The Darkness II Preview

There’re many sights to see at this years London MCM, if you can pull yourself away from the merchandise stands and cosplay events for long enough there’s some awesome games on show. One of the first I was able to get my hands on was a playable demo of The Darkness II, sequel to one of the 360′s best early titles.

The demo places you in the role of Nikki, protagonist from the original game and wielder of some wicked-cool demonic snakes. Things start out on an unusual tone as it flashes between you being tortured by some unknown and unsavoury folk, and an incident which presumably leaves you in this predicament.

Graphically the game has a nice style, there’s nothing that stands out and makes it a real spectacle but it definitely looks nice. The cartoonesque edge lends itself nicely here, keeping the gory parts gory whilst obviously separate from anything uber-realistic.

The gameplay is smooth and well designed, the shooting feels weighty any powerful while making itself distinct from your demonic powers, which by the way rule. So the demon arms are back in fine form, allowing you to rip your enemies apart, whip them literally into pieces or remove they’re still beating hearts. Actually the hearts thing seems like an important aspect, acting as a method to restore health. It’s intensely fun to sneak up on an enemy and rip out his heart before he even notices, seriously, it’s brilliant.

Honestly, it looks and plays great, The Darkness is never a series that was going to redefine the industry but what it does it does very well. It’s fun and action packed and most certainly a game that you should be paying attention to.

Okay, so I was pretty distracted today, tomorrow’s going to be a frantic flurry of flitting between different demo’s. Make sure to check TGF tomorrow for previews of Ninja Gaiden 3, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Rayman Origins and more.