Review - The Darkness II

Pros: All around well-crafted game, dark and compelling story and art style that stays true to its comic book roots.

Cons: Extreme level of violence that some find distracting and short single player campaign.

Final Judgement: Surprisingly excellent; if you’re ok with the violence you’re in for a fantastic game.

http://www.embracethedarkness.com/

Available For: PS3, XBOX, PC

Okay, so about a year ago I picked up a game called “TheDarkness” for cheap, a game by 2K Games and Starbreeze. Starbreeze who you may remember from my Syndicate rant, are the ones that really go for hyper realism in their graphics.  The Darkness for those, like me who didn’t know is a spinoff of Top Cow comics “Witchblade” series. I’m sure you all know Witchblade… the Superhero comic with the heroine clad in barely there bikini armor with breasts that should in all reality be afflicting the poor girl with scoliosis? Witchblade.

I remember looking at the cover of “The Darkness” and thinking to myself, holy shit this game looks really stupid. A goth Fabio impersonator with glowing eyes and demons crawling all over him adorns the front while the back regales you with a tale from the cutting room floor of the worst horror movie/goodfellas clone ever.  Allow me to read you a passage:

“You are Jackie Estacado, a hitman for the Franchetti crime family. On your 21^st birthday, a timeless force known as The Darkness awakens within you. You wreak havoc on your enemies with the powers it bestows. But you’ll quickly learn that The Darkness has a will of its own….”

"Dis Darkness it is so Fabulous... Like me Fabio."

Man… that really sounds stupid, really. It sounds like the pitch for a movie that Nicolas Cage would get excited over, in fact replace “Jackie” with “Johnny” and “hitman” with “motorcycle-guy” and its sounds a lot like the plot of Ghost Rider. Which reminds me, Stan Lee still owes me one hundred and ten minutes of my life back for signing off on that pile of cinematic diarrhea. But I digress, so I bought the game for ten bucks and stuck it in my library for a rainy day.  When that day rainy day came… wouldn’t you know The Darkness was awesome, no… not just awesome, fucking awesome.

Anyway, remarks about buxom super heroes aside, the Darkness was a game about the anti-hero Jackie getting screwed over by his family and in the process the aforementioned timeless force was unleashed. The Darkness wanted to use him as a puppet and it worked like a drug. It made Jackie unstoppable, but the more he used it, the more trouble he had controlling it.  The game was split between Jackie attempting to get his revenge in the mortal world all mafioso while at the same time seeking a way to control the Darkness in a hellish other dimension that resembled the trenches of World War I. The plot was out there, no doubt, but it was original and emotional and while Jackie was an amoral killer who had been capp’in dudes for cash and banging prostitutes since the age of 14, the game made you feel sorry for the guy and his tragic plight.

So February of 2012, 2K games releases, The Darkness 2 and goes in a different direction from Starbreeze instead hiring Digital Extremes to champion this installment. This one I picked up right away and again, wouldn’t you know it, it was fucking awesome.

YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!

The Darkness II retains its dark and moody roots.  In this installment, Jackie has risen to the head of his crime family and now presides over his “crime empire” as he sits atop his accumulated pile or dirty money, hookers and blow in a downtown penthouse palace. Jackie has succeeded in controlling the Darkness after the end of the first game but is still suffering from the guilt of being unable to prevent his girlfriend’s death. In this game Jackie is battling a shadowy organization that is attempting to steal his powers from him. The game also takes an interesting psychological twist where Jackie keeps waking up in an insane asylum, being told that he’s suffering from schizophrenia. Personally I’m a real fan of the psychological twists on reality and the plotline overall.

Sock puppet Darkness is also the source of some of the games best one liners.

Digital Extremes made some serious changes to the Darkness which may surprise some players as this game is a direct sequel to the original. Amongst other changes, Digital Extremes really jacked up the violence level. This may not mean much to someone who hasn’t played The Darkness but considering one of the highlights of the last game was that the Darkness would tear out people’s hearts and devour them in front of you during game play, to “jack it up” is really saying something. Aside from the violence, Digital Extremes has made a few other major changes to the series, namely in the art style, the narrative framework, and a co-op story that parallels the events of the single player game.

