Darkness 2 Demo: What the shit?

[woodaba]

So... I just played the Darkness 2 Demo. I loved the original Darkness. This felt like a slap in the face. Everything that made the original game great is gone, stripped out, and what is left is a ridiculous parody of what was once a great game. But let's start with the good stuff first:

1. The Darkness arm is more versatile.

2. Seems to be a greater degree of customisation.

And now for the bad stuff!

1. Awful writing. "I like the way he feels. He feels sticky."

2. Cel-shaded graphics. I know theyre trying to make it more like the comic, and normally I much prefer a stylised look, but the new graphics have sucked out the murky and shadowy atmosphere of the first game.

3. COD-style points flashing up when you do something right. Way to break my immersion every ten goddamn seconds, dipshits.

4. Quick time Events. Fuck you.

5. Jackie has not been consumed by the darkness. The ending of the first game indicated that the Darkness had consumed Jackie's personality and morality, but he mentions early on "Not this, not again" implying that he has rejected the Darkness since then, making the original game's ending MEANINGLESS. JACKIE'S ENTIRE CHARACTER ARC HAS BEEN RENDERED POINTLESS. FUCK YOU DIGITAL EXTREMES.

6. No dialogue options. Godammit.

7. Gang members don't care about the Darkness. Not only can you not turn the Darkness off (you read that right), but your fellow Gang members don't give a shit about the manisfestation of evil oozing out of your back. One guy literally says "Oh shit Jackie what the hell is that never mind go kill these dudes"

So, escapists, what did you think of the demo? I personally found it to be an insult. Digital Extremes couldn't have missed the point worse if they fired in the wrong direction and the point was in a different country altogether.

 

[The Knightly Gamer]

I havent played the demo yet but I have been keeping up the news about the game.
bad stuff

1. I am sure that the writing in the full game will be better. The demo is to draw you in not show off the whole story.

2. I will agree with you on that one.

3. hopefully the points are at least used for something important.

4. QTE, hopefully few and far between.

5. In the one of the trailers there was one of the main bad guys (he was wrapped in bandages) explaining how the darkness came to be. He also said that jackie was able to "lock away" the darkness inside of him.

6. Really? that does suck. But i cant remember if it made that big of a differnce in the first one.

7. The gang members know how jackie rose to power/killed the former mob bosses. I am more on the line that they would like to stay on jackie's good side and not be killed by him or the darkness.

 

[woodaba]

I havent played the demo yet but I have been keeping up the news about the game.
bad stuff

1. I am sure that the writing in the full game will be better. The demo is to draw you in not show off the whole story.

2. I will agree with you on that one.

3. hopefully the points are at least used for something important.

4. QTE, hopefully few and far between.

5. In the one of the trailers there was one of the main bad guys (he was wrapped in bandages) explaining how the darkness came to be. He also said that jackie was able to "lock away" the darkness inside of him.

6. Really? that does suck. But i cant remember if it made that big of a differnce in the first one.

7. The gang members know how jackie rose to power/killed the former mob bosses. I am more on the line that they would like to stay on jackie's good side and not be killed by him or the darkness.

1. The writing in the game might get better, its only the first level, but the writing is APALLING compared to to the first game, from what I have seen.

4. No chance of that. QTE's are fairly common, usually accompanied with SLO-MO!!!!!! (sigh)

5. That still makes the character arc in the first game pointless because the whole moral quandary of Jackie giving into the darkness to avenge the death of Jenny is ruined because he doesn't lose his humanity. It's just a cheap, pointless, cop out.

6. They didn't but it helped you get into Jackie's shoes better. It's just indicative of the larger problem of the game treating you like a retard, not letting you do things without the explicit instruction, and even NOT LETTING YOU MOVE for the first few minutes of the game.

7. But they don't know! You're right hand man exhibits suprise when he sees the Darkness, but then just says "go kill those guys". It's just indicative of the awful writing.

 

[The Knightly Gamer]

I havent played the demo yet but I have been keeping up the news about the game.
bad stuff

1. I am sure that the writing in the full game will be better. The demo is to draw you in not show off the whole story.

2. I will agree with you on that one.

3. hopefully the points are at least used for something important.

4. QTE, hopefully few and far between.

5. In the one of the trailers there was one of the main bad guys (he was wrapped in bandages) explaining how the darkness came to be. He also said that jackie was able to "lock away" the darkness inside of him.

6. Really? that does suck. But i cant remember if it made that big of a differnce in the first one.

7. The gang members know how jackie rose to power/killed the former mob bosses. I am more on the line that they would like to stay on jackie's good side and not be killed by him or the darkness.

1. The writing in the game might get better, its only the first level, but the writing is APALLING compared to to the first game, from what I have seen.

