RipTen Videogame Blog » The-Darkness

The Darkness II Playable Demo Now Available for Xbox LIVE Gold Members

Garrett Hartman — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:45:46 +0000

2K Games today announced that The Darkness II demo is now available for download for Xbox Live Gold members.

The Darkness II is the sequel to 2007′s acclaimed Horror/Shooter hit The Darkness, that put you in the shoes of mob enforcer Jackie Estacado and his inherited connection/possession with a dark ancient evil force called The Darkness. The Darkness II promises new abilities such as Quad-Wielding, which allows players to slash, grab and throw objects.

While the demo is available now exclusively on Xbox Live, on January 24, the demo will become to all Xbox Live members, PSN and Steam.

The Darkness II will be available at retail of February 7th for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

New Darkness II Trailer Shows ‘Artfully Executed’ Executions

Garrett Hartman — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:30:31 +0000

2K has released an artfully brutal trailer showcasing some of the executions players will be able to perform in The Darkness II.

Gamers may remember The Darkness, 2007′s ambitious but ultimately flawed Horror/FPS which featured the experiences of mobster Jackie Estacado and his possession by an evil entity known as The Darkness. Although it received positive reviews, many felt the game had the potential to be far better.

The Darkness II will pick up where the the previous game left off and promises to create a more even experience.

The Darkness II is scheduled for release on the PC, 360 and PS3 in February 2012. Check out the ‘Artfully Executed’ trailer below.

What is The Darkness? This New Trailer for ‘The Darkness II’ Helps Explain

Dave Oshry — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:14:35 +0000

You don’t own the Darkness, the Darkness owns you.

In this latest trailer for The Darkness II we gain a bit of insight into just what The Darkness is and who is its host, Jackie Estacado.

Jackie may not own The Darkness, but you can own The Darkness II on February 7th, 2012.

For more on The Darkness II check out our video interview with Digital Extremes as well as Darkness creator Marc Silvestri

Marc Silvestri Plays The Darkness II, Calls It “Insane” and “Bad Ass”

Dave Oshry — Mon, 09 May 2011 23:23:41 +0000

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Marc Silvestri is one bad motherfucker. In fact, standing damn near seven feet tall, he’s one BIG bad motherfucker. Back in 2007, RipTen first interviewed this renowned illustrator and creator of The Darkness prior to the release of the original game inspired by his work.

Now, four years later, we’ve had the pleasure of sitting down with the CEO of Top Cow Productions once again – this time right after he’d gotten his hands on The Darkness II for the very first time.

Better yet, we brought in 2K Games producer Seth Olshfski to talk with Marc as he gave us his impressions.

Seth’s reactions are priceless and you can tell that both he and Marc are extremely proud of what has been created with The Darkness II:

The Darkness II comes to life on October 4th. Can you handle the bad ass insanity?

The Sickest Game I Saw At The GDC Will Be Playable at PAX East!!

Dave Oshry — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 13:40:13 +0000

First of all, yes – I’m talking about The Darkness II. Sure, I just got done telling you all about my hands-off, eyes-on demo at the GDC, but I’ve already got even better news.

The Darkness II will be PLAYABLE at PAX East!!

Here’s what 2K had to say:

Due to the tremendous response from GDC last week, The Darkness II will now be hands-on playable at PAX East on the show floor, for the first time worldwide!

So pack your bags, get your ass to Boston this weekend, and find the 2K booth.

I recommend getting there early, you don’t want to get caught in a 5 hour line like those Duke Nukem players at PAX prime last year.

Five O’Clock Fan Art: The Darkness

Dylan Duarte — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:00:48 +0000

The Darkness is coming! No, this isn’t me going insane; though I’ll let you all know when that happens. The Darkness II was recently announced, and in celebration, I bring you this picture of Jackie Estacado and all his little friends.

Five O’Clock Fan Art is perfect for wrapping up the work day. You don’t want to think anymore, you just want to look at awesome things. And there’s nothing more awesome than a well crafted piece of videogame fan art. If you don’t agree, what the hell are you doing at a gaming site?

Artist Invince is the twisted mind behind this piece.

The Darkness II is Alive and It’s Coming This Fall

Dave Oshry — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:04:11 +0000

If you thought Jackie Estacado was gone for good – think again. 2K Games has just announced that The Darkness II is alive and well, and it’s coming this fall.

