The Darkness II Announced February 8, 2011

If there was one game that defined my Summer 2007 it was The Darkness.  Here was a highly polished game which came out of nowhere released during a time which usually was devoid of major game releases (games usually either came out in March or November, and they only come out in March because they miss November) and just blew myself and everyone else away.  Here was a little known comic franchise brought to life in a realistic setting.  The game was highly polished and had a great script I enjoyed tremendously.  It was developed by Starbreeze, who made the famous Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay game.  In the same summer I first bought a PS3, I must’ve played this game as late as I possibly could every weekend to try to get as far as I could in it before I’d have to go back to work.

2K Games has officially announced today that The Darkness II is coming out this Fall.  It’s being developed by Digital Extremes and promises to pick up exactly where the first game left off.  The main character of the first game and the comic, Jackie, is now the boss of his mafia family, and he has to deal with running his mob, as well as the curse it is to wield The Darkness, a supernatural force he recieved on his 21st birthday which gives him incredible power.

The Darkness II will come out for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 Fall 2011.

UPDATE:  There was an announcement today that The Darkness II will use cel-shaded graphics in order to mirror the look of the original graphic novels.  I don’t know how I feel about this.  The first game was able to have an emotional impact on me due to its realism.  The fact that they were keeping this supernatural force grounded in a realistic setting with a recognisable look made it all the more interesting for me.  However, I really did like the graphics shown in the initial screenshot, and couldn’t actually tell at the time it was in fact cel-shaded.