14 DAY TRIAL // The developers at Digital Extremes believe that one of the most important elements of the first Darkness title has been its emotional impact and tried to preserve and enhance the feature for the sequel.
Speaking to VG247, Seth Olshfski, who is a producer working on The Darkness II, stated, “You know how people make their top ten lists of emotional moments or good stories in games? The Darkness I is almost always on it.
“People are fanatical about it because the story was so compelling, so it’s really hard to do a follow-up to that. It’s like, ‘Wow, people worship this game – let’s not fuck it up.’”
In order to deliver the respect that the first game required, the developers brought in Paul Jenkins, the man behind the comics with the same name, in order to write the story of the game and make sure that there are no ill advised plot turns.
The producer added, “It was a core pillar of our development that everything we did was in the service of story. And at the same time he knows that we make video games. In a movie you tell story by showing things and by having people talk.
“When you do that in a game you’re not playing the game any more you’re watching a movie. That’s just not the same thing. You have to tell the story in games by doing.”
The team at Digital Extremes also made the decision to keep the entire game in first person in order to make sure that players understood that everything they saw and felt was coming from the perspective of the main character.
The big gameplay innovation for The Darkness II is that players now have more control over the demons arms of the main character.
The move set has been expanded and gamers are now free to lash out and grab enemies or simply slash them just as they use normal weapons to soften up the opposition.