The Darkness 2 Demo Impressions.

So I just finished playing the demo for the Darkness 2 and really enjoyed it. I was a little skeptical going in as I couldn't stand the original Darkness, however that could be because I played it for the first time a few months ago.

Overall though I feel like this is shaping up to be a much more fun and well made game. The art style is great, the shooting feels good and being able to use the Darkness to throw objects or rip a car door off an use it as a shield along with other abilities is cool also. I am quite interested in the story although I may have to read up on the ending to the first game. The game seems to be much more linear when compared to the original, which is great in my opinion as I felt the first game was not the great in showing you where to go. It seems to be extremely gory and quite action packed so I am definitely looking forward to this one.

What do you think?

I've always wanted to play The Darkness, but it's too late to pick it up now. Glad to hear that the shooting and darkness mechanics feel good. Is the demo on 360? I'd like to give it a go.

@weegieanawrench: Yes on 360, probably PS3 also.

Just finished it myself and was very impressed. The shooting feels better and I really like that The Darkness has become far more prominent in combat. Not sure if I like the visual style though and I still really miss the original voice for Jackie, it fit his character so much better. Will definitely be picking this up though.

@JuggertrainUK: Word. I'll play it tonight and come back with some impressions of my own too.

EDIT: I took me almost a week to get around to playing the demo, but I finally did and I like it quite a bit. First off, I really dig the art style, a cool blend between cartoon and celshading. The shooting is serviceable, but it felt a little sluggish. I do like how aiming worked when dual wielding weapons though -- but hey who cares about the shooting, it's the Darkness powers that matter. It's a neat combat system that is almost identical to Dead Island's analog combat. There are a few executions that the Darkness can perform and they never get old (Anaconda anyone?). I never played the original but I'm very much looking forward to this game. I knew nothing about the game and found it pretty neat that Jackie is a mob boss and isn't just some dude that acquired these powers out of nowhere.

I just finished it. I enjoyed the first Darkness a lot and playing the Darkness 2 demo I can tell that I will enjoy this one even more!

@JuggertrainUK: I'm very glad to hear that. The first Darkness was one of my favourite games of 2007 and definitely biggest surprise. I loved the moody atmosphere and almost dark comic book feel to it. The story was brilliant and the gameplay was absorbant. I am very much looking forward to downloading this demo and awaiting the full game.

I didn't like the first one but I will give this one a shot.

Here's hoping the voice-acting is better this time around.

Having Mike Patton back as the Darkness was enough to get me on board, and to hear people say they're enjoying the demo so far is great to hear. I really enjoyed the first Darkness, so I'm pretty excited for The Darkness II.

How big is the demo?

@Sammo21: about 15-30 mins depending on how fast you move through i suppose

@JuggertrainUK: Sorry, I meant physical size on the HDD. I need to figure out if I need to delete some stuff first.

@Sammo21: LOL, I think it was under 1gb

Oh is it a shooter? Guess I'll pass then.

@weegieanawrench said:

I've always wanted to play The Darkness, but it's too late to pick it up now.

Why? It's still available.

@ShaggE: Darkness 2 is so close to release, so I figure I should just read the story for Darkness 1 and play Darkness 2... Bah, I might just pick up the first game.

@weegieanawrench: Do. The first game has some fantastic moments that you absolutely do not want to spoil for yourself.

That was a great piece of gameplay to a game I was reserved about. I really like that the guns feel as if they have weight to them and the shooting feels significant. Not even gonna bother mentioning how insane the Darkness Abilities are. The best part is it seems to maintain the very serious tone while meshing in humor and parts (like the twins scene) that kind of make you laugh in surprise. Great demo and I'm looking forward to playing the full game. Now to play that Reckoning demo.

The first The Darkness was a fantastic game (a couple of years ago, that is, it might seem aged by now) so I'm looking forward to playing this one. Ought to check out the demo one of these days.

The fact that the first was so fantastic to me; made by a great developer, but now is changed and is also using Nolan North as Jackie Estacado, I kind of don't want to play it. I'll have to see though. From the get go it wasn't looking great, but if they continue with his story from the first, then I may end up getting it.

Edit: Wait, never mind, it's Brian Bloom. I've never heard of him.

@NTM said:

The fact that the first was so fantastic to me; made by a great developer, but now is changed and is also using Nolan North as Jackie Estacado, I kind of don't want to play it. I'll have to see though. From the get go it wasn't looking great, but if they continue with his story from the first, then I may end up getting it.

Edit: Wait, never mind, it's Brian Bloom. I've never heard of him.

I thought the same thing but they seem to have done the first justice. Try the demo out, if you loved the first.

@MariachiMacabre: I played it, I think it's good, but I still am slightly disappointed it's not Starbreeze. My anticipation to it because of that was and is still pretty low. I did like it though. Jackie Estacado this time around reminded me more of Jack Carver from Far Cry Instincts than it does Jackie from the first game, but I also liked his new voice acting as well. As of right now, they have some great stuff in it that do live up the the first, but since it does have some big differences, like I said before, it just hurts the anticipation. Also, because of me not playing some of the great games that came out last year that I still want to play, doesn't leave a lot of room for this game just yet.