Version tested: PlayStation 3
With The Darkness II the guys from Digital Extremes have finally returned to work independently on a video game after having collaborated in recent years with other software houses on more or less important franchises. In fact, we must go back to the disputed Dark Sector to see the company entirely dedicated to a project of its own since in recent years it had contributed to the development of the conversion to PlayStation 3 of the first BioShock and to the multiplayer component of BioShock 2 and Homefront.
It is therefore thanks to the trust of 2K Games and an important but not extremely well-known franchise that the Canadian guys were able to collect the videogame legacy of Jackie Estacado to try to amaze us again. A rather heavy legacy given that the prequel, developed by Starbreeze Studios, despite obvious defects in its gameplay, was literally adored by a large slice of gamers for the engaging story told, to the point of electing it a cult of its time. Will the guys at Digital Extremes be able to live up to expectations?
Where were we?
Two years have passed since the episodes told in the epilogue of the first The Darkness. Jackie, our protagonist, is now the Don of the most imposing mafia family in the city. Nobody has the courage to fight him or even timidly try to test his strength and abilities. He's rich, he's powerful, he's even respected and loved by his goons but he's still sad. It is sad because no woman has been able to fill the void in her heart left by the death of Jenny Romano, the only girl who had been able to stay next to Jackie and had loved him madly, even managing to make him keep the darkness inside her at bay. he and, in a tragic moment told in an incredibly engaging way in the first The Darkness, she had been killed in front of his eyes to protect him.
Just the ghost of Jenny will haunt our protagonist for most of the sequel in a single player campaign that unfortunately will never come close to the narrative depth of the first chapter neither for complexity, nor for depth but above all for longevity. It is indeed true that The Darkness II gets rid of all those delays represented by the useless secondary quests and the empty exploratory moments between one subway and the next but at the same time unfortunately fails to offer those purely narrative phases in which the psychological terror felt by Jackie and her atrocious difficulty in curbing the darkness and its infinite pitfalls. And so next to the beautiful introductory sequence set in a restaurant and also seen in the game demo, we happen to play other semi-interactive sequences that try not with great success to give narrative depth to a gameplay otherwise completely unbalanced towards pure action. Particularly during our fight against the Brotherhood and its boss Victor Valente intent on taking control of The Darkness, we will return over and over again to try to escape from a strange asylum whose existence will be explained only at the end of the adventure through a good epilogue (even with a double ending) and the audacious cliffhanger that gives us hope for a third chapter.
But as said at the beginning of the paragraph, next to a problem of the depth of the story told, the one that makes the nose turn up the most once the campaign of The Darkness II, is to realize that it took just six hours to see the credits, just a little more if you play at the two highest difficulty levels (out of the four available). There is no doubt that on the longevity front we are not really there but the multiplayer component made up of eighteen missions, seven of which connected to each other to form a real additional campaign, comes to our aid. The work done by Digital Extremes on this side is truly commendable despite being completely dedicated to the cooperative aspect lacking a competitive multiplayer. In practice, the player is given the choice of four different characters, each with its own special weapon that feeds on darkness, a power and three trees of specific talents. In this case, the gameplay leans heavily towards pure action with numerous phases where it is necessary to defend targets and resist attacks of increasing difficulty but there are even bosses and more generally we note the work of the developer in offering new locations and situations. very excited games that give their best when four players play online at the same time. It is also possible to play offline, but unfortunately alone, lacking the split screen, our advice is not to miss at least the multiplayer campaign which adds a couple of abundant hours and offers an interesting look parallel to what is told in the single player.
Jaaaaaackie ... sei miiiiiio!
And since we've started hinting at something about the action, let's get into the details. The Darkness II, like its prequel, it is fully part of the first-person shooter genre. However, unlike the work done by Starbreeze Studios with its predecessor, and above all in total contrast to what has been said about the story, Digital Extremes has really done a great job offering an incredible freedom to the player on the fighting style to adopt. Now it is possible to equip two light weapons and one heavy, the former also in hybrid akimbo mode (a pistol and an uzi for example, rather than two machine guns) with the backbones that are used to fire and the digital cross to change the paraphernalia.
The triggers are instead entrusted with the use of the tentacles of Darkness that will accompany Jackie in her short adventure made of blood and flesh as long as she is in the darkness. In practice, the right tentacle is used to horizontally and vertically cut obstacles and above all enemies while the left one allows you to interact with the scenario by collecting practically any element and even stunned enemies. It will thus be possible to tear a door from a car or take a sign from the ground to use it as a shield and possibly throw it at opponents to cut them in half. Poles, rods, bars and other pointed blunt objects can be used to impale enemies and with the help of a particular talent it will even be possible to detonate any type of object thrown at the criminals on contact. Freedom is total and the intense combat that often sees dozens of opponents on the screen at the same time manages to give enormous satisfaction when you have full control of the Darkness.
