Why I love - The Darkness II

[Clockwork]

I went into the game with no knowledge of The Darkness, I didn't play TDI and I didn't read the comics.


The player character is Jackie Estacado, a standard italian-american gangster with all the tropes. The character is pretty vanilla in other words and doesn't make a great impression but the drawn art style is catchy enough to make me want to see the rest of the level at least. The intro starts with a slow tour of a restaurant introducing various mobsters in your employ until you're thinking 'Yeah okay, I get it, he's a boss.' Jackie seems like an uninterested everyman. However by the end of the level Jackie gets possessed by an ancient evil called The Darkness which manifests itself as black snake like heads sprouting from each shoulder and armadillo starts to get pretty cool.


The action had most definitely commenced and I forget all about Jackie. I'm slicing people in half with snake heads, I've got engraved M1911s, things are looking up. For the most part it's an average shooter with snake heads as an interesting extra mechanic. Then something truly great happens. Out of nowhere a girl runs down an alley and he shouts 'Jenny!', suddenly Jackie has some history. He thinks he's seen a ghost and is going crazy but he knows Jenny. Later on (after some more carnage) he takes a shortcut through this beat up diner and inside the diner looks great and the lights are on and is Jenny is the only person in it, cleaning tables with the radio on. This is where you get the first glimpse of what kind of a person Jenny is, she makes the most of things, has fun where and when she can. Jenny sees Jackie and runs over to him giving him a hug and calling him by the affectionate nickname rat-face. Jackie reacts by saying more or less 'I don't care if this isn't real'. The song on the radio changes and Jenny drags you to the centre of the diner to dance with her and you get choice to kiss her or to wait until the song finishes. She invites you back into the kitchen either way and the vision vanishes and the diner is back to lights off and run down.


Jenny's character grows the more of these maybe-flashbacks-maybe-hallucinations and as hers does, so does Jackies. If you play through the game the ending is just so damn perfect. It's both a great example of how to grow a relatively blank slate character through interaction with other people and just a fantastic love story.

[Clockwork]

Lol, learn to English jackass.

[Clockwork]

There is an 80% discount on The Darkness 2, you can pick it up for £4 on steam.