The entire concept of boss fights in games is beginning to feel more and more antiquated less like a logical conclusion to a scenario and more like a box that must be checked. Most are just rehashed enemy types with larger health bars and the ability to jump out of harm’s way. To say that the bosses in The Darkness 2 are poor would be an understatement. It’s all the more jarring, then, when the game tries to synthesize an unnecessary spike in difficulty during boss fights. It’s great fun and proves that a game doesn’t have to be strangled with over-long or too difficult gameplay to forcefully wring the enjoyment out of the player. A smattering of RPG talent trees feed into the desire to obsessively seek out new and sadistic ways to rend cultists into tiny chunks. Launching enemies through the air, skewering them on spikes and tearing open their chests to consume their hearts for experience points all give the sickly satisfying notion of playing with one’s food. There is less emphasis on challenging the player and more on providing an open field on which to toy with your opponents. Much like its predecessor, The Darkness 2 provides a vital sense of being the biggest badass in the room. It’s quite easy to lose track of time while tearing apart enemies limb-from-limb from out of the shadows. Perhaps the reason that the game feels just about the right length is because of the combat. And there’s always New Game Plus for those that want to make the experience last. Much like the game itself, which clocks in at around a solid-feeling seven hours, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. All the while the Darkness, backed by the vocal stylings of Faith No More front-man Mike Patton, is there to comment on the depravity of the world around you Patton’s interpretation of the Darkness is striking, to say the least. A side-story concerning Jackie’s sanity keeps things just grounded enough to make up for the otherwise over-the-top violence and the occasional bit of graphic sexual imagery. With more quiet moments of contemplation than any shooter in recent memory, the player has just enough time to come to sympathize with Jackie and his clique of stereotypical Italian mobsters. However, the tale is told with enough panache to keep the player interested. The core narrative behind The Darkness 2 never really tries to be more than it is – the continuing adventures of Jackie Estacado and the Darkness. It's good to scare the bad guys for once. He is forced to once again call on the abilities of the soul-eating super-villain residing within him to save his own life and track down those responsible. This seems to be working out pretty well until a shadow group of occultists put out a hit on Jackie and his organization. Series lead Jackie Estacado is living large as the head of a mafia syndicate and keeping the call of the titular, demonic superpowers of the Darkness at bay. The Darkness 2 actually begins with a fairly satisfactory recap of the original game. And while the game might be best left out of the light, it strikes more blows for our simian forebears than it misses. Now, in the year 2012, The Darkness 2 seeks to retake the night on behalf of every hairless ape that ever felt the need to keep his or her nightlight burning. Thousands of years of evolution kept tree-dwelling hominids afraid of the crawling, biting, slithering things hidden in the dark and that fear kept them alive. It’s said that instinct is the reason humans are afraid of the dark.
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