The Darkness II: If You Can Think It, You Can Do It
It goes without saying, even though I’m about to say it, that The Darkness II was my favorite game at the GDC… and I didn’t even get to play it.
Why does that go without saying? Because I’ve been telling everybody. I cannot believe how mind blowingly viscerally awesome this game looks. As a huge fan of both The Darkness comics and the original game (and the band), I am proud to say that Jackie Estacado is back – and better than ever.
There was so much win involved in the demo I saw at the GDC. Such a great art style, such great carnage, such great dialogue, such great storytelling… and even some great tits. As I watched Jackie once again transform into a beast controlled by The Darkness and decimate dirtbags in amazing new ways (thanks to the new and improved quad-wielding combat system) I was in awe.
Everything I ever wanted to do in the first game, was being done on screen. Anything I thought Jackie might be able to do, he did! Picking up weapons from across a room with demon arms? Check. Using demon arms to pick up objects and hurl them at bad guys? Check. Ripping off a car door with your demon arm and using it as a shield? Well, I’d never even thought of that… but yeah, Check. Better yet, you can now start firing two separate weapons while simultaneously slashing and grabbing your foes with those nasty, gnarly demonic arms of yours. It was all there. It all looked so seamless and easy. If you felt like a bad ass in the first game, your’re gonna feel like a mother fuckin’ god damned one man army in this game… because you are.
After the demo I just had to sit down to talk with someone about all the awesome I had just witnessed.
Luckily, Darkness II project director Sheldon Carter (from Digital Extremes) was on hand for an interview:
So, The Darkness II looks as if it’s definitely shaping up to be one hell of a sequel. You can bet that with guys like Sheldon on board to make sure that players get an amazingly brutal, visceral, creative and bad ass experience, I have no doubt that this game will certainly not be the last we see of Jackie Estacado and The Darkness.
