The Darkness II breaks out of the sea of conventional first-person shooters with its fervid Quad-Wielding gameplay, which will allow players to slash, grab, and throw objects and enemies with their Demon Arms while simultaneously firing two weapons. The game is layered with the use of dark versus light, steeped in deep and twisted storytelling, and engulfed in stylistic violence that is visualized through a hand-painted graphic noir technique that stays true to its comic book origins.
GenreAction
Platforms xbox360
DEVELOPER Digital Extremes | PUBLISHER Codemasters | RELEASE DATE
The Darkness II Reviews xbox360
ugo.com review
The multiplayer campaign will take you between two and three hours and there are several one off missions you can play afterwards to extend your multiplayer game sessions. If none of your friends buy The Darkness 2 (get new friends), you can still play the Vendettas campaign by yourself. It’s still quite enjoyable solo and functions just as more The Darkness 2… which isn’t a bad thing.
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gamechronicles.com review
Gamers wanting to experience some of the bloodiest combat you’re likely to see in any FPS this year, or those wanting to revel in perhaps the most visionary graphic novel-style presentation of the decade need only look as far as The Darkness II. It’s a wild and non-stop ride of gore and carnage with gameplay that uniquely adapts to each person who plays it. It has surprising moments of heart and storytelling, but most of all; it’s a bloody good time from start to finish, and a game you’ll play at least twice just so you can experience it all.
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cheatcc.com review
The skill wheel includes upgrades and special abilities for you, and some of them are crazy cool. One of the abilities is the Black Hole, a feature that makes a much-needed return, only this time you don’t summon them. Now, when you unlock the ability, there’s a chance that you can grab a Black Hole from the corpse of a slain enemy, in the place of the heart you would normally find. Then all you have to do is toss it into a group of unsuspecting enemies and watch it do all the work for you.
avclub.com review
The Darkness II’s salvation, again, is Jenny. The game has Jackie spending much more time with his lost love. These visions of past dates and formative moments aren’t cheap; they’re actual character-building, leveraging the power of proximity and intimacy to create emotional ties. This transforms Jenny from the clichéd princess-in-peril to something closer to an actual person. The Darkness II’s poignant moments are surprisingly touching. It’s no mistake that, after hours of tearing flesh and bone, magic is found in a gentle kiss.
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egmnow.com review
All in all, Darkness fans will likely have a field day with this game as the extra time between titles (four, almost five years at time of release) seem to have been well worth the wait considering the polish that this title exudes.
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atomicgamer.com review
Complementing the dynamic gameplay is a twisty story that will test your psyche as much as your trigger finger, terrific voice work—including another wicked good performance from Mike Patton as the Darkness—and a stunning graphic novel-inspired art style brimming with rich detail and expert use of light and shadows. If I had to gripe, I’d say the few boss battles aren’t great. They’re not bad, but like the original BioShock’s final showdown, they feel a little too videogame-y in an experience that otherwise gives expected formulas the finger. The campaign’s also a bit short, but a separate, 2-3 hour co-op campaign, starring four new characters with their own supernatural skills, is worth tackling solo or with a friend. Come November, when everyone’s blistering their thumbs on new Call of Duty and Halo entries, The Darkness II will probably be a distant memory. Until then though, it deserves a regular spot in your gaming rotation—and in your nightmares.
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oxm.co.uk review
Without dipping our toes into spoiler water, it’s one of the best shooter-stories we’ve seen in years – justifying its own ludicrous nature in interesting and unexpected ways. If the ending didn’t feel like such a cop-out, The Darkness II could have been on par with BioShock. As it is, the gripping narrative and wonderfully empowering combat mean you’ll be talking about it for months after completing it.