In first installment, under the care of Starbreeze, the Darkness had Starbreeze’s signature realism style of game play.  They really strove to make the game look as close to, say real life or a movie, as they could. In The Darkness II Digital Extremes went in the other direction by embracing The Darkness’ roots by changing the games art style to that of a comic book, with cel-shaded hand drawn environments and characters. The game does loose some of the stark lighting contrast and murkiness that the first game captured, however I found the art style of the Darkness II still fit the overall tone of the game while being a fitting homage to the games comic book origins.

The Cel Shading Technique really pays omage to the Darkness' roots

It’s worth mentioning that many other reviews have cited The Darkness II’s extreme and graphic violence as distracting and even gone so far as to say that it knee capped their enjoyment of the story. It’s true that The Darkness II doesn’t pull any punches in the violence or gore categories. The Darkness has an execution attack when it pulls your victim’s spine out of his still thrashing body through your victims ass which is cringe worthy. The game also features points where Jackie is captured by the secret society and is then tortured, rather graphically and all while keeping you in first person perspective. Maybe I’m just desensitized to it; but I really didn’t find it all that distracting. I’m not going to go so far as to say these critics are wrong, I would  ask what they were expecting?  In my opinion the violence is part of the show that the game was putting on… Jackie is possessed by the incarnation of absolute evil and chaos, you can’t really say with a straight face that you expected the game to be all sunshine, roses and laser beam guns that never hit or harm anyone a la G.I. Joe. You knew what you were getting into when you picked up the Darkness, if not you should probably give the games back cover and ESRB rating more than a cursory glance.

"Blue moooooon, you saw me standing aloooone, with out a love of my owwwwwn!"

Digital Extremes also made a big change from the first game by moving away from the open world concept, where Jackie was free to roam the streets of New York City encountering side missions and story hooks between main plot missions. Instead Digital Extremes went with a linear campaign with short sequences centered in Jackies Mansion and The Asylum. While this may seem like a shortfall for those who really enjoyed the open feel of the previous installment, the linear campaign had a much faster pace to it and I found it made for a more emotional story. For example, one thing I found in open world campaigns is you can more or less pause the action and give yourself a chance to catch your breath. This is achieved by dicking around and doing odd jobs and side missions. In a linear campaign however, you don’t have a choice, you must continue down the story’s path. I’m a fan of both open and linear story lines but for dramatic effect and timing you can’t beat the linear campaign. 

The only drawback I could find with the story was that it was decidedly shorter than the previous game; I can only guess that this was done because they were assuming game play would be fleshed out by the co-op campaign.

 The co-op mode, which was also a new feature in the sequel, entices the player to select one of four characters who have all be touched by the darkness and are in the employ of Jackies crime group. The characters have ridiculous powers and sound like a bad set up for a “guys walk into a bar” joke.  There’s the Black Voodoo Witch Doctor/Real Doctor, the Irish drunkard who hates the English, the Japanese samurai dude and the Israeli special-forces chick who seems oddly out of place and is a bit too “straight man” for the rest of the crew. I guess they thought they should throw in a sobering character to give the co-op campaign some much needed grounding? That or Adam Sandler found out they were going to rip off Zohan and sic’ed his army of studio lawyers on Digital Extremes.  

A Black guy, a ginger, a jewish pincess and a Asian dude walk into a bar...

Whatever the case may be the co-op story-line is a bonus, it doesn’t feel like it was added as an afterthought and the designers clearly took their time to make sure it was a worthwhile gaming experience. The co-op mission can be played solo if you’re a pale, friendless, recluse such as myself but I found that looking for additional players to jump in with me really added to the overall effect of the co-op. The four characters all have their own stories and motivations which come out through interactions that they have with each other.

My only complaint with The Darkness II was that it just didn’t feel as long or as grand a story as its predecessor. The games plot was excellent, in many ways even superior to the previous game. However I felt the game was just getting into its groove when the wrap it music started playing and the “Surprise ending” slapped me in the face. The obvious defense to the short single player story is that the co-op campaign bolsters the play time of the Darkness II because it is, in its own right, a well thought out complementary story to the main plot line.  Although I would have agreed, the feeling of the co-op campaign, while enjoyable, is so different to the feel of the single player that they almost play like two different games entirely.

