![]() It's a fight for your soul. For years, Jackie has kept the Darkness in check. But a nearly successful assassination attempt forces Jackie to release Hell, and everyone will pay for it. Especially Jackie.
1. Gameplay
Jackie died on his 21st birthday. When he woke back up he’d gotten the best birthday present ever. Or the worst birthday present ever, depending on your point of view. He gained the ability to use the Darkness, a devil-like entity that he can use to take swift, glorious revenge on all those who hurt him and the people he loves. Unfortunately, the Darkness is not a tool. It has its own agenda that doesn’t include Jackie’s desires. Unless it can use those desires to control Jackie, which it does in spades. After the previous game in this series, Jackie has spent years controlling the Darkness. Jackie hates it and doesn’t want it to control him, so he’s locked it away deep inside. Unfortunately, unforeseen circumstances and a near-death experience force Jackie to release the Darkness. The Darkness 2 includes two enemies that Jackie must fight. The first is an insane religious cult hell-bent on acquiring and controlling the Darkness. The second is the Darkness itself. Jenny, Jackie’s girlfriend, died in the previous game, after which the Darkness took her soul to use her as “motivation” for Jackie. Jackie has to make sure that the Darkness doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, but also fight the Darkness for control of his and Jenny’s souls. I will mention this in the next two sections, but this game is too short. The campaign lasted just a few short hours and the “extra” multiplayer content didn’t do much to help out. It filled in a few gaps in the story that were definitely interesting, but it didn’t have the captivating plotline or the deep character development that made the main campaign so compelling. I wanted what the original game gave me, and The Darkness 2’s campaign only gave me a small taste of that. Hopefully the next game in the series will have a longer campaign.
This game is not particularly long. It took me around 5 hours to complete the campaign, which felt disappointingly short. There is a “New Game+” option that allows players to redo the campaign with all of the powers they gained from the previous playthough, which would extend the replayability. The game was worth a second playthrough, so I expect players to get at least 10 hours out of the campaign. The game also includes extra side missions. These missions are designed to be played in a 4 player online cooperative mode, but there was no one online when I checked. This seriously reduced the desire to play through the various missions. There are a good number, which could significantly increase the length, but they’re really boring when they’re played alone. I would have much rather had more single-player campaign missions than the 4 player co-op missions.
Sometimes the controls could be a bit odd, but overall the game was smooth. In certain sections I was definitely wondering what I was supposed to do or where I was supposed to go, but the Darkling acted as an impromptu guide throughout the levels. As long as he was there, I generally knew where to go. As I mentioned before, the only thing somewhat annoying was the fact that the campaign was so short. I really wanted to have a longer, more elaborate story with more characters. I liked that the game revolved around Jackie’s desire to save Jenny and that the story always played with the character’s mind, but I wanted to get more. I enjoyed this game, so its brevity was a serious disappointment. 2. Parental Notices
Violence is a factor throughout the entirety of the game. From the very first few minutes, players will see blood and gore almost constantly. The graphics of the game give a graphic-novel feel to the visual element of the violence, but it’s still difficult to miss things like the player’s toes getting blown off in an attempted assassination. The player quickly gets the ability to use “the Darkness”. This allows the player to perform some fairly brutal executions. In the prologue, the player uses the snake-like Darkness to rip an enemy in half. Violence of this sort happens frequently. Players will constantly decapitate, dismember, and otherwise mutilate enemies. It’s an effective way to demonstrate the player’s power. In one particularly violent section, the player is captured by the antagonists. In order to prevent the player from moving, the antagonists crucify the player. The player watches as his hands are nailed with huge stakes to a giant wooden cross. In order to escape, the player rips his hand off the stake. The player then takes the gun of an enemy and uses it to drive one of the stakes into the enemy’s temple, instantly killing the enemy (and nailing him to the cross). The wounds leave huge holes in the player’s hands for a short period of time before healing. After one fight sequence in the player’s house, one of the player’s friends can be seen shoving body parts down a bathroom toilet. The bathroom is covered in blood. In one section, the player rips open an enemy’s chest and removes the enemy’s still beating heart. Lots of blood and internal organs are visible. The player can use his powers to lift objects and throw them at enemies. Some objects, such as boxes and chairs, are fairly light and cause almost no damage. Other objects can cause absurd amounts of damage with accompanying blood and gore. For example, the player can pick up metal poles and skewer enemies on them. This effect is actually more comical than it is gruesome. The player gains experience points by performing numerous actions, most of which are violent. Health and experience can both be gained by consuming the hearts of dead enemies. When this happens, one of the Darkness snakes will quickly shoot into the chest of the deceased enemy and remove the heart, quickly devouring it. It’s a fairly fast process that isn’t made into a huge performance as it was in the previous game in this series.