The game is being developed by Digital Extremes and will feature simultaneous use of your demon powers while being able to use weapons – something you could not do in the first game. They’re calling this “quad-wielding” TD2 is also said to feature a hand painted art style – but judging by this screenshot it looks pretty much like an updated version of the original game – which is fine by me:

According to the press release:

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.

The Darkness II will also feature award-winning comic book writer, Paul Jenkins, who will provide a tightly integrated narrative that weaves dark humor with hardcore tenderness.

There’s also a bit about the story:

It’s been two years since Jackie Estacado, now the Don of the Franchetti crime family, 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, which has clearly been orchestrated by some outside force. The botched attempt opens the door for The Darkness to reemerge, and sets Jackie on a journey to hell and worse, as he unravels the mystery behind the attack and the motivations of The Darkness itself.

So Jackie in the Don now? Interesting. Don Estacado. That’s got a nice ring to it.

The Co-Creator of The Darkness comics is apparently quite impressed with what he’s seen of the game already:

“Sometimes that whooshing sound you hear is that of comic fans holding their collective breath,” said Marc Silvestri, founder and CEO of Top Cow Productions and co-creator of The Darkness comics. “So often disappointed when a favorite character gives birth to a lame movie or video game, us fans have come to expect the worst. And sometimes we get it. But not with The Darkness II. Yeah, call me biased, but this second installment of Jackie Estacado’s epic saga is – in my humble opinion – one of the most brutally cool games I’ve ever played. 2K Games hammered this one out of the park.”

There’s also a website (with nothing on it) – www.embracethedarkness.com

So, there you have it – The Darkness is back and I for one could not be happier. Jackie Estacado is going to make those mob bastards pay for shooting up his ride. Wait . . . wrong 2K reboot :-p

Assault on Dark Athena Demo Now on Xbox Live

Dan Landis — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:38:57 +0000

Assault on Dark Athena, the semi-remake/sequel/expansion to the Xbox hit Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, is now available on Xbox Live in demo form. Check out some gameplay footage, conveniently posted here for your viewing pleasure.

Developed by Starbreeze Studios, the same developer behind the original game as well as The Darkness, you can see the same visceral take on the combat (which is to say that it’s awesome). And don’t worry if you missed out on the first game — Escape from Butcher Bay has been visually re-mastered for next-gen systems and has been included for free.

Assault on Dark Athena will also include 6 multiplayer modes, such as Death Match, Capture the Flag, Arena (1v1 or 2v2), as well as two new modes: Pitch Black and Butcher Bay Riot.

Pitch Black is a 6-player mode where 5 players take the role of Mercenaries trying to hunt down and kill Riddick with only weapon-mounted flashlights to see by. Riddick starts in the darkness, while the Mercenaries start in a lit room containing shotguns, SMGs, and Assault Rifles before dropping into the darkness to hunt Riddick down. The more powerful the Mercenaries’ weapons, the lower the power of the flashlight. Riddick is armed with the Ulaks and his unique eyeshine night vision which gives him a great advantage in the dark. The player that kills Riddick then becomes him for the following round.

Butcher Bay Riot is a fast-paced three-team mode in which 12 players split into teams of Guards, Prisoners, and Mercenaries. Each team has to take a power cell to the base of one of the opposing teams to win the round. Players buy weapons before the round starts, and winning rewards them with more cash, as does killing the opposing players. All weapons are available to be purchased and all maps support 12 players. This mode requires close team collaboration and demands more strategic and tactical gameplay than the other multiplayer modes.

Sounds fantastic. We should be able to nab a copy of the full game and will let you know how it fares when it releases, currently scheduled for April 7th. Check back later for the full Ripten Review.

Top Ten Most Badass Weapons in Gaming History – #2 The Darkness

James Fleming — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 02:49:46 +0000

Our next, slightly controversial entry on this list has led me to question what exactly constitutes a weapon. The Darkness, the evil entity that spawns from our anti-hero Jackie Estacado in the game of the same name, is a living, breathing thing. It’s biological, despite its supernatural origins. It has a voice and a full range of emotions (anger, malice, rage).

So what exactly are the requisites for a badass weapon? It has to cause pain (check!). It’s got to make onlookers gasp in horror and/or inspire fits of uncontrolled vomiting (check!). But on that token, doesn’t Britney Spears’ MTV Video Music Awards performance qualify? The answer: Yes, but, the Darkness can kill you, and until some long-term variable controlled studies are conducted to prove the contrary, Spears’ music hasn’t been documented to be life threatening.

