Another pick-me-up from the Humble Store

I know a bunch of us have a soft spot for The Darkness and wouldn't mind seeing the property continue in one form or another, but for the time being, all we can do is reminisce. And if you want to join the conversation, today's a good day to start -- The Darkness II is free for PC and Mac right now.

The Humble Store is giving out free Steam keys during a 48-hour promotion. Swell thing to do!

It's been long enough since The Darkness II originally came out that I think a supernatural shooter could?? really hit the spot about now and feel fresh again. I miss having demonic arms.

The Darkness II [Humble Store]

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In my mind, Mike Patton is absolutely one of the best parts of The Darkness videogames. Possibly even t?he best. It's like he has a demon living ??inside of him that's only there to help him produce sounds no human should be able to.

Since The Darkness II has been out for a couple of weeks now, 2K Games put out a fun behind-the-scenes video showcasing Patton's voice acting. These?? things are usually interesting enough to send you on an IMDB spree, if nothing else, but this one made me laugh. A little too much.

The post Watch Mike Patton become The Da?rkness in this video appeared first on Destructoid.

It's been a busy week here at The Destructoid Show! On top of today's Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review, we've got another one for The Darkness II, a game I've personally been excited about for some time now. If you haven't read Conrad's review of the g?ame already, slap yourself in the face and then go do that, to??o!

[Warning: A few YouTube users have complained that this review contains "spoilers," as it describes an emotional scene near the beginning of the game. While I don't think describing the scene will make the scene any less emotional for players, consider yourselves warned.]

The post The DTOID Show: The Darkness II Review appeared first on Destructoid.

The Darkness was a rather solid? first-person shooter and a good example of a license being properly handled. Developed by Starbreeze Studios, it featured some bold gameplay choices that didn't always pan out but managed a solid game worthy of a sequel.

Picking up two years after the events of that game, Jackie Estacado has become the de facto organized crime?? leader of New York, and his time since has been spent keeping The Darkness subdued. Now, a new enemy has targeted Jackie and plans to take his gift to use as a weapon of mass destruction. In order to sa?ve himself and his family, Estacado must again unleash The Darkness and cut a bloody path through the city.

The Darkness II (PC, PS3, Xbox 360 [reviewed])
Developer: Digital Extremes
Publisher: 2K Games
Released: February 7, 2012
MSRP: $59.99 

This? is a case of an unremarkable story being handled?? remarkably well. The surface-level plot line in which Jackie fights against this new enemy doesn't keep its secrets long and quickly becomes little more than one bloody conflict after another. Meanwhile, a second story thread slowly develops which changes Jackie's goals dramatically in the game's final act towards a rather predictable conclusion.

Were that all The Darkness II had going for it, things would be dire. But the presentation is more than up to the task of keeping things interesting. Pacing is very deliberate in attempting to keep the player on their toes. While some developers are co??ntent to throw in a scripted explosion sequence or two as a mid-level surprise, Digital Extremes will compl?etely change the emotional tone on a dime, nail it and then throw the player right back into the fray when they're done. Little touches here and there plant seeds to reward observant players and demonstrate that there are greater aspirations than the standard licensed game. 

Effective use of cel-shading gives a feel evocative of the comic books from which these games originate and makes it surprisingly easy to get sucked in. The effect does wonders to keep a game all about being in the dark remain vibrant and lends itself well in a practical sense to the gameplay as everything is easily distinguishable. I?t also sounds quite?? nice. In combat, guns are noisy, screams are bloodcurdling and Mike Patton feels bigger than life as the voice of The Darkness. Voice acting overall is stellar and while the plot may not be particularly original, the dialogue is pretty good and made all the better by some top-notch performances.

It's a fairly short solo campaign, clocking in at around six hours, and fun from beginning to end with a very strong emphasis on killing people. Even at the outset controlling Jackie feels like a bit of a power trip with his tentacles in play. Mapped to the bumpers, the right tentacle bashes either vertically or horizontally while the left allows Jackie to grab objects or enemies and throw them. In concert with firearms in his hands, he's lethal at any range. Killing enemies and eating their hearts gives Jackie dark essence which may be spent on new and improved abi?lities with bonus essence awarded for more violent kills.

