It’s been almost four years to the day since 2K Games’ cult classic, The Darkness, introduced us to Jackie Estacado and his struggle with the ancient, and ruthless force of chaos and destruction known as the Darkness. Now Jackie is back and is in charge as the head of a New York crime family in The Darkness 2 by Digital Extremes.
It’s been two years since Jackie Estacado used the Darkness to kill the men responsible for his girlfriend’s murder. He’s been unable to shake the memory of Jenny’s death since bottling up his supernatural power and now the Darkness wants out. A sudden, unprovoked attack on Jackie’s life heralds the start of a full-scale mob war and opens the door for the Darkness to reemerge. The botched attempt sets Jackie on a journey to hell and worse as he unravels the mystery behind the attack and the motivations of the Darkness itself.
Jackie will see himself fighting against an underground society known as the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood, who were once the loyal and noble keepers of the Darkness, have now become mad and greedy by the powers the Darkness can produce, and have taken chase to Jackie to reclaim and use the Darkness for their own dark demented deeds. The Brotherhoods knowledge of the Darkness and how it can only be use in the dark, leads the Brotherhood to use an arsenal of light-capable weapons and distractions, such as the light cannon (picture- above), flashbangs, and flood lights. During our E3 presentation a Brotherhood member threw multiple flashbangs at the player in order to push the Darkness out of the fight and leave Jackie to find cover in the shadows.
However, the Darkness and Jackie have a few tricks up their sleeves as well. Quad-Wielding™ Chaos (pictured below) allows the player to hack, slash, cut, and rip their way through enemies using the Darkness Demon Arms, while Jackie simultaneously dual wields an armory of guns with which to spill his attackers corrupted blood. For instance, ripping the door off a car with a Demon Arm to use as a shield, then continuing to stab another enemy with the other Demon Arm, all the same time while shooting another assailant. Pure Genius!
What would The Darkness be without your beloved and crazy Darklings? (pictured below) We were ecstatic to see the return of the darklings after their mild use in first game. Luckily these little guys are getting a huge boost for Darkness 2, with one main darkling being fairly important to the story of the game, as a companion.
The Darkness 2 takes on a very distinctively twisted art style in order to stay true to the popular long-running comic book series from Top Cow. The Darkness 2 comes to life like never before with the game’s deep and twisted story written by Paul Jenkins, one of the definitive writers for The Darkness comic series, along with the game’s stylistically brutal gameplay and vibrant graphic noir art style.
The Darkness 2, which will be available on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC, is shaping up to be an amazing adventure and we here at Elder-Geek are eager to see where Jackie and the Darkness will take us.