I think I may have mentioned in a previous post about just how much I adored the original Darkness game. I’m a fan girl, I loved it, it was incredible. As much as I was annoyed that it didn’t follow the original comics too much, it was still thoroughly enjoyable and gripping.
One of the things that I really liked in the original Darkness was the ability to use the darkness powers for good. There was an achievement in the game called Heart of Gold, which was worth 50 points and you earned the achievement by helping people throughout the game. One of the people that you help in the Hell levels was a soldier, trapped in the Darkness’ mind. He asks you to give something to his wife in the “real” world. What you need to remember is that the real world in the game is in 2007, the Hell level/Darkness mind is based in the first world war. When you find the soldiers wife, she is at one of the train stations sitting on a bench, in her late 90’s. This mission stood out for me as it showed that even in the Darkness, there is always a light to help you find your way. In this case, she was the soldiers light, although he never makes it out of that hellish place, he survives because of his love for her.
It appears that love is a great theme in The Darkness game, well in the original at least. I have to mention another of the people that you help in the game for that achievement as well, because we’ll meet him again in The Darkness 2 from what I’ve seen in the demo…or at least I hope we do. I’d love for good old George to sing to me again. George was a busker in the Canal St station that was having some hassle from a punk, telling him he couldn’t busk there anymore. Jackie Estacado, being the awesome bag of awesomeness that he is, helps him out, by a: getting Georges harmonica back for him and then b: killing that punks ass as much as possible slightly later in the game. That one actually made me feel really good. Or theres the crazy old broad that makes you play chicken with the train to catch 6 coins that she throws on the train tracks….
Yeah, those mini missions were great. And yes, I died quite a lot trying to get those coins, there was no way I was going to be bested by some crazy old granny.
The real reason I loved the Darkness though, was the power that you had over the minions…or Darklings. Even now I sit an think of them and giggle at the thought of them ambling along beside me and shouting random things. Even now, when I make my home made curd, I say “lemon curd” in the best Darkling voice I can muster. They were loyal little creatures, willing to help you out in any way possible, often wandering into oblivion due to some random light still being on. These creatures were slightly different to the Darklings of the comics as they didnt really say much other than the random comments they would make every so often during some idle moments or in battle. The darklings of the comic world were total blabber mouths, constantly talking, arguing and even giving useful advice to Mr Estacado.
I’m rambling again, sorry.
I’m writing this because I played the Darkness 2 demo which was released on Jan 17th, if you have a gold sub on Xbox or have a PS3…download this demo, go, now! No, wait, come back till I’ve finished rambling. The demo was great, again in my previous post I was anxious to see how this game would actually pan out, but from what I’ve played, I had no need to be wary of it. We have what looks to be an incredibly solid game in front of us, with some interesting tweaks here and there. I was originally sceptic of the cel-shading of the game, I thought it would be too gimmicky and would lose some of its original charm, but I was wrong. AND I COULDN’T BE HAPPIER ABOUT BEING WRONG!!!
Also, lets get back to old George, remember him? The busker from a couple of paragraphs ago? Yeah, that’s the one. As mentioned previously, there is a nostalgic feel to the demo as you walk into Canal Street and the first thing that I noticed was that George’s harmonica and stool were still sitting in the same place as the original game. That made me gush with nostalgia, and I have to be honest, I was in a rotton mood when I first started playing the Darkness 2 demo. That single part put me straight into a better mood. By the time the demo was finished, I was psyched and desperate to play the full game.
The Darklings are slightly different in the second game too, as they are more like their comic counter parts. Very talky, an oddly english…well the first one you encounter is. The humour you get from the Darkling is just like the first game, they’re farting smelly green farts and peeing on the dead bodies. I was equally grossed out an happy at this. I just hope that they still shout lemon curd though! I really need to get a clip of that to use it as an alert tone on my phone.
There are talent trees in the game as well now, you gain darkness essence with every kill you get, the gorier the kill, the more essence you get. There are four tree’s that you can choose from, executions, gun skills, darkness talents and….damnit, I’ve forgotten the other one. They’re all cool, theres a talent that earns you more health for using a Darkness arm execution kill amongst other things.
February 10th is not coming fast enough for me, I tell you that much.
Suzi Inspired 
I never actually played the original Darkness >.< sort of tempted to now though, plus quite liked the demo for D2!