The Darkness II

I went blind into this game, i came out blind and a little bit retarded as well.

if you've never played it get it. its amazing i come back to this game once every few years just to complete it again.

Okay, full disclosure: I played The Darkness II a long time ago. Like, “still had a Netflix DVD subscription” long ago. And while my memories of it are a bit foggy—like trying to recall a dream where you were both a mob boss and a tentacle monster—I remember this much: it was cool. Weird. Bloody. Kind of awesome. Maybe? You play as Jackie Estacado, a mafia hitman with a bad case of grief and an even worse case of demonic spaghetti arms growing out of his body. The whole game is a chaotic mix of mob drama, inner turmoil, and ripping enemies in half with your shadow limbs while dual-wielding pistols. So... a typical Tuesday. What sticks with me most is the art style—it had this striking, comic-book cel-shaded look that really set it apart. And the combat? If my hazy brain is telling the truth, it was actually pretty fun. Fast, gory, and incredibly satisfying when you pulled off one of those gruesome execution moves. Nothing quite says “therapy is for the weak” like impaling a guy with a parking meter while screaming about vengeance. The story? Uh… look, I think there was something about Jackie's dead girlfriend haunting him, a creepy asylum subplot, and some cosmic demon force called “The Darkness” whispering sweet, evil nothings into your ear. Did it all make sense? I couldn’t tell you. But I remember feeling things. Like, emotional things. While also dismembering people. It was a lot.

Um clássico, a diversão é garantida nesse aqui. Mecânicas e história são ok, é um FPS bem feitinho que com seu arcade proporcionará algumas horas de lazer. Pegue numa boa promoção.

one of the most fun and interesting shooters of its era, I wish more games tried out quad-wielding

Screw 2 k for changing EULA after purchase and selling our data.

I absolutely love this game! So many unique ways to get things done.

Engaging story, fun and chaotic gameplay. A must play.

imagine u can play as Venom in a FPS game

Underated asf
Fun gameplay although abit short

𝕎𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕒 𝕙𝕠𝕣𝕣𝕚𝕓𝕝𝕖 𝕟𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 𝕥𝕠 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕒 𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕤𝕖? 𝕆𝕣 𝕚𝕤 𝕚𝕥?

The Darkness II is one of those rare sequels that dares to reinvent itself without losing the core of what made its predecessor special. It trades the gritty realism and slow-burn pacing of the first game for a faster, more stylized, comic-book-inspired shooter; and remarkably, it pulls it off. You might not know what The Darkness (the OG) is since it was never ported to Steam, but it's an old game from the PS3 era and players who've had the chance to play it will tell you just one thing about it: IT FEELS GOOD TO BE BAD!

That's right! You return as Jackie Estacado, mob boss and unwilling host of the ancient demonic force known as the Darkness (They look like two xenomorphs from Alien coming out of your shoulders lol). Two years after the events of the first game, Jackie has tried to bury the supernatural horrors of his past under layers of organized crime and repression. Of course, that doesn’t last. When an attack on his life forces him to unleash the Darkness once again, the nightmare returns, more vicious and unrelenting than ever.

The first thing you’ll notice is the new art direction. The cel-shaded, hand-drawn style echoes the game’s comic book origins; as someone who has played The Darkness (the OG) on my decrepit, beyond-repair PS3, I actually love it to bits!

Gameplay is where the game truly shines. The dual-wielding gunplay paired with the demonic “quad-wielding” mechanic (yes, two guns plus two writhing tentacles; goody!) creates a brutal, creative combat loop. You can impale enemies with parking meters, slash them in half, or rip out their hearts to regain health--all while unloading a shotgun into a room full of cultists. It’s savage, satisfying, and chaotic in the best way.

But beneath all the gore and mayhem lies an unexpectedly emotional core. Jackie is not your average power fantasy protagonist. He's haunted, vulnerable, and deeply broken! In-between chapters, you get this scene of a broken man, having a monologue and it's quite touching, even for the manliest of men! He is talking to his own reflection, about things most of us could relate to... How there are mistakes we could've forgiven and started anew, and how some mistakes are too depraved to be forgotten! The game’s exploration of grief, guilt, and psychological trauma gives the game a soul that most shooters sorely lack. The narrative dips into surrealism and madness in a way that feels more personal than theatrical.

The Darkness II, to me, is a very underrated gem! It's a 9/10 game that's only unknown because devs failed to port the first original game of the series, as the game is entirely built around your knowledge of a lore most Steam users are not familiar with... and the only problem with it is that it leaves players with a cliffhanger that we will probably never see unfold. It's like that one amazing detective game called D4, where devs made just ONE season and left fans of the game stuck! Other than that, if you just want to slash, shoot, and split in half maddened cultists in First Person then this is the game to play!

Noice!

bring the first game to pc

too short

The Darkness II is a fast, stylish first-person shooter where you play as Jackie Estacado, a mobster with demon tentacles. Its comic-book art style, brutal quad-wielding combat (guns + tentacles), and dark story make it stand out — but it’s short and not very replayable.

EMBRACE THE DARKNESS, JACKIE!!!!!!!!

wish they would revive this series

The Darkness II — одна из немногих игр, которые я захотел перепройти сразу после завершения. Захватывающий сюжет с неожиданными поворотами держит в напряжении до самого конца. Атмосфера мрачная, но при этом невероятно стильная, и она отлично передаёт внутреннюю борьбу главного героя.

Особенно хочется отметить озвучку — она на высшем уровне. Диалоги — Бомба. Местами они очень душевные, местами — по-настоящему жёсткие, но всегда уместные и хорошо написанные.