The Darkness isn’t really that much unlike the Mafioso strong men it so viciously slaughters. It loves eating Italian (or “Italians” rather), gets off on controlling people and favors the use of colorful language. The two elongated eel like appendages that jut out of Jackie’s love handles are some versatile killing machines, that much is certain.

Feel like turning a Bowery hitman into a human shish kebab? Well, it’s just one button click away. Want to knock out the lights so that your prey can only hear the snarl between your razor sharp teeth before causing a permanent case of deadness? No problem.

Hell, you can even develop a gravitational field powerful enough to engulf electromagnetic radiation as stated in Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Black holes sure are fun. The Darkness doesn’t just make you feel stronger; it makes everyone else seem weak. Most games have you fighting monsters. This game transformed you into one.

The Darkness is a freight train of suffering powered by the devoured hearts of its victims, with Mike Patton of Faith No More providing the creepy voice. And let us not forget that Faith No More was the band responsible for the video “Epic”, which depicted a landlocked fish gasping for air as the closing keys carried out on a somber piano. The fish, as it turned out, was the pet of Icelandic pop sensation Bjork.

So there you have it, folks. The Darkness tortured Bjork’s goldfish. And for that simple fact, it makes its pure evil way near the top of this list.

Top Ten Most Badass Weapons List: 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1

RipTen Review: The Darkness (Xbox 360)

James Fleming — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:32:33 +0000

“I Believe In A Thing Called Blood”

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no…well actually, there’s a lot to fear in the shadows. Anyone whose had a run in with Jackie Estacado, the protagonist of Starbreeze Studio’s new first person shooter: The Darkness, is all too aware of this fact. And death seems to be the least of Jackie’s troubles. After all, there’s always hell to worry about.

Starbreeze studios, the team that put you on lock down in Butcher Bay with their Chronicles of Riddick entry, are back with their new horror, shooter, comic hybrid vehicle The Darkness. Anyone who has a special place for Riddick in their original XBOX repertoire will be happy to know that this new entry holds much of the magic that made that game great, not to mention a few new bells and whistles provided by the XBOX 360’s graphical power. And while the game isn’t by any means perfect, anyone who is looking for an immersing and style driven FPS won’t be disappointed.

Our story begins on the 21st birthday of Jackie Estacado. For most 21 year olds this would be an occasion celebrated with binge drinking, singing off-key karaoke, and culminate with being forcefully exited out of a strip club. But Jackie, Paulie Franchetti’s premier hitman, is not most 21 year olds. And before he gets a day older he’ll be thrown into a world of betrayal, revenge and mass murder. You’ll awaken in the back seat of a Cadillac as it careens through traffic upon entering a transit tunnel leading you into lower Manhattan. The car ride gives you your first taste of the excellent voice acting as you listen to your fellow Mafioso’s colorful Scorsese-esque banter as they crash into oncoming cars and instigate a high-tension police chase. Your destination: a hit. The car ride, like many other scenes found throughout the game, is seen through Jackie’s eyes.

After a brief bullet exchange with the cops and more than a few bumps in the road, you’ll arrive at Graves End Construction site and, after a brief chat with your bloodied comrade, be given your objectives which can be accessed at anytime by pressing the back button on your controller. You’ll notice the lack of an in-depth HUD (much like Riddick) right off the bat. This helps with the suspension of disbelief, and keeps you grounded in the world laid out before you. Once you pick up your pistols from your maimed cohort you’re ready to head into the site to seek out your mark. Jackie’s movements have some weight, which is nice.

Most FPS’s have you walking around at top speed like a floating head, but movement in The Darkness seems more based in reality. The weapons you start your journey with are a variety of pistols ranging from 45’s to 9mm’s and can be cycled through by using the left and right button on the directional pad. Pretty standard. As you progress through the game you will get your hands on the heavy hitters (shotguns, submachine guns, rifles, etc). But as you’ll learn from very early on your greatest weapon will be The Darkness itself.

What The Darkness is can be difficult to explain without giving too much away. You’ll first become aware of its presence when it’s blood curdling whispers lead you through the tutorial. From that moment you’ll be meant to question what The Darkness actually wants from Jackie, and what it’s relationship is with it’s new Italian American host. Once it manifests itself physically it will appear as two demon-headed tentacles protruding from either side of your body. This is where things start to get fun.