The sexuality in The Darkness 2 is pretty mild with the exception of one chapter. In the middle of the game the player has to go to a “bathhouse” that is actually a brothel. The initial rooms of the brothel are fairly benign. Women in short dresses show off to the various male customers. Some of the women look clean, but most look tired. The backrooms are a different matter entirely. In one room, a woman is performing oral sex on a man. In a second room, a man is clearly having sex with another prostitute. Occasionally the player will find computers that are left on. Some of these computers include an odd background. The background is of a woman in a bikini with bunny ears. It’s clearly meant to be softcore pornography. After the player frees Jenny, she turns into what is essentially the opposite of the Darkness. This “light” version of Jenny is seriously sexualized. Even though her breasts are covered in gold armor, they still jiggle when she caresses them.
Substance are fairly rare in The Darkness 2. There are some places where the player will be able to see alcohol, such as in a bar, but it’s never consumed. It’s just a static element that’s included to give the environment a particular atmosphere. There is one exception. When the Darkness puts the player in an asylum, occasionally the doctors of the asylum will have to sedate the player with an injection. The specific substance is never identified, but it is used a couple of times.
Gambling is not a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are currently no mod tools available for this game.
Jackie’s Catholic upbringing is mentioned a few times in the game, but it’s a fairly mild reference that simply adds to the development of the character. Religious icons can also be seen in certain locations, but these are also pretty mild. The game has constant references to religious ideas. “The Darkness” is specifically described as The Devil in at least one cutscene. “The Angelic” is supposed to be the opposite of the Darkness. Other similarly vague references are made as the game progresses.
Unlike the previous game in this series, The Darkness 2 does not include any sort of law enforcement, which significantly decreases the “anti-law” elements involved in the game. The player is still the leader of a New York-based mafia crime family, but other than references to the organization the structure of it all is not really “organized crime”. The only crime that ever seems to occur is the mass murder of enemies and the subsequent butchering of dead bodies to get rid of the evidence. The structure of the organization is rather flat, with the main character as the head and the other members on an equal level. Everyone reports to Jackie.
I attempted to play the online portion of this game but found no one online to play it with. Therefore, the online community is not a factor in this game.
Extreme sports are not a factor in this game.
Magic permeates the entirety of this game. The Darkness and its accompanying powers are so entrenched in dark magic that the player might as well be called “Merlin” or “Lord Voldemort”. The most obvious magical element are the two Darkness snakes that emerge from Jackie. They are almost always present. Some of the antagonists will use magical devices in order to try and steak the Darkness from Jackie. Eventually, Jackie begins to fight the Darkness in its own territory. It’s a purple, jagged vision of Hell personally designed for Jackie. Jenny, Jackie’s dead girlfriend who is held captive within the Darkness’ Hell, eventually magically turns into a weird sort of angel. The player will also get some magical powers as optional upgrades. For example, the player can occasionally find “black holes” on enemies. The player can throw these. Upon impact, the black holes will open up into a huge gravity well that will suck in all nearby enemies. Most of these enemies will be instantly vaporized. The player is not affected by the gravity.
Execution The main character’s house will get stormed by enemies. The enemies end up taking Jackie’s aunt hostage. The enemies will brutally kill Jackie’s aunt in front of the player. The actual execution is kept just out of view, but it’s still made pretty clear. Language Characters on both sides have a habit of using sometimes liberal amounts of swearing. It makes some sense considering the protagonists are notorious mafia members and the antagonists are trying to steal the Devil and use it for themselves. I wouldn’t describe it as distracting, but it was definitely noticeable. Prostitution
The brothel section that the player will have to go through certainly has prostitution, but it’s not discussed in great detail. It’s not a key element of the story.
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