These abilities are both fun and useful. Grabs can become executions and reward a kill with health, ammo or even a shield made of pure dark essence (as well as some stomach-churning animations). Gun channeling buffs your guns with more damage, infinite ammo and rapid-fire for a few second??s and can eventually do the aiming for you. The bashing tentacle can fling enemies or sprout blades for a big damage boost. 

When upgrading, abilities are organized in a wheel with each quarter having its own skill tree relating to different types of powers. A steady flow of dark essence ensures upgrades are always there for the taking, but the game's length is such that it would be quite challenging to unlock much more than two trees to the point at which their more valuable powers become available, providing replay value in attempting different configurations of powe??rs or achieving Jackie's full potential in the "New Game +" mode.

Also supplementing the solo campaign is the multiplayer "Vendettas" mode. Playable with up to four people (or s??olo, if you like), each controls one of Jackie's four supernatura?l enforcers. These characters are each centered around one of Jackie's Darkness powers which they can use as well as support abilities that contribute to the team. Like Jackie, they collect dark essence from kills and spend it upgrading their own unique ability wheels. Unlike Jackie, they aren't a whole hell of a lot of fun to play. With only one real power at their disposal each, the lack of variety makes the combat significantly less interesting.

At around two hours, the Vendettas campaign is worth playing through, offering a different set of missions which run concurrent to Jackie's story and add some additional flavor, but could easily be dismissed. Greater challenges can be found in The Hit List missions, arena-style boss fights where the odds are much less in your favor. These are really difficult, to the point where it feels necessary to have more people helping to keep some of the heat off (or, you know, j??ust Jackie).

The Darkness II succeeds far more than it fails. The single-player experience features some genuine emotion in its narrative, something?? games which don't feature skull-extricating tentacles rarely manage to accomplish. And while the Vendettas cooperative multiplayer content feels lackluster by comparison, it's not bad either and serves to pad out this short but otherwise delightful game.

The post Review: The Darkness II appeared first on Destructoid.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that one of the best parts of my job is receiving mysterious packages in the? mai?l from various developers and publishers. Sometimes we know to expect them, and other times they're a wonderful surprise.

This morning, I came into work to find a cryptic box from 2K games on my desk with only the word "Destructoid" written on it. Knowing it had to be related to The Darkness II, I opened it with a fervor strong enough to actually ?tear the plastic cover of the game?. Guess I'll have to be more careful next time!

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2007's The Darkness was a fun, albeit flawed first-person shooter. The Starbreeze-developed title followed the exploits of Mafioso hitman Jackie Estacado on his 21st birthday as a hidden demonic power ??awakens inside him and he b?ecomes a relentless killing machine.

The game stayed fairly close to its comic roots and offered unique gameplay options such as th?e controllable demon arms and Jackie's ability to summon darklings to do his bidding. Now, Digital Extremes picks up the license and the groundwork that Starbreeze laid out, and it appears they have improved upon every aspect of the original.

The Darkness II (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [previewed])
Developer: Digital Extremes
Publisher: 2K Games
Release: February 7, 2012

When speaking with lead game designer Tom Galt, he emphasized to me how he and his team took the criticisms of the original game in mind when working on the sequel. One of the main points they wanted to highlight was the emphasis they had on the story over the last title. They felt that The Darkness was a good origin, but didn't really present a lot to keep gamers interested, story-wise. To that end, this time around the gam?eplay is more story-driven, a move that aims to keep the players attention while still offering the same style of combat from the original and comic series.

Speaking of the comic, one of the first things players will notice with the new title is how much it looks like the comic. The developers wanted to stress that the look of the game isn't cel-shading, but rather a new art style they've developed called "graphic noir." Cel-shading tends to have thicker black outlines and a flat color to the art, whereas The Darkness II's style features more even colors, crisper tones, and even some hand-painted backgrounds to giv??e it a more comic feel.

But back to the story. When we meet up with Jackie Estacado, he's been suppressing the Darkness within for four years now. He has had a good handle on contr??olling it, never unleashing it for fear of losing control. However, that doesn't last long, as a mysterious other force has plans for the Darkness itself. The demo that has been released now has some story elements in it, but these actually don't occur until later in the game, and are much more detailed than what's presented in the demo.