As you make your way through the waves of street thugs, police and Uncle Paulie’s henchmen The Darkness will give you the tools to dispose of them without mercy. Hitting the left bumper will first manifest the darkness, shielding you from gunfire while heightening your vision in poorly lit areas. It will also allow you to see gateways, which are the homes to the grotesque and comical Darklings. These little Gollum like demons are basically your minions. They’ll attack your enemies, create shadows and help give you breathing room in a firefight. There are four variations of Darkling (Berserker, Gunner, Kamikaze and Light killer), each sporting various advantages in any given situation.

Aside from the Darklings you’ll be able to use your tentacles themselves to your advantage. The Darkness offers you four different powers; all of which are executable with a quick press of the right bumper. The first power is that of Darkness Creep. Creep allows you to dispatch a tentacle through vents, holes and any other impossible to reach areas in order to unlock doors and flip switches. Darkness Arm juts one of the appendages out from you like a spear from hell. It can be used to move obstacles, impale enemies and break lights without wasting bullets. Darkness Guns are…well, guns. They use darkness power as their ammo and, if you steer clear of bright lights, give you an endless supply of rounds.

The final and most brutal ace up your sleeve is the Black hole. Once you unleash one of these cosmic bad boys, your enemies (and any light in its wake) will be engulfed by the nothingness. While quite powerful, the Black hole will consume all of your Darkness power, leaving you temporarily exposed. Darkness power can be regained by simply standing in the shadows. Increasing your overall Darkness meter is done by other means: eating human hearts. Walk over the corpses of your fallen enemies, press A and watch as the piranha like teeth borough their way into the ribcages of your foes faster than a cardiologist on crack. To answer your question: yes. This is as fun as it sounds.

From start to finish, the presentation found in The Darkness is top notch. From the barren trenches of “No Man’s Land” that you’ll survey looking for clues to your salvation to the dirty subways of Chinatown and The Lower East Side. The lighting and character models are crisp and make New York very believable. Overall, the graphics are a non-issue and accomplish what great graphics always strive for: to make the player feel that he/she is in that world. The voice acting absolutely shines in this title. Mike Patton’s (former lead singer of Faith No More) depiction of the Darkness is strong throughout, and Jackie’s monologues (which cleverly stand in for loading screens) are a nice touch. Even the act of collecting and dialing phone numbers in order to unlock extra content is done to avoid breaking the fourth wall.

While the Darkness is definitely a single player driven game, multiplayer has been tossed in. I do say tossed, because like many games in recent years it does feel as if it was put in to quench demand rather than to follow up on the creator’s vision. Capture the flag is available, as well as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Survivor. All are pretty straight forward and worth a look at some stage during your time with The Darkness. A nice little quirk is the ability to transform into a Darkling. As in single player they have the ability to climb, scurry and deliver powerful blows to enemies. But be careful. They are just as weak and you’ll risk being killed easily.

Multiplayer can be a nice distraction but it really won’t be causing any sleepless nights or premature breakups with your girlfriend. Another gripe I may have with The Darkness is that it doesn’t really seem all that difficult. Playing through on the default setting shouldn’t cause any real hiccups for seasoned players. And once you build up your Darkness meter and cast your first Black hole on an unsuspecting horde, you’ll realize that things are only going to get easier. Mind you this does send the “I feel like a badass” rating through the roof, but it would have been nice if the creators upped the challenge. Something that can be challenging, however, is ordering your Darkling minions to the correct locations. In some of the early stages I found myself repeatedly tapping the X button in attempt to get my Darkling from behind a bar, out a door and into the fray. This can be frustrating in the early levels because you rely on the Darklings due to your lack of ammo. But once you get about three quarters through the game you can basically walk right past those summoning gates without a second glance, since you can dish out far more pain than any of those little minions.

All in all The Darkness has all the ingredients for a great first person shooter. It’s style and shine really adds to its already tight gameplay and the story will keep you invested. The thing the Darkness does best is to make you feel that the characters are real. That they have lives outside of your sphere of influence. That’s what makes this game so satisfying and entertaining. That and the fact that you can consume a still beating human heart with the touch of a button…and when isn’t that fun?

Interview: The Darkness Game – Ripten Sits Down With Creator Marc Silvestri

Chad Lakkis — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 04:57:27 +0000

Who needs a dog when you have The Darkness!! Ain’t that right Jackie?

