abilities, abilities and
crafts. Our hero, although a drunkard and a slob, grasps
any science on the fly. It is enough to raise the required skill to
a certain level and find an extra thousand gold coins to
learn a new craft, whether it be blacksmithing or weaponry,
theft, black magic, alchemy, or the creation of magical sceptres.
The character’s skills depend on the level of the basic skill and the equipped
equipment, in addition, there are items, in the manner of magic mushrooms,
elixirs and herbs that permanently increase skill scores,
but usually not significant. The abilities of the character
pumped for blood gold coins, and become available with
achieving the required level of one of the five basic skills:
edged weapons, firearms, endurance, agility and
voodoo magic.
For example, by raising the skill of melee weapons to the sixth
level, you can master the craft of a blacksmith, and raising to the eighth
— to become a master in combat with melee weapons, you only need
get the right amount of money and find a suitable teacher.
Since Risen 2: Dark Waters was released in the CIS in full localization, then
I dare not miss this favorable for many domestic
players moment. Akella worked on the localization, who,
certainly deserves some respect in the matter
promotion of pirate themes in the gaming masses. But here
text and sound works of this company have always been and remain
far from ideal. At first glance, the work of voice actors
good, and the localization itself quite conveys the big essence of the plot and
dialogues. But it is worth digging a little deeper, and it becomes clear that
our dear localizer pretty much cheated. And it’s not even about
swear words cut out of the text or badly conveyed accents and
dialects of pirates, but in what is often found in translation
frank shoals, for example, when a character talks about tamarins
(a genus of monkeys like this.
— approx. VE), in the text we read about panthers,
which are not found on that island, and we hear the same from the lips of the actor
voice acting. In addition, during the passage, if carefully
to explore everything and everything, you will repeatedly meet dialogues in which
only the text was translated, and the voice acting remained in English. Taking a common
localization level of Akella company, the work done in Risen 2:
Dark Waters can be put «good», with a minus. Especially in
compared with the localization of Dead Island, which is in no way
climbs. However, I’m more than sure, take on the localization
SoftClub or «Buka» — the picture would be much better and
brighter. Be that as it may, for those players who find it difficult or uncomfortable
play games in English, this localization will allow you to fully
enjoy the plot component of the adventures of our hero and
get a certain amount of funny humor.
which you see to the left of this text, I was very pleased
passing Risen 2: Dark Waters and still enjoy playing
this game, and I am more than sure that I will go through it more than once.
In spite of
flagrant disadvantages, and the most important of them is the absence of piracy in
game about pirates — the new creation of Piranha Bytes is able to tighten with
head for many hours of exciting adventures. But I’m in no way
I do not recommend anyone to buy this game. If you are a big fan
pirate theme, then go ahead to the store, because not until the end
centuries to overwrite the Corsairs 3 released six years ago and their mods!
If you are just looking for a good and high quality RPG, then buying Risen
2: Dark Waters can both please and disappoint. I advise
carefully weigh all the pros and cons. There are much more
quality games that you can pay attention to. Especially,
hot autumn is coming. Oh, and another important point, friends —
additional content for this game. It is blatantly expensive, but does not contribute
so many new things. Recommend or wait for discounts in PlayStation
Store, or GOTY/Complete edition of Risen 2: Dark Waters, which, with
it will most likely appear.
