E3 2011: To sequel or not to sequel?

The Darkness < The Darkness II

by : GrathiusXR

©2011 Arthur Kotsopoulos

Now this was one sequel that I was definitely excited about.

The first game was such a dark and visceral experience with excellent storytelling but went mostly unnoticed in the gaming industry.

But I wasn’t expecting it to be developed by another developer or it going the way of cell shading.

Sure games such as Crackdown offered great open world fun with its cell shading, and even last gen’s XIII was an awesome conspiracy FPS. Borderlands ended up turning out to being a great FPS with some quality comedic performances as it never took itself too seriously- but a violent game such as The Darkness where you can rip hearts out and chop head off ? Won’t it seem tame in its cell shaded glory?

Imagine the new Mortal Kombat. Picture it with Cel Shaded graphics- sure the game would still be about fighting and gruesome but the flesh hanging off your opponent wouldn’t be as riveting as it is now. [Ed: Ugghhh.  Riveting hanging flesh? I'm getting old]

Fatalities would look almost comical and the level of impact that some of them have wouldn’t be as great if that were to be cel shaded.

• The Darkness II

Personally I would have loved that the new game steered away from cel-shading and remained the way that The Darkness was.  Sure, not the prettiest graphics but they were gritty and visceral.

Indeed, though, the new approach will be more appropriate to its source’s comic-book style.

There is the awesome inclusion of being able to quad wield in which you can use your dual weapons as well as your Darkness Power.

However, we lose Kirk Acevado as the voice of Jackie and gain Nolan North. Now I’ve come to accept that Nolan North is the Morgan Freeman of the gaming industry but I’m starting to get sick of hearing his voice in just about everything I play these days.

He voices Nathan Drake in the Uncharted franchise, Desmond in Assassin’s Creed, Richtofen in Black Ops, James Devlin in Singularity, Will from Dark Void, Romeo in Halo: ODST heck he even voices all the cores in Portal 2. Phew.

Whilst he’s good, it’s getting to the point now where the moment you realize he’s the voice of a certain character you can’t help but either laugh or sigh.

In the new game we also lose the ability to have multiple Darklings at our disposal and we are now only given one Darkling that will have more involvement not only within the game but on story level as well.

While I dislike this, if it’s all about story then the reduced focus on the more comical Darklings could makes the playing field more interesting.

Will you grow close to this Darkling throughout the game only to have him killed at a certain point? Will he betray you at any given moment to drive the story forward? Will he be your saving grace in a time of need? All interesting questions that will not most likely not be answered until closer to the game’s release.

One feature in The Darkness that seems to make a return and to great effect is the good old Light vs Dark scenario. Pop into the dark and you’re a cold blooded unstoppable killing machine, yet the moment you hit the lights your powers are rendered useless and it’s up to your trigger finger to do the talking.

In The Darkness II this gameplay feature has been tweaked.  Stepping into the light will blur your eyesight making things a little bit more difficulty to operate.

It’s great to see Digital Extremes taking what worked in The Darkness and elaborating on them in the sequel and giving the player a little more freedom in regards to the environment to use objects as shield and weapons rather than only your guns and darkness powers.

The good outweighs the bad in this fight and I’m going to have to give it to the sequel side as it’s stepping up, offering the player more freedom and choice to do as they please, cutting back on certain features to enhance the storyline and gameplay experience at the loss of Kirk Acevado as the voice of Jackie and the game being cel shaded

We will be sure to continuously update this article on the Darkness II as new information becomes available as E3 continues over the next few days.

Verdict: To Sequel

OXCGN’s E3 2011 Articles:

Make sure you check out as many of these great E3 2011 articles, not only showing you the news, but looking deeper into the games and hardware coming from this year’s E3.

In the mean time, please feel free to grab any of the videos (we supply easy share-code for that) and images to share with your friends using the helpful social media buttons on the site. But basically, enjoy the information, and share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.

This list will be updated with every new article and new notice, so make sure you bookmark it so you’ll be notified when there’s a new item up – enjoy

• E3 2011: Brothers In Arms: Furious 4: Desecrating the BIA Name - click here
• OXCGN’s Nintendo E3 Conference Wrap Up- click here
• E3 2011: The Darkness 2 – To Sequel or Not to Sequel- click here
• Sony PS Vita (NGP) Australian Price Revealed? - click here
• Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – Limited Animus and Special Editions Unveiled (with trailers) - click here
• OXCGN’s Sony E3 Conference Wrap Up- click here
• The Kinect Strikes Back: Kinect Star Wars - click here
• E3 2011: Hitman – Are Stealth Games Becoming Action Games - click here
• Tomb Raider: A Darker More Visceral Lara Croft - click here
• OXCGN’s EA Conference Wrap Up - click here
• OXCGN’s Ubisoft Conference Wrap Up - click here
• E3 2011: Minecraft Coming to 360 - click here
• E3 2011: Microsoft Showcases Halo 4, Halo HD remake - click here
• OXCGN’s Microsoft Conference Wrap Up - click here
• Konami E3 2011 Conference Wrap Up - click here
  
• Top Announcement We Want and Don’t Want at E3 - click here
  
• The Best Places to Watch E3 2011 - click here

©2011 Arthur Kotsopoulos

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