Today we had the pleasure of sitting down with the one and only Marc Silvestri, renowned illustrator and creator of the character behind the upcoming game The Darkness which is due to hit stores towards the end of this month. We picked his brain about the new game, the comic, his influences, and the state of the comic book and video game industry today. Enjoy.

Chad: What did you want to be growing up?
Marc: Oddly enough I wanted to be a doctor, and then I realized you had to be smart for that.
Chad: Ha-ha.
Marc: It wouldn’t have worked out, trust me. I don’t even remember why I just wanted to be a doctor for a while. Then an astronaut, of course when I started to grow beyond 6 foot that wasn’t going to happen.
Chad: Well some of us never hit 6 feet so you should be happy!
Marc: Ha-ha, so yeah I just wound up in comics, it seemed like an easy gig so that is where I went.

Chad: How did you get started in comics?
Marc: You know, I wasn’t a huge comic book reader when I was a kid, my cousin was, to this day he has an enormous collection. I would go to his house to hang out on the weekends and pick up something that I looked cool and usually it was something by Jack Kirby or Neal Adams, something like that and read those comics. Unfortunately back then I would usually only read one part of a two or three part story because I never really got to see them in any real order, but yeah that was my exposure back then. I would go over his house, hang out and check out what I thought looked cool.

Chad: What was your favorite comic?
Marc: You know I was a big fan of Kirby’s stuff. I loved the horror stuff, the old E.C. Comics, all the black and whites. They had some amazing art and some really cool stories, really cool writing. That is what I was really drawn to.
Chad: Very cool.
Marc: I remember being drawn to the dynamics that John Buscema had brought to the field. I thought Neil Adams stuff was kind of interesting at that time. All the old illustrators of course anything that Frank Frazetta did, I snuffed that out and loved it. To this day he is a main influence on what I do. Later on I got to appreciate guys like Walt Simonson and Buscema was always with me all the way through my comic career. I was into his work, all the stuff that he did but that was primarily what I was checking out. Those guys, if they did something I would ask my cousin, hey any issues with so and so and he would pull them out for me.

Chad: What was your inspiration for The Darkness?
Marc: As a kid, again I always dug the horror stuff. I loved Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf Man, and all that stuff. I always wanted to do something that kind of scared me. Around the time we were doing Witchblade, in fact The Darkness was created before Witchblade, the concept for it anyway, and I kind of put it in a drawer and didn’t think about again until Witchblade became popular. But I always wanted to do something that was super hero horror, which was not what anyone else was really doing … Marvel wasn’t doing anything like that, and DC wasn’t doing anything like that. I was always fascinated by a character that would have to live in the dark both literally and figuratively. I started to think more about what was scary about the dark and what was scary about the dark part of us as human beings. Stuff just started to come to the forefront and the more I thought about it the more I kind of liked the idea. I remember pitching the idea to David Wohl who was Top Cow’s Editor and Chief at that time. He kind of responded to it so I pulled it back out of the drawer and with the success of Witchblade we thought, you know what there is a market for this super natural super hero stuff going on, so let’s find ourselves a writer. Let’s look for somebody that could bring a fresh spin to this kind material and Garth Ennis’s name came up. He was just starting to blow up at that time; people were starting to take notice, so we gave him a call.

Chad: In terms of the game how big of a team has Starbreeze Studio dedicated to the design and the development of The Darkness?
Marc: You know, I am not sure of the exact number but I do know that they were using this game to kind of help grow the company staff wise. I do know that as the game started going on and on and the excitement level was increasing. We moved over to 2K as a publisher, and more money started coming in for the game. They began ramping up and staffing up, and the game became more of a priority for them to get the game to not only look as good as it possibly could, and it looks amazing. They have really taken advantage of the next generation platforms and I think it’s going to blow people away.

Chad: In developing the game, how important was it to you that the developers stick to the comic storyline as much as possible?
Marc: Well I think the main thing we were looking for was not so much someone to stick to the storyline, but stick to the concept of the character and the world that he inhabited, meaning we wanted Jackie to be in the game and we wanted The Darkness to be in the game. Those were our priorities. We had been approached over the years to do something with us, The Darkness, Witchblade what have you, and nobody really came to us understanding what The Darkness really was and how he could be turned into an entertaining game experience until Starbreeze came along. They did so much incredible preproduction work that just blew us away when we saw it. These guys just got visually what The Darkness should be, and then they pitched us the idea of how the game would work. They were very respectful to us, and very respectful to The Darkness, and very respectful to all the history that we have had with that character and how important that was to us. We realized you know what; these guys have done Riddick which obviously impressed the hell out of everybody. They were ready to step it up to the next level. They really wanted to have a game that proved that Riddick was not a fluke, and that they could not only do it again, but do it better. So it was like wow ok so far so good here. So, to get a developer like Starbreeze, AND they get it, AND they want to make it … so it was like ok, let’s go! Another thing we had to tip our hat to them on was the fact that they actually wanted someone closely associated with The Darkness to work on the game with them, which was Paul Jenkins who actually wrote the game and for fans of the book, he actually wrote a lot of the issues of the book too.