As mentioned above, it is also possible to collect opponents when they are stunned and perform particular executions, also unlockable by investing in talents, to restore energy, ammunition, rather than gaining a temporary shield of darkness or recharging Jackie's special powers. The latter are of two types, recalled with the triangle and circle keys, and allow you to launch a swarm of insects rather than load weapons with bullets of darkness: much more powerful than normal and above all infinite for a short period of time. And we come to talk about talents. Each kill committed allows you to earn Essence in a variable amount based on the choreography and fantasy of the assassination. This "substance" can therefore be spent interacting with special altars scattered throughout the levels to acquire numerous talents divided into four different branches.
The idea is interesting and works quite well because it forces the player to specialize since he will never be able, with a single pass of the campaign, to upgrade all the skills but will have to make a choice based on the fighting style. But that's not all because of course there are also darklings, the small and uncouth creatures that the Darkness is able to evoke. Forget the specializations seen in the first episode: now Jackie will be accompanied by a single completely autonomous demon except for a couple of scripted sequences in which we can use it to help Estacado. The choice does not weigh particularly in terms of gameplay and indeed seems to offer something more on the narrative front since a sort of brotherly bond will be built between our protagonist and his favorite darkling during the game. And then it's always nice to see him go around on his own to urinate on dead enemies or bite their heads to distract them.
PlayStation 3 Trophies
The game offers the classic 51 trophies: in addition to the inevitable platinum unlockable by collecting all the others, we find three gold, four silver, 31 bronze and 12 hidden. At a first step of the two single and multiplayer campaigns, we did not struggle to conquer the exact half of the trophies available which are therefore linked to the completion of the two adventures and to some contextual actions such as the murder of certain enemies. Obviously, there is no shortage of all those trophies related to the killing of criminals in absurd and choreographic ways that can stimulate a certain amount of imagination and the need to repeat some steps over and over again.
Lights and shadows
The dualism between darkness and brightness that pervades The Darkness II it has both technical and gameplay repercussions. Let's start with the latter. Digital Extremes' project focuses much of its tactical aspect on Jackie's need to stay in the dark as much as possible. In fact, when exposed to light our protagonist will lose the powers of darkness and his energy will no longer regenerate automatically. When immersed in the light, the view loses focus and clears up to simulate excessive glare, making aiming and moving in search of shelter concretely difficult. It therefore becomes essential to shoot in the shortest possible time at street lamps, chandeliers and more generally at any destructible light source, an action that in the long run tends to become a bit boring in its repetitiveness and at the same time the developer has been able to vary the type of enemies. introducing opponents equipped with portable lights and flashbangs. Right on the front of the enemies there are also bad guys equipped with armor or shield to take cover but unfortunately from the point of view of intelligence we are quite in the habit: the less protected opponents tend a lot to take cover and get stuck behind their positions, while the more resistant ones they use the head down charge tactic without worrying too much about our firepower. Information known since the day of its announcement, The Darkness II is completely realized in cel shading thanks to the artistic decision to draw and color by hand most of the graphic assets of the game. The result is really nice with very evident color contrasts that make the title quite original at a glance.
In particular, the incredible violence of the game in terms of dismemberments, guttings and free gore, stand out well with a lit palette where the red of the blood stands out on the scenario. All this is then combined with animations of the bodies and above all facial of excellent workmanship that compensate for a general poverty of details in the polygonal models and above all in the scenarios, although these offer a great interaction thanks to the tentacles of Darkness. The work done on the frame rate is also very good, which is always firmly anchored on thirty frames per second but, on the other hand, the almost total absence of particles and volumetric fumes as well as the management of the lights reduced to the bone helps in this sense. Too bad for the absence of a noteworthy soundtrack while on the dubbing front there is the excellent localization of the speech in Spanish despite obvious lip synchronization problems and it is interesting the choice of 2K Games to leave the original dubbing selectable in English language.
Comment
Resources4Gaming.com8.3
Readers (102)8.7
Your voteThe Darkness II is a frenetic and pleasant shooter with a combat system that manages to give great satisfaction to even the most demanding player thanks to the freedom offered on how to face one's opponents and the good interactivity with the scenario. Unfortunately, however, the title fails to offer a story of the same level and, especially when compared with the narration of the prequel, there is that absolute lack of depth that makes you lose the thousand facets of horror and sadness that should instead surround the figure of the protagonist. Jackie. If we also add to this a very short-lived single player campaign, which is only partially offset by the excellent cooperative multiplayer component, you will understand why we would like to advise you yes The Darkness II but we cannot help but judge it far from the excellence of the genre.
PRO
- The fight is violent, fast-paced, and satisfying
- The interaction with the scenario, the talents and the weapons available offer great freedom to the style of play
- Good work done by the developer on the cooperative multiplayer component
- The artistic choice of cel shading is excellent and original ...
- ... but overall there is a lack of detail
- The two single and multiplayer campaigns barely reach eight hours overall
- The plot is far from the involvement conveyed in the first chapter
- The endless repetition of the destruction of lights and executions can get boring