4. No chance of that. QTE's are fairly common, usually accompanied with SLO-MO!!!!!! (sigh)

5. That still makes the character arc in the first game pointless because the whole moral quandary of Jackie giving into the darkness to avenge the death of Jenny is ruined because he doesn't lose his humanity. It's just a cheap, pointless, cop out.

6. They didn't but it helped you get into Jackie's shoes better. It's just indicative of the larger problem of the game treating you like a retard, not letting you do things without the explicit instruction, and even NOT LETTING YOU MOVE for the first few minutes of the game.

7. But they don't know! You're right hand man exhibits suprise when he sees the Darkness, but then just says "go kill those guys". It's just indicative of the awful writing.

5. I am still on the idea that jackie used the darkness at the end of the 1st one but was able to supress it. This would lead to why the darkness is so made at Jackie. At least from the trailers I have seen.

6. Ill agree with you on that.

7. Well maybe its just rumored? I would assume that they at least know that Jackie killed the former bosses maybe just not how.

 

[scnj]

Interesting that you say the writing is worse, since Paul Jenkins wrote both games.

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

Oh no! The sequel isn't exactly like the first game that came out 5 years ago! The Darkness is RUINED FOREVER!

PS. The points are for the upgrade system:

"There's a new feature whereas each kill, heart collected and enemy urinated on add towards Jackie's 'dark essence'. a substance that clings to people and objects that have come in contact with The Darkness, which 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 vacuum encased in darkness, the ability to see and attack through walls, 'swarm' which allows Jackie to summon a swarm of flies to disable and stun multiple enemies at once, and 'gun channeling' which gives Jackie unlimited ammunition and deals supernatural damage for a short period of time."

 

[woodaba]

Oh no! The sequel isn't exactly like the first game that came out 5 years ago! The Darkness is RUINED FOREVER!

PS. The points are for the upgrade system:

"There's a new feature whereas each kill, heart collected and enemy urinated on add towards Jackie's 'dark essence'. a substance that clings to people and objects that have come in contact with The Darkness, which 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 vacuum encased in darkness, the ability to see and attack through walls, 'swarm' which allows Jackie to summon a swarm of flies to disable and stun multiple enemies at once, and 'gun channeling' which gives Jackie unlimited ammunition and deals supernatural damage for a short period of time."

Did you even read my post? I never expressed a lack of knowledge for what the points did, I complained about the constant flashing of the points on the screen killing immersion and ruining what little atmosphere the game had. I actually said that I liked the greater degree of customisation the upgrade system offers. Plus, I gave valid reasons why I felt that this demos was severely dissapointing, not once did I say that the game was bad for not being the same as the last game. QTEs are almost universally hated. It handholds your way through the entire demo. The writing is far worse than the previous game, oddly enough. Those seem like valid reasons, no? Why don't you read Original Posts, instead of doing a knee-jerk post based on a quick skim through it, hmm? Because that's what it looks like you're doing.

 

[darkcalling]

Personally I loved the demo, though I never got to play the original so I can't compare them. The points popping up COD style is annoying but not enough to make me hate it. The final game will likely have an option to turn them off though.

Otherwise aside from the "he feels sticky" line this actually made me interested in a game I hadn't been paying attention to at all. Might pick this up if I see it and have some extra money.

 

[The Wykydtron]

You know there's an option for turning the points notifications off? You did check for that right? Of course you didn't...

The writing's fine (it's 15 minutes worth of content man!), the cel shading is purely subjective personally i think it looks better than the first one, were there QTE's? There was like one where you stab the dude in the face i think? Seriously, if you hate the fact that a demo that has one tiny QTE go and play the demo of Asura's Wrath and go reevaluate when a QTE is acceptable.

As for the whole Jackie character arc, i really can't remember what happened in the first one too well so you might be right. I remember the whole last mission was you getting Darkness blocked by the setting Sun before wrecking a mansion and then uh everything is lovely forever? Maybe?

Oh yeah i'll agree that your guy was like "hey Jackie looks like you're Satan Spawn, lol jk go kill these guys." Though there was a throwaway line about "that Jackie Estacado magic" that apparently hadn't been seen for a while. Not really an excuse but hey maybe they'll rerecord some lines for the full game! The enemies are suitably all "WTFBBQ?!" about your sudden devil powers so just try and bring that across in a "glad that guy's on our side" kinda way...

I think the game could probably be carried on the awesomeness of the Darkness powers now, they're just that good.

And just so you know, the opening of the first Darkness was a rail shooter type thing as well. They're pretty similar in terms of gameplay, except this time Jackie isn't flumoxed by the extremely complicated task of loading a shotgun...