Chad: That kind of leads us in to the next question. Does the game follow a specific series of events that are outlined in the comic, and if so what issues do you think it touches the most?
Marc: Actually, oddly enough that is something Paul did although I never asked him directly (ha-ha) but a lot of what he put in there kind of follows some of his story lines in the book. I don’t want to give too much away because a lot of that is revealed in the game play, and for those who have not read the book I don’t want to spoil that for them. The brilliant thing that Starbreeze did was that they managed to make an origin game, in that they teach you what The Darkness power is and they teach you about Jackie’s world while you are playing the game which is really entertaining. There is no need for a lot of explanation; you just kind of get it organically and we thought that was really smart of them, especially when we saw HOW they did it. It was like wow you guys actually pulled it off. It sounded great on paper, but they actually pulled it off. So for us it was like, here is the concept, here is the feel for Jackie’s world, here is the feel for Jackie himself, you take it from there. Having Paul work closely with them, and he did work very closely with them, he literally wrote the game with them and he worked closely with us. I think that fans of the comic are not only going to NOT be disappointed, but they are going to be pretty impressed that Starbreeze was able to stay so close to the spirit of what The Darkness is and Jackie especially.

Chad: Did you contribute any sketches or storyboards for the games cinematic sequences?
Marc: Well we were so impressed with what they had done artistically, that we kind of just went you know what, you guys just do what you need to do … you obviously know what you are doing, certainly better than us. I think one of the things that also was very fun for us was that Starbreeze pulled a lot from our library of Darkness books. They actually used a lot of our artwork as inspiration, whether it was my work, or whether it was Dale Keown’s work, or some of our other guys, you know they pulled from that. So a lot of what The Darkness is in the comic is translated into the game. In fact the ONLY difference actually that people would notice who are familiar with the comic is that Jackie is not technically in his super hero costume in the game. He is wearing a trench coat, which we thought was a very smart move on Starbreezes part … that was their suggestion.
Chad: Ok, that is a little bit different from the comic.
Marc: Yeah, I mean he still looks like Jackie, although he just isn’t wearing a costume in the game, which is cool with us because there is so much other stuff that Starbreeze put in there that IS about The Darkness. That was something we talked about very early on in the development because they were kind of worried, like I said they were very respectful of us and the property. They said we would kind of like to NOT have Jackie in the costume and this is why, all these cool things are going to be happening around him. Make him just a regular looking guy, like he is in the comic, and then have all this really cool darkness crap going on with all these demon guys running around and that’s all you really need. And you know what, they were absolutely right, that wasn’t something we had to go back and forth about.

Chad: How many villains from the comic will be in the game and can you name a few?
Marc: Recognizable villains that people will see in there from the comic; Uncle Paulie who was a fixture in the comic, especially in the Paul Jenkins issues. He is kind of the main mortal lord in the book and he has his guys that work for him and then there is another place, another part of the game which we have hinted to in the press, called The Other World, which is the supernatural world of The Darkness. You as Jackie will play two fifths of the game in that level, which is actually pretty cool supernatural villains for Jackie to go up against so he’s not just fighting mobsters the whole time.
Chad: Ok.
Marc: Starbreeze was really smart in making sure that Jackie, when he goes up against junior antagonists, there are a lot of them and they can do a lot of damage to Jackie. They were also very smart about taking it to another level when you get to the point that Jackie is fighting these OTHER things that are NOT people. So that was pretty cool.

