Before I start this preview of The Darkness II, I would like to make the point clear that this game is for mature audiences only. Do not buy it for anyone under the age of 18, do not let anyone under the age of 18 borrow it and do not play it in the same room where there is anyone under the age of 18 present. The Darkness II features bad language, themes of an adult nature, violence, gore and all that other stuff and it is rated accordingly.

OK, so now the responsible gamer in me has had his say, here we go…

I didn’t play The Darkness so I was a bit unprepared for what I was about to experience in The Darkness II. Suffice to say I was creeped out pretty much immediately and it’s not often I can say something like that. After playing mostly kids games with my children I wasn’t mentally prepared for the violence and gore that The Darkness II displays. And, of course, one must not forget the evil undertone that the game has either.

For those of you who didn’t play the first episode, The Darkness basically follows the story of Jackie Estacado who is possessed by a demonic presence (called ‘The Darkness’) that manifests itself in powers such as two huge ‘arms’ (serpents? snakes? demons?) that project from his shoulders, as well as regeneration, enhanced strength and a dark minion that does naughty things to people and in general makes a nuisance of himself (he passes wind frequently).

This ‘4 armed’ entity is great fun to play as you can fire weapons with your human hands and use the demon arms to club, grab, throw, maim, destroy and generally cause mischief to anyone or anything that happens to be in the general vicinity. Since the first game, Jackie has learned to control and contain The Darkness and, of course, The Darkness is unhappy with this situation and wants to get out in the world and do bad stuff.

I didn’t think Jackie was going to be able to contain The Darkness for very long and, lo and behold, out it popped in the third scene. And that… as they say… was that. Game on!

This game has some very evil undertones. In fact, the demon possessing you keeps telling you to “Stay out of the light” and “Embrace the Darkness” and you keep getting hints such as “Eat hearts to regain health” and “You can regenerate in the Darkness.” Of course, mature gamers will ignore this and just accept the game for what it is: a fun romp through the city where you can be the badass and destroy things with impunity.

Of course, this is the reason the game is age restricted and quite rightly so. I mean, any game where you get points depending on how you kill someone isn’t generally intended to compete for the ‘My Little Pony’ demographic. My personal favourite kill move is called ‘The Wishbone,’ where one demon arm grabs one leg of your victim and the other arm grabs the other leg and… well, I’m sure you can imagine. Don’t forget to make a wish!

From what I can tell from my time in The Darkness II, in the previous game the main character was unable to save the life of a loved one and this may have been as a result of the intervention of the demonic possession. In this game, however, there is a baddie trying to get you to give up The Darkness so that he can use it for his own nefarious intentions. Of course, you say ‘hell no’ and then you have to go save your Aunt Sarah. Let’s hope you have better luck this time.

The demo plays through three major scenes and all scenes were well put together, well thought out and flowed very well. I am lucky in that I don’t take any game too seriously (except for Tetris) and I can laugh at the carnage and blood and gore because I know it’s just part of the game. If you can’t then I suggest you play something else.

The Darkness II seems easy to play but difficult to master and I am really looking forward to playing the full game. Darkness II also gets the heart pumping and the adrenaline racing due to the excitement and the scary bits so I like to call this game a first-person horror shooter. Fun and exciting but, in the end, just a really cool game.

A demo for The Darkness II is now available on Xbox LIVE, PlayStation Network and Steam. The Darkness II releases across Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on February 7th in North America and February 10th everywhere else.

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