I wouldn’t recommend The Darkness II for those who feel video game violence should be used sparingly, much like horse radish.  For those that don’t mind an extra helping of the almost cartoonishly ridiculous levels of violence, the kind that hasn’t been seen since Sonny Chiba stopped making films, then you will thoroughly enjoy what the Darkness II has to offer.

Review: Never Dead

Pros: Interesting take on the action game with a character that can’t be killed.

Cons: Predictable plot and game play that starts off strong but lacks variety.

Final Judgement: If you’re a fan of Japanese Action games then it’s worth the investment, but there are far better titles available that will scratch this genres itch.

www.konami.com/officalsites/neverdead

Available for: PS3, XBox

God bless Japanese Action games. So predictable, so black and white, so completely fuck off bat shit insane you can’t help but smile. They’re like that socially awkward friend of yours that always ends up making statements that can only be described as the verbal equivalent of a loud fart in a quiet room.  You play Japanese Action games because they’re fun, campy and over the top.  Unfortunately, they’re also the personification of the developer's sexual frustrations as evidenced by over sexualized women flashing their ta-ta’s around while you awkwardly try to explain to your wife that you’re playing for the game play and not the booty. God fucking damnit, I hate you Bayonetta.

The worst part is, the game play in Bayonetta is actually very, very good

Never Dead, is a gong show of a Japanese Action game, brought to us by Rebellion and Konami, which fits the stereo type very well. Never Dead incorporates the tried and true Japanese Action Game formula of doing battle with various horrors from the beyond while engaged in retina detaching gun battles and sword fights. The game then attempts to spice it up with a fairly nut bar game mechanic in which  you get to give Monty Python’s Black Knight a run for his money. In Never Dead you don’t take damage you just get your  limbs lopped off and continue fighting on until your reduced to just your noodle, rolling about,  chasing down  your various bits which are now strewn willy-nilly about the room.   While this dismemberment wonderland of a game starts off enjoyable and original, the shiny new penny luster of Never Dead quickly fades and the game turns into a death march of one generic monster encounter to the next. In addition Never Dead also features one of the most awkward melee control systems I’ve ever encountered. Well get to all that in due course but first I want to bring you up to speed on the Shakespeare quality plot line of this diddy of a game.

"What ho! Have at thee! En gaurd! Truth and Justice! Pip-Pip, tea and crumpets!"

In Never Dead you play as Demon Hunter / Tortured Alcoholic / Adventure in Alliteration Bryce Boltzman. Heir Boltzman is a 500 year old career douche bag who started out as a total ponce, the type that would make Snow from Final Fantasy proud. Bryce tried to take down the “Demon King” Astaroth with his wife Cypher who had the ability to make demons vulnerable to injury and death – which kinda made her big deal. During the battle Boltzman more or less fucks the dogs and crafts soliloquies about truth and justice instead of laying boot to Demon ass, as a result Cypher ends up getting a discount chest piercing courtesy of the demon king. To add insult to injury Bryce is “cursed” by the demon king to be immortal, and unable to die. Now I say “cursed” with quotation marks, because I think the Demon King requires instruction on what a curse consists of as normally getting cursed sucks balls, kinda like being forced to eternally relive the disappointment at the end of Mass Effect 3, that is a curse, but being made immortal? That actually sounds awesome, so maybe the demon king is an ok dude. 

Bryce post immortal eye ball implantation... significantly less metro.

The game begins five hundred years after the death of Cypher and Bryce has evolved from a ponse douche to a surly bastard who doesn’t care about much beyond the bottom of his drink. Bryce now works for The National Anti-Demon Agency or NADA (tee-hee) with his partner Arcadia Maximille, a responsible mortal and sexual tension provider. Boltzman and Maximille have a love hate relationship, where Boltzman leers at Maximille and she shoots him in the face.  Now I get that he can’t die but simmer down already, maybe if you wore proper business attire you would get more respect.  Then again for a woman in a Japanese action game she more or less dressed like a nun.

If you don't think this is appropriate work atire for hunting Demons, google Ada Wong from Resident Evil.

