THE DARKNESS II GO BACK FOR RELIC SERIES

Among them are decapitation, being diced, having their spines torn via the throat or, erm, the hole on the other end of your body, or being torn apart like a wishbone. Thanks to the power of the Darkness, your enemies meet a variety of foul ends. Jackie's travels include his mansion, a graveyard, a pool hall, a mental hospital, a fun park and some places beyond the realm of reality.īut some of the real visual juice comes with the combative gorefest the game lays at your feet. The noir style in Darkness II adds a sense of speed and activity without compromising the soul of the first game. It's a drastic turn from the first installment, which weighed down the eyes with a gloomy, dank atmosphere that stressed detail over comic-book vibrance, not unlike Starbreeze's Riddick-based offerings. This pursuit takes place through the lens of an exquisite graphic noir art style that breathes life into every environment.

Near death, Jackie is forced to let the Darkness back out, destroy his assailants, and find out who is chasing after him. There's gun play, plenty of fire and the first encounter with Jackie's would-be enemy. Of course, Jackie's peace doesn't last forever, and The Darkness II opens with an attempt on Jackie's life at a restaurant. What's amazing as you progress through the game is that his guys know about the Darkness, referring to it as 'that thing that he does' or his 'mojo,' which must make the Franchettis the most loyal, progressive and open-minded fictional crime family I've ever seen.

We learn that he's managed to keep the Darkness in check for two years. Now Jackie returns in the second installment, this time as the 23-year-old don of the Franchetti crime family, where he got his start. He also learns that the Darkness is something of a family legacy. Jackie eventually fights the Darkness itself for control before raining fire on his relatives. The most gripping moment of the first game is when the Darkness holds Jackie and forces him to watch his uncle kill his beloved girlfriend before his eyes. Mike Patton voices the creature, which is bent on consuming Jackie and making him his full-time vessel of destruction. The problem is, as one can assume with most demonic beings who possess people, The Darkness is an asshole. Jackie eventually uses the Darkness to wipe out his uncle Paulie, a scumbag's scumbag, and avenge the death of his girlfriend. The tentacles eat hearts, conjure black holes, and violently slash and kill people. Taking the form of a pair of oil-black, snake-headed tentacles emerging from a perpetual cloud of, well, darkness surrounding Estacado, this being enables the young antihero to waste everyone in his path. His 21st birthday is a landmark day because that's when he inherits the powers and problems of a hellish, ethereal force called The Darkness. It was our first look into the life of Jackie Estacado, a 21-year-old enforcer for a mafia crime family. Starbreeze Studios brought the occult-mafia fusion to gamers in 2007 with The Darkness, which was based on a comic book of the same name.

THE DARKNESS II GO BACK FOR RELIC SERIES

Mess it up (I'm looking at you, Devil May Cry 2), and a series can be on a longer road to redemption. 2 game right, you get stuff like the Uncharted or Assassin's Creed series. It's an ideal 'second game' in a series, which carries the daunting tasks of staying true to the original, improving upon it, and then setting the table for future installments. That's what The Darkness II does with gory, wild abandon, while managing to surpass its predecessor in almost every facet of design and playing experience. Now toss demonic superpowers into this cocktail of archetypes and wise-guy culture. The air is thick with expletives laden with heavy Italian accents, the kind of stuff that's inspired plenty of non-Italians to blurt out, 'Fugeddaboutit!' without batting an eyelash. There's narrative from characters about stuff like 'the business,' 'the way things used to be,' or the espousing of tenets like family and loyalty. You're guaranteed to see or hear about people getting whacked. Tales about mobsters have a tendency to feel predictable, and that's part of their charm.

The darkness ii go back for relic