Game #1112: The Darkness II

  Quite a heartbreaker.

 Top Cow's comics are far, far from being what I'd call classy comics. They are all about boobs and blood, which is why it's so surprising how the very poignant The Darkness came from such a trashy comic book. And here we are with the The Darkness II, the sequel nobody talks about and which undersold considerably.

 There are two different campaigns in the game, either Story Mode in which you play as Jackie Stacado, continuing from where the first game left off, as Jackie taking over his very own Mafia empire, or Vendettas, which runs parallel to the main game and you can play as any of four different hitmen. I never played the original game, but from what I heard, it seems like it was a more grounded take on the comic book. This one goes a bit more comic-bookish, now featuring a really good lucking cell-shaded look and characters that seem more comic bookish, in both personality and design, than what little I've seen of the original game

 As a first person shooter, the shooting and aiming is super basic, you can carry three different weapons: A two handed weapon, like an assault rifle or a shotgun, as well as two one-handed guns, such as pistols or uzis, that you can dual-wield at the cost of not being able to aim down the iron sights. But, thankfully, things are more interesting than that thanks to Jackie's Darkness powers. He grows two dark, living tentacle appendages as well as gains regenerating health that can be sped up by eating the hearts of fallen enemies. Killing enemies now becomes super fun, as the left tentacle(L2) can be used to pick up and throw all sort of things, like saws, or pipes, to maim enemies. You can also pick up stunned enemies and perform gory executions on them that instantly consume their hearts. Meanwhile, the right tentacle is used by using the right analog stick in conjunction with the R2 button in order to perform melee attacks. Defeating enemies in creative ways rewards you with points that you can use to enhance Jackie's abilities and even grant him even more darkness powers, such as a swarm that harms and distracts enemies or the ability to create a mini black hole. Honestly, wielding the Darkness alongside your guns made the game incredibly fun.

 That said, there's one key thing to keep in mind: Light sources ill diminish or downright remove your darkness powers, so you'll have to be on the lookout for light sources in order to destroy them, lest you get handicapped in battle. In this game you fight enemies that actually know about the darkness, so you'll have to deal with their light traps.

 After you are done with the rather meaty story mode, you get the mini vendettas campaign. Each of the four characters gets unique abilities and their own skill trees, although they are smaller than Jackie's. Each character also shares one ability with Jackie. For instance, my boy Inugami wields a deadly Katana as one of his single handed weapons, and he can perform Jackie's swarm attack. While it reuses some assets from the story campaign, some stages and bosses are exclusive to this mode, and it could be played online. It also has a secondary mode, Hit List, which features repurposed smaller maps against special bosses. It's definitely a nice extra.

 While the story mode lacks the emotional impact the original had, I think the game itself was a blast to play due to how many fun things you can do with the Darkness as you fill your enemies with lead. The cell-shaded graphics look really nice, and do make the game stand out quite a bit. It's a mystery to me as to why this game underperformed so badly and why it's never talked about. I get it, the first game had a great story, I get it, but while this game's story is nothing remarkable, I feel like the gameplay deserves a lot of praise.

 8.5