Okay, let me preface this one with the fact that I never played the first Darkness game and I know very little about the original games story line or how it plays. All I know is that it’s a first person shooter style game with some demonic twists. While at PAX 2011, I spent a good 20 minutes behind-the-scenes with 2K Games Darkness 2. Overall, there is no question Darkness 2 is a vicious game but the games controls need some more work before this game hits retail.
The Darkness 2 demo we played at PAX consisted of a series of flashbacks that felt very similar to how Black Ops single player storyline was presented; except The Darkness 2 doesn’t hold back in terms of gore. From the very start, I was treated to blood, guts and dismemberment galore. There was an abundance of cut scenes presented from your in-game viewpoint which tell you a bit about the games storyline and your super natural powers.  It was a seamless experience as they are nicely presented and didn’t take much away from the gameplay. Unfortunately I did feel like I spent more time watching the scenes as opposed to playing during the 20-minute demo.
The controls took a bit of getting used to with firearms being mapped to the triggers and control of your mini ‘Tremors-snakes’ set to the bumper buttons. The game’s controls felt a little loose and the recoil from the guns is extreme. It didn’t feel natural and left me with the impression more could be done to improve them.
The much touted, hand painted art style is amazing. An unknowing eye might think its cel-shading, as I did, but I was reminded by the kind folks in the booth that everything was painstakingly textured by hand. It gives the game a wicked look that make me think of the movie ‘A Scanner Darkly’. The overall look is very unique and impressive. I can only imagine the amount of work the developers spent crafting such a slick looking game. The environments I played through were a seedy restaurant, some textbook alleyways and a subway station.
As nice as the texturing looks, the demo time didn’t offer much other than pretty standard point-to-point and kill the bad guy’s gameplay. Considering this one’s set for release in early 2012 and there’s plenty of time for fine-tuning I think it’s a bit pre-mature to criticize the controls. Nevertheless, they need some work as I already mentioned.
After my 20-minute playtime with Darkness 2, I have to say it is now mildly on my radar. It could be a fun diversion in the new-year after the onslaught of holiday titles.