The game follows the two as they investigate an increase in Demon Activity which unsurprisingly results in a second show down between Bryce and the Demon King who is attempting to get himself resurrected. You know the demon king, who we were led to believe was immortal and who wasn’t actually killed or even badly wounded by Boltzman 500 years ago? You may be asking  “If Bryce never killed him, why does he need to be resurrected?” to which the game replies, “Don’t worry about it ok? He just does, why you gotta ask so many questions?” 

Plot hole that you can drive a burning fertilizer truck through aside; the story of Never Dead is cookie cutter, the ‘plot twists’ are seen coming from a mile away and the story is incredibly linear. If you’ve played Devil May Cry or Gungrave then you’ve more or less experienced what the story of Never Dead has to offer. It’s instantly forgettable, however, as a saving grace the game doesn’t take its self too seriously.  It spices itself up with decently delivered slapstick and dialogue based humor which helps to smooth over the rough edges of the “story by the numbers” plot.
Where Never Dead attempts to set its self apart is in the game mechanics department.  The game has essentially two unique game play mechanics, the first is an analog stick based melee attack system the second is the aforementioned dismemberment system.

The analog stick attack system breaks down like this: To swing Bryce’s sword and attack you have to hold the attack button and move the analog stick in the direction you want Bryce to swing. You must then move the stick in the opposite direction to swing it again doing this in a deliberate manner allowed you to chain attacks together and make each swing more powerful. Sounds simple enough, but I found this very awkward in practice and I had a lot of trouble chaining attacks together. I found that busting out the blade always made for a frantic analog stick swirling episode as I tried to fend off a mob. I would have preferred to see a much simpler attack system.

Swing! SWING DAMN YOU!

The second mechanic, the dismemberment system comes to us by the way of Bryce being immortal. In the game this translates into Bryce not losing life points or health when damaged but instead losing limbs. Interestingly enough you can lose any combination of limbs and still be able to fight fairly well, even when you’re reduced to a severed head bouncing and rolling around the environment you still have a charge up attack that you can use to defend yourself. I gotta say, this is pretty cool, even as a head you can still fuck shit up and ruin a demons day.

...Or you can use it to shoot a few hoops.

Aside from being dismembered from battle damage, you can also choose to rip yourself limb from limb which can then be used to bait enemies or complete puzzles, for example throwing your arm into a fuse box to complete a circuit. As an added challenge as you lose limbs and your head, a particular enemy known as a Grand Baby will continually spawn and lurk around gobbling up your errant limbs and attempting to devour your vulnerable head.

"EAT ARM FLAVORED JUSTICE!"

Overall the dismemberment game mechanic is novel and unique enough to keep you interested for the lion’s share of the games relatively short play time. I will say though, that dismemberment is relied upon so heavily in the game that by the last two or three stages, it had worn its self out and this is where I have the biggest beef with Never Dead.

There is no real variation to game play; every encounter revolves around you destroying waves of demons while protecting Arcadia who can be killed and keeping track of your limbs that repeatedly fly off in random directions. Every encounter starts off fairly straight forward and adds different demon types until you`re just a head getting soccer kicked about the room. Eventually you land away from the mob and you have a small window to regroup and turn the tide.

This especially becomes an exercise in aggravation in the final battle where Bryce’s limbs appear to be held on by wet noodles as he constantly flies apart at the drop of a hat. The battles only challenge is trying to get yourself back together in time to do a sliver of damage during the Demon Kings short vulnerable phase. The only reason I stuck the game out is because I could feel that I was basically at the end of the game, there is really only so many times you can do the same thing in slightly different settings before you stop caring.

Yeah, yeah... shoot demons, protect Arcadia, pick up severed legs... fuck, whatever.

If you judge Never Dead solely on its value as an action game, it’s not the worst game you’ll ever play by far, aside from the awkward melee attack system the controls are tight and the dismemberment system is original and an interesting change of pace. However the cookie cutter story line and noted lack of variation in level design and battles really hurts the games over all enjoyment. I wouldn’t recommend this game for the casual gamer given the far better titles available in this genre such as Devil May Cry, but for those who are looking for a different experience, all be it one that is repeated ad nauseum, Never Dead isn’t a bad option.