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everyeye.it review
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spaziogames.it review
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planetxbox360.com review
For The Darkness II’s art style, Digital Extremes opted for a funky sort of look with cel-shaded characters. Not that that’s a bad thing, but there are times that the models look the same, especially when you’re ripping them apart the same way. Regardless, the game as a whole runs smoothly, and the levels, ranging from the inside of a burning warehouse to a cemetery to a run-down amusement park, are very good. The demon limbs are fun to watch too, as they taunt each other and rip up guys without a care in the world. The cinemas aren’t bad either – and those you can skip, if you choose. As far as the audio goes, it’s top notch. Mike Patton once again puts passion into his voicing of The Darkness, hissing and growling like a boss. The other actors are very good too, and the music and sound effects are on par with the mood that Silvestri set with his comic books. We couldn’t imagine it getting any better, outside of some occasional death metal. Even though we liked the original game in limited ways, The Darkness II is a fresh sequel that avoids the pratfalls of most comic book licensed games, instead opting for ridiculously bloody gameplay, a solid (for the most part) presentation, and a multiplayer add-on that doesn’t feel like a cheap addition, for once. If you can’t get enough of the Top Cow comics or just need something unique from a first-person shooter in general, go on, embrace the Darkness.
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vandal.net review
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videogameszone.de review
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eurogamer.es review
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meristation.com review
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nzgamer.com review
There are also some sections where you control this Darkling, and the game becomes a stealth take-down scenario, in which you must sneak around and stay out of the light to reach an objective. These sections slow down the pace, allowing you to take a breather between gun fights.
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insidegamingdaily.com review
n so many ways, The Darkness II is an improvement over the original. The controls work better, the action is more straightforward, and you don’t have to play Pikmin with a bunch of surly little demons. It’s just more engaging and fun all around. But while its changes are noticeable, they’re also subtle; this isn’t a completely different game, it’s more like a refinement of what worked before. That’s good news for those who enjoyed the first one, but even better for those who were interested in the original but found it lacking.
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giantbomb.com review
The easy argument to make against something like Vendettas is that it took valuable developer time away from the main campaign, but I don’t think that argument holds up. Nothing in The Darkness II’s story line feels out of place or unnecessary. It doesn’t digress needlessly into side missions or other time-wasters designed to just keep you playing for longer stretches. Instead, Digital Extremes believed in the strength of both its combat system and Jenkins’ script to inspire players to play through it again once the credits roll. And that confidence was not misplaced. Within an hour of finishing The Darkness II, I was already set to go back in and get my New Game Plus on–something I honestly rarely do. What can I say? The power of The Darkness II compelled me; odds are, it’ll do exactly the same for you.
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gamerevolution.com review
But it can be hard to suggest players who haven’t already been caught by one of the Darkness tentacles to drop a hefty amount of money on a game this short. If you can, wait until you’ve got some extra credit lying around or until the game goes on sale. Like, maybe, half off.
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gamesradar.com review
Their story cuts a fairly straightforward swath through armies of thugs, although it culminates with a boss fight considerably more epic than anything in the single-player campaign, and it’s an enjoyable extension that’ll tack at least a few hours onto the experience. (It’s especially fun if you can find teammates who don’t go berserk destroying the health-restoring hearts from your kills, leaving you in constant need of revival – although if things get too hot, the host can always adjust the difficulty on the fly.)
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gameshark.com review
From the opening attack on the restaurant that evokes the car chase that opened the original, to the game’s focus on storytelling as much as killing, it’s clear that the developers knew not to mess with a working formula. Even if some of the narrative moments fall short of the original, the new content and new powers more than make up for it. The Darkness II didn’t knock its predecessor from the top of my list of favorite narrative shooters, but it comes in as a very close second.
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worthplaying.com review
Conventional multiplayer, thankfully, is not to be found in this edition of the Darkness, as it was the Achilles’ heel of the first game with its tacked-on feel. I’m of the belief that not every first-person shooter needs players online shooting at each other. In its place are a series of missions called Vendettas, with each mission featuring an off-the-wall acquaintance of Jackie, each of whom has mastered a piece of Darkness power. The timelines of these missions are in conjunction with the main story, serving as an entertaining supplement to what felt like a short main-story campaign, which I’d estimate at six hours. There’s a lot packed into those hours, but I thought there was room to explore more story elements, especially if there was time to create these side missions.
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