It goes without saying that I simply loved The Darkness.  My review of it surely says as much.  It was just an unexpected thrill ride from Starbreeze Studios.  It had story, visual flare and some ass kickery that I hadn’t played before.  To say I’m excited about the sequel would be an understatement.  Jackie is back bitches.

I really hope they can pull this off because I’ve been wanting a sequel to this since the first one ended.  Don’t believe me?  Check out my 5 Sequels that should be made article!  Hell there’s only one game left on that list to make me 5 outta 5 in predictions!

Now, let me or rather 2K Games tell you a story about the sequel ….

The Darkness II takes place two years after the events of the first game, as Jackie Estacado, the current wielder of The Darkness has used his powers to become the Don of the Franchetti crime family. He has been unable to shake the thoughts of his dead girlfriend Jenny Romano and has since, with the help of estranged occultist Johnny Powell and his study into dark essence, contained his supernatural powers and now The Darkness “wants out in the worst way”.  In The Darkness II, you’ll once again take control of Jackie as he struggles with the powers of the Darkness.

While the original Darkness was developed by Starbreeze Studios, this time around Digital Extremes are in charge and have given The Darkness II a deeper “graphic noir” visual style.  The style was achieved with the development artists hand painting the majority of the game assets, instead of relying on digital methods to create a comic book style.  There have been substantial additions to the gameplay since Jackie’s last go-round, including the exciting new “quad wielding” feature, in which Jackie can use The Darkness while at the same time use firearms. (yes please!)

There’s also a new feature where Jackie collects his “dark essence” – a substance that clings to people and objects that have come in contact with The Darkness. This can be used to make purchases from a tree of abilities from ‘talent shrines’, such as ‘Black Hole’ which allows Jackie to charge a enemies’ heart with energy and throw it to create a void of vacumned darkness, the ability to see and attack through walls, ‘Swarm’ which allows Jackie to disable and stun multable enemies at once, and ‘Gun Channeling’ which gives Jackie unlimited ammunition and deals supernatural damage for a short period of time.  I like the sound of that!

As with the original game, the legendary musician and voice actor, Mike Patton will reprise his role as the voice of the The Darkness.  The unbelievably prolific Patton, whose credits include genre-busting music acts (Faith No More, Peeping Tom, Fantomas) major studio films (I Am Legend) and video games (Left For Dead, Portal, and Bionic Commando), stated that “It feels really good to be the bad guy, and The Darkness is as bad as it gets. I’ve read through the script, and Jackie is going to be a brutally tortured soul. I’m looking forward to making his life a living hell.”

Sounds fun eh?  I’m ready for February so I can see if they continued with the greatness that Starbreeze started.