Review: The Darkness II

G'day there folks!

One of the most popular comic-to-game transformations in recent history, The Darkness comes back to life with a return to Jackie Estacado, two years down the track after the events in the previous game. Now the head of the Franchetti Mob Family, he has tucked his unholy power (coincidentally calling itself The Darkness and usually talking about itself in third person) deep inside himself, locking it away from the world while still in mourning for his dead girlfriend, Jenny Romano.

What I first noticed about the game was how utterly beautiful the graphic stylings had been made, obviously in tender care. While still very comic looking, the colouring and shading gave such a depth to the game. The voice acting was extremely well done, to the point of sublime; Brian Bloom as the voice of Jackie brings such a great talent to this game bringing both a horrific sadness to his memories of Jenny and such great attitude to the times of ripping people limb from limb.
Stephanie Frame does a great job with Jenny as does David Hoffman with Johnny Powell.
Sound effects are quite excellent, from cutting a man in half to gunfire being clean cut and crisp in sound. Gameplay is pretty standard for a shooter, but to one exception being The Darkness powers. Using the large tenticle/snake creatures to disembowl enemies, destroy your enviroment and hurl dangerous objects towards whatever stands in your way.
There is no Multiplayer mode in The Darkness II but there is a Vendetta Mode. This follows four people, all with a special gift in Dark Essence, who have a small role in the campaign. For example, these characters are those whom collected Johnny Powell, got information about The Brotherhood and so on.

There are a few dissapointing moments; lower class AI are quite predictable in movement and much too easy to kill while the higher up enemies and Boss Fights are extremely quick, impossible to catch and you can expect death to strike you at many moments.
But the rest will be saved for the end.

The Darkness II will leave you second guessing yourself and your actions, who you choose to kill, who to spare. To persue Jenny or accept that she's gone. The Darkness is much more compelling than many of the game series currently out in the market in current days, bringing a refreshing change of pace. I eagerly await the final installment and will be making a trip to revisit the original game.

Out of 10, I gave The Darkness II an 9/10

Good Points
+ Storyline is astounding.
+ Fun, creative and mind boggling till the very end.
+ Voice acting & graphics at a sublime level.

Bad Points
- AI's a tad predictable, Boss Fights incredibly hard for newcomers
- Campaign/Vendetta much too short...

The Darkness 2 is out now for the average price of $88