Chad: Having seen the game in progress, what are your thoughts? It sounds like you like it a lot.
Marc: You know, we have had experience with working with other media, and working with people with various levels of success you know, and it’s always a crap shoot. Before I got any taste at all of the movie or TV business I always wondered how anyone could spend so much money on a movie and still have it come out like crap, ha-ha.
Chad: Ha-ha, yeah.
Marc: So once I got into the business and saw how things operate, I completely reversed my thinking and went WOW, how do they even make a good movie? You know?
Chad: Yeah.
Marc: There is so much going on, and so many people with their input that the chances of coming out with something good are so loaded against you, it’s not funny. So when we got into something like a video game, which is not all that different from going into a movie or a TV show deal, you kind of go you know what, all we can really do is get the best people in play that we feel understand whatever it is that we are producing with them, and hopefully they are the best there is at what they do, and in the case of Starbreeze I believe that is true. Then we work with them as much as we can and kind of just sit back and let them do their job to be honest.
Chad: That is a great outlook.
Marc: Yeah, it came out terrific. You know, all you can really do at a certain point is cross your fingers and hope that you made the right decisions and you are involved with the right people. In the case of The Darkness game, you know what, without sounding like I am hyping it too much, it FAR exceeded any expectation I could have hoped for. The end result was just amazing to me.
Chad: Well you just answered my next question.
Marc: Ha-ha.
Chad: So it exceeded your expectations.

Chad: Did you get a chance to play the game at various stages in its development cycle?
Marc: Yeah, they actually showed us early builds of the game almost from the get go. They had started doing work on it pretty quickly. So even three years ago, we got to see some early builds of it and even back then before any kind of polish was done to it, it was already impressive. The work that they had done, the fact that they are artists over there at Starbreeze as well as programmers which I think is a great advantage for them. So not only are they gamers and programmers, but they are artists as well. So the world that they were building, even in its early stages, was very tactile and very immersive, and that was already a great start. Then as the months went on they would show us more and more. Each time we saw it we got re-blown away by it. It was like; man I thought it was cool last month. It was an interesting process for me because it’s not a world that I am used to. To see how it improves almost on a monthly basis. Even the things we saw, they go back and tweak it and polish it and fix it. You may have thought it was great before, it becomes something even that much greater.

Chad: That actually brings up another question. How different is the world of video game production from the world you experienced previously with comics?
Marc: As far as the differences are concerned, for a comic book, for me it’s like I am completely in charge of that process. I can stick my nose in there as much as I want. It’s a business that I completely understand. If we create something we think is cool we put a team together, if it’s not me it’s somebody else, and we publish the book, it’s that simple, and the cost compared to video games and other media are really relatively small. In fact they are just a fraction of the cost of putting together a video game. And the time involved is also a fraction of the time. Literally we can put out a comic book within six months, from conception to hitting the stands. With a video game like The Darkness, they have been working on it for three years by the time it comes out. And they have spent millions and millions of dollars on this game, which is something we don’t do in the comic book business. No matter how expensive that book, no matter how much advertising you put behind it, it’s not going to cost you millions and millions of dollars. So that’s something to me that’s so startling. You’ve got a company that literally spends three years creating something, spending all this time, spending all this money, and they have so much riding on it that you go WOW that is a scary business to be in. These guys know what they are doing, we knew that from the get go and we have all the confidence in the world that people will not be disappointed by it.

Chad: In terms of the game itself, if you had to pick one thing, what would you say impressed you the most?
Marc: The thing that impressed me the most about the game was just, how they captured the spirit of Jackie Estacado. How they captured the spirit of what The Darkness can be, and how they pull that together into something you can actually play. It’s one thing to do a graphic illustration of the world. It’s one thing to write a description of the world. But what they had to do was both of those things PLUS make that world playable. Make that world so immersive that when you grab the controls and you are looking at the TV, you feel like you actually ARE Jackie Estacado and you are in that world. The fact they were able to do that, and I can’t really single out one scene because there are so many really cool ones, just the fact that they were able to make that happen, to make that transition from a comic into a playable video game, that’s what really impressed me the most, because that’s just not something that is easy to do.

Chad: Do you play a lot of video games yourself?
Marc: No, I make a great target in Halo. Ha-ha.
Chad: Ha-ha.
Marc: We have it set up over at the office, and all the guys when we are working late nights, will challenge each other and get together. Four or five of us will get on the monitors and play. I play some games at home. Honestly, from what I have played and what I have seen, The Darkness and what Starbreeze has done with it really takes all that stuff to a new level. I am just really pleased to be a part of all of that.

Chad: Outside of Halo, are you familiar with any other first person shooters on the market?
Marc: Let’s see, what have I played. I have played things like FEAR, Grand Theft Auto, and Tomb Raider. I play a lot of those games. I don’t play them for hours and hours on end, but I definitely have played them enough to say well this is pretty cool, or this is kind of interesting. Yeah, I certainly feel I have played enough games to compare what Starbreeze has done with this.

