I recently played through both The Darkness games on Xbox BC. Both excellent. But I had never realized how heavily the modern Wolfenstein games are based on The Darkness 2. The protagonist who is recast with Brian Bloom, how the protagonist talks in that melancholy whisper talking style, the safe house between each linear mission, waking up in the asylum, the dream sequences where he talks to his mother/his girlfriend, the whole meditation on grief aesthetic. So much of modern Wolfenstein feels more like The Darkness 2 than say Riddick or The Darkness 1. And it's curious because The Darkness 2 was by Digital Extremes, not Starbreeze.
That's good to know!
>>743413847I liked darkness 2 way more than the first. Especially gameplay wise.Also Feel like the atmosphere of the first is over hyped but 2 definitely leans too heavily into comic book cheese.
>>743414049I'm torn. I do lean towards 2 in terms of narrative. I think it has a stronger story, and I really do love the comic book stuff. I have a great fondness for late 90s comic books like the Acclaim Shadow Man stuff. So The Darkness feels very much in that wheelhouse. It's YMMV in terms of how heavily it leans into that, because the end barely clad angelic ladies are showing up to make demands of you, so this is definitely a pivot from the gritty street level crime drama that dominates 1.I think with 1, I like it mechanically, tonally, great vibes, but I think the sequel changing was a good idea, because another 5 hours of waddling around really slowly and pointing really inaccurate guns at people and engaging in methodical, slow paced firefights was great in context, but they had to escalate to something.It's rare that you have a sequel by another company that has a completely different art style, mostly different actors, yet it feels like a legitimate sequel. It doesn't have the Bloodlines 2 problem where it's just a name tacked on to sell copies. It's a direct thematic and narrative continuation of the first game, and it shockingly works both as a sequel and a standalone game. If you never played The Darkness 1, the asylum stuff is genuinely... unsettling. What if Jackie really is mad? What if his life as a mobster was just a delusion, and the doctors are trying to help him? A lot of sequels like this struggle to toe that line. But The Darkness 2 feels emotionally engaging even if you never played the first game. You understand the depths of Jackie's grief and his inability to let go. It doesn't shovel backstory at you constantly, but it works. You instantly grasp the premise. Jackie is going to cross every boundary of life and death to save Jenny's soul, to free her from his sins.Sadly game sold terribly back in 2012. People on Steam reviews today are baffled that it wasn't a hit. It's so slick. But shit happens.
