In 2007, Starbreeze released The Darkness, a first-person shooter on the Xbox 360, involving a mafia hit man named Jackie Estacado. It just so happened that Jackie managed to bestow upon himself dark, demon-like powers allowing him to easily dispose of his enemies (men more evil than Jackie, what a hero!). Jackie becomes a vessel for the ancient force lurking inside to wreak havoc in the criminal underworld of New York City.
This year at GDC, a new developer, Digital Extremes, has apparently taken the reigns of creating the sequel notably titled The Darkness II and has released details to the public. In the first game, Jackie could use his devilish powers for super strength as he retired his foes. Now, Jackie has demon arms, evil appendages of doom that can strangle and then impale his enemies through their sternums (alien style). Although Jackie can only transform into his dark form when shrouded in shadow, he’ll have to shoot down lights and other bright sources to maintain the upper hand. With two guns and two tentacles at your disposal, you’ll have a lot of fun with the variety of methods of taking down enemies. The kill animations are morbidly entertaining and will definitely quench your thirst for Mafioso blood.
The demon arms allow you to indulge in some methodic murder. Using the left trigger for grabbing enemies (or items), Jackie can subdue his enemies as they await their fate. By holding the right trigger (the slicer), Jackie can flick the right control stick vertically or horizontally, directing the motion of slice and dice. And wow, this game is gory. Let’s not forget Jackie’s duel-wielding guns. Taking care of large mobs is no hard task. Jackie will be frequently ambushed, providing incentive to bust out the Colts in each hand. This game is chaos. And chaos always delivers a very high body count.
The Darkness II is slated for release later this year on the Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3. Get ready for a dark adventure of conquest in the criminal underworld!
I like a variety of games, including FPSs, RPGs, side-scrollers, platformers, action/adventure, old-school (Atari, original NES, Super Nintendo, Sega Saturn), social casual games (Facebook), open Web games and many more. I don't really like sports games or RTSs. My hobbies include gaming, scuba diving, hookah, hand drums, indie and foreign films, Middle Eastern music, camping, gourmet cooking, pen-and-paper games, board and card games, piano, and a bunch of other stuff I can't think of at the moment. I've been in the videogame industry for eight years as a producer on various platforms ranging from console, to iPhone, to social casual and more.