If you've played the demo on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, however, you've played the first level, where a mob hit squad attacks Jackie at his restaurant. The preview build I played picked up just shortly after the demo ends, with Jackie on the trail of the man who orchestrated the hit, a small-time hood named Swifty. For those that haven't played the demo yet, this is?? where you first do the quad-wielding. Jackie can hold a small arms weapon in each hand, and the two "demon arms" act as the other two weapons. The left and right bumpers (or L1 and R1) control these arms, and the amount of mayhem you can cause with them is frightening and awesome.

??Your left demon arm can grab items, weapons, and even enemies, while the right acts as a striking implement. As you pass through firefights, the arms can be used to pick up ammo, hurl objects at your foes (such as pipes and explosive tanks) and slap around enemies to be taken out up close and personally. These special executions are particularly gruesome to ??watch, and you can pick up more using the game's talent tree. Essence points are earned through kills and other activities in the environment, and spending essence at portals around the environments yields new abilities (such as special attacks), executions, and more.

These attacks are fluid and fun, and I really got into using a combination of shooting, chucking items at guys behind cover, and then eviscerating foes who got too close. Of course, I also made sure to eat my fallen enemies' hearts along the way, as that refuels health and gives more essence points. One of the strongest differences over the original game is how quick and focused everything is. The animations of the demon arms don't ever interfere with your vision on screen, and even when eating hearts, the animations aren't as long and played out as they were in The Darkness, so you can even get ?repeated chomps in before moving on.

One of the biggest changes over the original, however, is the need for it to be dark in The Darkness II. Previously, you basically just shot out all the lights and moved on to?? the next section, using your darkness vision to see in low light, but never having the light be a noticeable issue with gameplay. Now, Darkness mode is always on, but when you enter the light, the arms hide within you, and you're blinded and weakened by the light -- so much so that you often have to take the lights out to advance. Enemies can even use light to try to take? you down, so this even plays an active part in stopping Jackie throughout the game (such as in the first boss battle I encountered).

Not to give too much away (spoiler alert and all that) but it's revealed that Swifty is just a patsy, sent by a new character, Victor, c?reated for the ?game, who leads an altered version of The Brotherhood from the comics: a cult which worships the Darkness, and even has dark armor protecting their bodies. How this all plays out will have to be discovered by the player.

Rounding out the single-player experience is the presence of a darkling, one of?? the small creatures summoned by the Darkness. There are no longer various darklings used for specific tasks as was? the case in the first game. Instead, the one you're paired with acts as a guide, and the AI of this character is actually very helpful, taking out foes and assisting with kills. You'll even have a section where you play as the darkling to unlock areas for Jackie to pass through.

There was mention of two co-op modes, but I sadly didn't get to play them. Vendettas is a story-driven, four-person campaign that runs concurrently to the main story, and offers backstory as to what's happening with Jackie. The characters here don't have the Darkness, but each has a special weapon that can use an ability similar to one of Jackie's special attacks. There's also a?? mode called Hitlist; neither of these two options are?? a versus mode. The developers claimed they wanted to keep the focus on story and offer unique co-op modes instead.

With all that I saw, there definitely seems to be a good deal of replay value packed into the game, with artifacts to find and store at your mansion (which serves as the game's hub). Th??e mansion itself offers a wealth of content too, including mini-games and interactions with characters from the comic that help move the storyline along. If you couldn't tell, I'm really anxious to get back into this game when it's released next week.

The post Hands-on: Quad-wielding with The Darkness II appeared first on Destructoid.

If there's one thing I love more than blasting holes in the heads of my enemies from fifty feet away, it's ripping them in half from crotch to sternum with my giant demon tentacles. Fortunately for me, both of those things are possible in The Darkness II.

2K Games released the game's demo exclusively for Xb??ox Live Gold members this Tuesday, so I took that opportunity to get some quality Estacado time in. The demo will release to the rest of Xbox Live, Steam, and all Nort??h American PSN users on January 24th, while PSN users in Europe and Asia will have to wait until the 25th.

The post Feast y?our eyes on The Darkness II demo walkthrough appeared first on Destructoid.

