Hello, Darkness, My Old Friend.

The Darkness, Starbreeze’s 2008 shooter, was unusual in many ways. Though it was violent, it wasn’t defined by this violence. It had a strong sense of place, a grimly entertaining story and a variety of gameplay. Anyone who sat with the protagonist’s girlfriend for the last time and watched To Kill A Mockingbird until she fell asleep on his/your shoulder couldn’t fault the fineness of the storytelling. The many side-quests you could get in the NYC underground station (jumping on the tracks to grab nickels, scaring off punks) cleared it up; this was a very pure FPS-RPG, guns and conversation perfected, unusually without compromising the shooter or the story.

So, so much for the original; how about the sequel?(more…)