E3 2011: The Darkness 2 Preview
By: Jeff Rivera
E3 2011 was definitely the year of the first person shooter, but only a few deviated from the military shooter genre. Among those was The Darkness 2, the long-coming follow up to the mildly successful The Darkness. Despite my reservations going into the demo after not being the biggest fan of the first game, I left the demo feeling like they've made huge strides in both gameplay and presentation.
The game is set 2 years after the first game, and Jackie is now the head of the Estacado crime family. He's become more powerful, and he's also found some new enemies. In The Darkness 2 there's a secret society known as The Brotherhood. They were originally founded to combat the Darkness, but at some point they were able to harness its power and use it, and become corrupt in the process. Once they lost the power of the Darkness, they began to seek it and relentlessly seek to regain that lost power.
Throughout the demo, Jackie was being assaulted and mocked by members of the Brotherhood. Because they're familiar with the Darkness power, they're more dangerous of an enemy because they know its weaknesses and abilities. At times enemies will come out carrying floodlights, which Jackie must deal with in order to be able to employ the Darkness. They'll also fortify themselves in well lit areas, forcing Jackie to carefully approach them for combat.
And while Jackie and the Darkness still have an antagonistic relationship going, Jackie has learned plenty of new tricks and powers. Throughout the demo Jackie was doing all sorts of crazy moves that involved using the Darkness in a variety of ways. One of my favorite things was when Jackie used the Darkness to rip a car door off a car to hold in front of him as a shield while he fired with his two free hands.
The player also has more fine control over the Darkness is the sequel. It still employs the grab mechanic and kill mechanics, but now the player can use the right thumbstick to move the Darkness around with greater control. Enemies can be sliced to bits or have limbs taken off of them by slicing around with the Darkness. It was very gruesome, but at the same time pretty impressive to witness.
The level up system seemed pretty straight forward. As you kill enemies, you earn Essence. This Essence is then spent at Talent Shrines where you can choose which skills you want to purchase. Much like what was the trend this year at E3, you choose in which way you want your character's skills to evolve throughout the game.
Graphically the game looked much nicer than the first game. They're calling the art style "graphic-noire" and it's supposed to provide a much more rich, colorful, and comic book style than the last game, but it doesn't sacrifice the strong use of light and dark.
The demo showcased lots of big battles that were full of huge explosions, flashy effects from the Darkness abilities, and big time gunplay. As the demo was wrapping up, it teased that Jackie might find himself stripped of the Darkness, but it faded out as that realization was setting in.
The Darkness 2 hits store shelves in October and it will be available for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.