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

I was under the impression that your mob friends were somewhat aware of your powers.

 

[daveman247]

Eh, everything you hate i actually liked/ didnt have a problem with.
-The writings pretty good i think.
-The cel shading i love, i think it works really well in games and wish it was done more often (x111 still did it best)
- I'm just happy that they have fleshed out the darkness powers and made them quick and fun to use. The first game was pretty clunky in my opinon.

- Slashing dudes in half is always a good time.

 

[DanielBrown]

I'll wait until it's released to pass my judgement, but if what you say is true then it is indeed a sad thing. The Darkness was my first next-gen game and I was blown away by the graphics(though when I replayed it they looked awful) and how awesome it was.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

...not once did I say that the game was bad for not being the same as the last game...

"Everything that made the original game great is gone, stripped out, and what is left is a ridiculous parody of what was once a great game." < WTF IS THIS SHIT?

Blah blah blah big long post about how gamers just want the same game over and over again and blah blah blah I don't know why I even try blah blah blah don't buy the game and just keep playing the original forever and ever blah blah blah I'm sleep deprived and don't have time for this petulant drivel...

And I like how you can gauge the writing quality of an entire game from a 15-20 minute demo. Clairvoyance FTW, right?

WTF is that shit? THAT is my honest opinion sir, and if you can't get it through your skull that someone may not like a game, then you FAIL. This my experience of the demo. The demo is supposed to make me want to buy the game. And the quality of writing I saw in the demo was poor compared to the first game. So don't talk to me about clairvoyance. How is saying that a game, from what I've seen in the demo, is vastly inferior to its predecessor a bad thing? Seriously!

Might wanna edit that before the mods ban you for ad hominem.

OT: I was never really interested in this game or its predecessor. And since I haven't heard much else about it, I don't think I'll be downloading the demo either myself.

 

[Zhukov]

Wait...uh, who exactly feels sticky?

 

[bjj hero]

I loved the first game, it had a really nasty feel to it and the story was fantastic.
Ive only seen screenshots of the new game and was turned off.

To the OP; the story and writing can't really be judged from the demo, your allies are likely to know there is something very wrong about you and finally this isn't the place to call people who disagree with you "shithead".

Do you want discussion or do you want everyone to agree with you?

 

[vansau]

Here's the thing: The Darkness comics? Yeah, they're generally pretty shitty. Granted, the initial run by Garth Ennis was fun, but everything after that? Like the bit where Jackie goes on a spirit quest in the desert and his sister fantasizes about raping his unconscious body? Blech.

Anyway, about the demo:

Not impressed.

I agree with the opinion that the writing feels really underwhelming and lazy. I also disliked how it seemed to be trying to make up for the fun, creative gameplay of the first Darkness with over-the-top gore. It also felt a lot more linear than what I remember from last time and the special skill tree or whatever didn't do anything for me, either.

So, yeah. I'll pass for now.

 

[woodaba]

I loved the first game, it had a really nasty feel to it and the story was fantastic.
Ive only seen screenshots of the new game and was turned off.

To the OP; the story and writing can't really be judged from the demo, your allies are likely to know there is something very wrong about you and finally this isn't the place to call people who disagree with you "shithead".

Do you want discussion or do you want everyone to agree with you?

I want discussion. Everyone has their own opinion, and that's a good thing, but the guy I called a shithead was convinced that I was hating on the game for not being the same as the first game, when I gave clear, distinct reasons for why I though the demo sucked. I want contrary opinions to my own, I want to like this game so bad, and ive replayed the demo twice since posting this thread, so PLEASE try to convince me the game is good. That guy was just acting like a raging fanboy.

BTW, the demo's job is to make me want to buy the game, and if it shows off bad writing in the demo, I'm gonna include that in my impressions. It's entirely possible that the writing get far better after the first level, but this is my impressions of the demo, and the writing in the demo sucks!

Wait...uh, who exactly feels sticky?

Jackie, aparrently. It turns what is meant to be a disturbing scene into a farce.

 

[hazabaza1]

As someone who's only played the demos of both games, I find the second one to be far more fun. And in the end, that's what matters for me.

 

[Lifelikegibbon]

I agree on both sides here. Yes Woodaba you have made some good points however dont overthink the game. I played the demo and had mindless fun and it was a blast when you say your points some i agree with but i think you are just ruining it for yourself. Btw the only thing that really bothered me when i played it through was cell shading. I agree, they have kinda sucked out what made the original darkness cool. When i played the first one the demon arms looked freaky and dark enviroments were scary now even though its fun it may be a it cartoony. Overall i will get this game because something noone has touched on is the multiplayer which looks fucking amazing.