2007 doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but it's been almost five years since The Darkness was released. Finally, its sequel is definitely on the way and 2K Games has announced a demo for The Darkness II that you can look forward to. Here's a few dates you'll want to ?remember:

• Tuesday, January 17th: The demo will release worldwide for Xbox Live Gold subscribers
• Tuesday, January 24th: It will release worldwide for the rest of XBL members, Steam users and North American PSN members.
• Wednesday, January 25th: PSN members in Europe and Asia can finally check out the demo.

Other than that, you can wait in anticipation for The Darkness II to release on February 7th for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Who's excited to take control of Jackie Estacado and The Darkness once again?

The post The Darkness II finally has a demo on the way appeared first on Destructoid.

Jackie Estacado wasn't somebody I would have wanted to meet in a alley even when nobody was watching his back. Now he's teaming up with a batch of hombres to take down The Brotherhood and that nervous guy who narrates all of these trailers seems to really have his knickers in a tw??ist over it.

The above video introduces us to the gang Jackie has put together for your use in playing the co-operative "Vendetta" mode found in The Darkness II. For more on the mode, check out our preview.

The post Meet Jackie’s co-op friends in The Darkness II appeared first on Destructoid.

Did you ever wonder what it would look like if you ripped a human spine from various orifices? No, just me then. Well, join me for a quick jaunt down the twisted and bloody world of The Darkness II with this new trailer.

Now, a little bit older and a little bit wiser, Jackie Estacado can now perform a wider range of execution moves with his Demon Arms, and can also unlock more through out the course of the game. The ridiculous executions moves in The Darkness helped make it stand out amoungst other FPS games at the time, for myself. I loved watching those tendrils fight over which one would get to eat the heart of my fall??en enemy. Good times!

Make sure to stick around until the end of the trailer too, to see the fan-favorite "Assecution". The Darkness II will be hitting stores February 7 2012.

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With The Darkness II ??right around the corner, maybe you should brush up on the comic series. That becomes easier today with the newly announced iOS app, announced here at New York Comic-Con. You'll be able to jump right in to the 50 or so launch issues of The Darkness on your iPad or iPhone with this app, and more issues are on the way. The entire backlist will eventually be available, along with exclusive ma?terial.

The app its??elf is a free download, and each issue of the comic is $1.9?9 each.

To celebrate this launch, Top Cow, Image Comics, and comiXology have made The Darkness? #1 through #6 free until the end of the day, Monday, October 17.

The post NYCC: Brush up on The Darkness with a new app appeared first on Destructoid.

2K has dropped a slew of new gameplay trailers for you would-be The Darkness II fans. The first (found above) dives into the mysterious Broth??erhood, the group out to strip Jackie Estacado's ability to control The Darkness. Apparently these are some bad dudes, but that doesn't make Jackie a saint. 

The other three videos offer a closer look at some of these coveted abilities: Swarm, Black Hole, Gun Channeling, Quad-Wielding, and Jackie's adorable Darkling. Prior to this, my interest in The Darkness wa??s minimal. I've got to say though, these powers look way too cool.

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Today 2K Games announced a special pre-order bonus for The Darkness II. From now until the title’s launch, those that pre-order The Darkness II will receive a free upgrade to the Limited Edition.? Here's what you'll get with your free ho??okup:

The Darkness II Limited Edition includes:

• Alternate darkling?? outfit: “Crazy Abdul”
• Two character ability upgrades:
  • Gourmet Hearts: provides bonus for eating hearts
  • Relic Hunter: locates col?lectible items in the world
• Custom illustration by Marc Silvestri
• Free digital download of The Darkness Origins Volume 1 and Volume 2 comics

This upgrade applies to console and PC versions, while supplies last. The Darkness II launches on February 7, 2012.

The post Upgrade! ?The Darkness II Limited Edition Pre-Order bon??us appeared first on Destructoid.

Part of me is glad that The Darkness II is now coming out February 7, 2012. There's so many big titles coming out this year that The Darkness II could have gott??en easily buried amongst the swarm of triple A titles on the horizon.

Then again, part of me is mad that the game isn't out this year as it means I have to wait even longer now to get my demonic tentacles all over the next Darkness. For now, I'll just have to accept videos like this one that 2K put out detailing the long dark history of ju??st what the Darkness is.

The post The long and bloody history of the Darkness appeared first on Destructoid.