Chad: Do you have any plans to work on any other video games in the near future?
Marc: Yes. We would love to work with Starbreeze again in the near future. It has been such a pleasure working with them. They have been so collaborative and so concerned that WE are ok with everything they are doing. We would love to do more with them and 2K has been great. We do have a couple of projects that we are working on right now that hopefully we can make someone else move on, but I think as the technology improves, and the developers out there are getting better and better and can interpret what we do more and more into video games, yeah you are going to see a lot more stuff.

Chad: Do you believe that comics have become increasingly more violent in the last twenty years or so, having been in the industry?
Marc: Well I think there has been an increase in a lot of things in all media, and I think that just happens … naturally. I remember when I was a kid if you saw somebody get hit with a gunshot, even if it was just moving their clothing, you were shocked by it.
Chad: Yeah.
Marc: Today certainly, that’s not going to shock anybody. You know, in the case of The Darkness in both the game and the comic, here it’s his world … and we have to kind of be true to that world, or you are not really being true to that character. So, you know I think you can probably say that everything around us has probably been wrapped up a little bit. I don’t think it’s to the point where anyone is desensitized by it. I think people still react, and always will react to the real thing as opposed to something that is manufactured. So if there are any concerns there, it’s not really concerns with me. I think it’s just part of the way things move.

Chad: So that brings me to my next question. What do you think of all the criticism surrounding violence in video games today?
Marc: I don’t think there is a real ground for it. Again, I don’t think that people have a problem separating fantasy from reality, and if they do, well that’s a whole other issue.
Chad: Exactly.

Marc: I think it’s up to the individual. I think the vast, vast, vast majority; if not all but a few, realize its entertainment and once entertainment is done its put away. I don’t think there are a whole lot of people out there that can’t make that distinction. I think it’s a whole different social issue that really doesn’t have anything to do with video gaming.
Chad: We agree with you.

Chad: Now we have three questions from readers on the site.
Marc: Sure.

Chad: Derek asks: Will we see any other marvel characters in the game as enemies?
Marc: Marvel characters?
Chad: Yes, Marvel characters. Ha-ha.
Marc: Um, no we aren’t going to have any Marvel characters in our game, ha-ha. There isn’t going to be any cross pollinating with other publishers there.
Chad: So there are no crossovers whatsoever, even outside of Marvel?
Marc: No, not with the game.
Chad: Ok.
Marc: Not currently anyway.

Chad: Ok this question is comic related. Arha asks: Will Capris play a greater role in the next volume of the Darkness after the level issues? And will we see a return of Ripclaw from Volume 1? They were amazing characters.
Marc: I am going to answer a tentative yes on that, only because we do have plans and I can’t stand spoilers.
Chad: Ok.
Marc: I don’t want to say anything that is going to make somebody go “oh you just ruined it for me!” but keep your eyes peeled.

Chad: Ok, the last question is game related again. Spider78 asks: Will there be any hidden Easter Eggs in the game you can tell us about?
Marc: I think there are things that people can find in there. I think Starbreeze was very clever in giving people some rewards if they looked around. It’s not a game that has to be played in any linear fashion I don’t believe. I believe it is very free roaming. I think, as far as I know, that if someone looks around, if they’re smart, they can find some things.

Chad: Ok. That’s it Marc. Thank you very much for your time.
Marc: My pleasure. I appreciate your support of the game.
Chad: Thank you!

Ripten To Interview Marc Silvestri, Creator Of “The Darkness” June 5th

Chad Lakkis — Thu, 31 May 2007 15:16:40 +0000

Ripten.com will be interviewing the man who’s pencil and paper gave birth to Jackie Estacado, a character we’ve all come to know better as “The Darkness”. If you were a fan of Marvel Comics in the late 80′s and early 90′s then you remember first seeing Marc’s distinctive style breath life into The Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine.

Here is your chance to ask Marc a question about the upcoming game, the comic, anything you can think of (within reason of course). Submit your question via email at ripten@gmail.com or in the comment area below. Deadline for submissions is this Saturday, June 2nd.

Update 6/3/07:
Submission deadline has been extended to Monday, June 4th due to the overwhelming email response to this article.

Update 6/6/07:
The interview is complete and is available for viewing here.

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