Отдельный респект помощнику главного героя — весёлый малый, придаёт истории немного чёрного юмора и человечности. Без него атмосфера была бы слишком тяжёлой, а так он идеально балансирует происходящее.

The Darkness II — это не просто шутер, а настоящее приключение с сильной историей и яркими персонажами. Определённо рекомендую, особенно тем, кто ценит сюжет в играх.

Solid, entertaining little shooter with some fun mechanics and an engaging story let down only by a somewhat weak ending.

very nice.

Random purchase for me, and honestly… I really enjoyed this game. Satisfying gunplay and cool powers!!

bacana, e sempre em preço de banana nas promoções.
só gostaria que tivessem mantido estética/atmosfera mais edgy e sombria do primeiro... história aqui é bem besta.

Blast from the past, combat still holds up, need a 3rd game

This port crashed my laptop to permanent blackscreen, very sad, didnt even get to play it

Great single story FPS, gory, good gunplay, interesting combat system and top notch voice acting plus a coop campaing, totally recommend!

After maybe 8 years of owning this game, i finally decided to play it to completion. And you can truly tell that this game was made in a way more edgy era. If gore and grit or filth isn't your thing, don't touch this game.
It's made with a sort of cell-shaded boarderlands kind of style, and it seemed pretty good for when it was released. Albeit the physics jank out and you gotta force the game down to 60hz/fps a least 4 times?! The rest works pretty well if you don't decide to jump out of bounds - These weren't issues to me, if they are to you then watch a letsplay instead.

The game looks pretty ok for it's time, it's the classical console 720p era of games. the 4-arm mechanic of the darkness that possess you was half the reason why i wanted to get the game. And MAN, it's pretty damn cool once you get the hang of it deeper into the game. The gunplay is mehh at best, but it serves a purpose and works fine for what it used to be.

What is a big minus for me, turned out to be the little british darkling that follows you. It's clearly just comedic relief from how grotesque the game can be at times. Personally, i really dislike this and it was outright childish at times. The camera is also zoomed WAY too far in on characters, it was awkward and didn't help the game in any good sense.

A thing that impressed me, was the attention to detail of the interior of the house after the large attack. You could tell that all aspects of the game was truly taken care of and was thought about. To me, that speaks to how they evidently had a certain style and setting they wanted to complete and they completed it by what i'd say as well. Good work, good immersion.

One of the 2 endings (spoilers) was probably the real reason why i got the game originally, the hell-path. It's not really a spoiler, because the ending turns into the same either way. The audio work of the darkness was just really cool, and that warped inbetween world is made with a great artistic choice in mind.

If you want to play a fairly trippy and kinda "out there" grim / dark game, you'll probably like this one for what it is. But expect it to be aged. It was a multi-platform release over a decade ago, notoriously such games hold up far worse than PC-releases from this era. Or single-platform games. For it's time, 7.5/10. For today, it's worth it to play. But 5.5/10 is more suitable today. Sad games aren't made with this much passion today.

Honorary Half-Life game with how it'll never see a true sequel. What a shame

Old School Hidden Gem.

Innovative Gameplay For A 2012 Games, Great Graphics And Decent Story
(They Even Have Comic Books For The Darkness' Lore)
Still Great To Play At 2025 If You Want To Try Something Different.

took me more than 10 years to play this game. never did play the first but that ending. ffffffff. when the darkenss 3? amazing game, great writing and storytelling. combat is meaty. 9/10

Yes, Embrace the DARKNESS

good

Gunna preface this with - turn on VSync when the game starts. Unless your running a 30FPS setup, you will encounter frame related issues with invisible walls late in the game not despawning, but also with any of the melee interactables (fuse boxes, wood panels, etc.) as there seems to be a sync issue on newer hardware.

That being said - the game is pretty neat; it plays like most Action Adventure FPS titles that came out around the same time, but with the schtick being you got Venom style tendrils that shout into your ears all the time and you actually eat people vs drain their fear (or whatever Venom did in that "Ultimate Spiderman" game).

They serve as your melee being whips you can use to slash enemies in half, or to rip some armor off them - but also can be used to grab/throw items, as well as a few other neat things like eating hearts to heal. The skill list may be a little smaller than expected from a newer player (like picking people up is mostly when their about to die vs whenever), and is a bit more FPS oriented (one tree is all about more ammo and aim-botting when you use a skill while dual-wielding), but there is a neat one that lets you summon blackholes which is neat though they replace the enemies health drop and got me killed a couple of times being there vs a heal. Oh - dual wielding is neat too; any side-arms (like 3 handguns and like 3 or 4 machine weapons) can be dual wielded just cause.

Story is pretty neat - little predictable, though I certainly appreciated the Matrix reference that was dropped as well. About 10-14 hours long if you played enough of these to just find everything in the first playthrough (I went right in at hard, and managed to only miss 2 collectibles). Achievements will see you play through at least one more time (like shooting 25 guys within the first 10 minutes without restarting checkpoints; you'll know when it starts).

Lastly - the bread and butter of this game is done well. Do not go into the light, as it will blind you indeed; nice blinding filter gets slowly burned in; though it truly pairs well with The Darkness also screaming at you to avoid lights (it's a yellow paint, but without feeling like it). It stops healing and even being able to use the powers which can easily devastate you later on with hordes of enemies using flash-bangs and stuff.


TL:DR - It's like playing one of those spooky FPS games like "F.E.A.R.", but instead of being the random soldier deployed to stop the problem, your the spooky monster... and... might be the good guy.

Unfortunately we may never find out since cliff-hanger ending and why the individuals were found where they were.

Not as good as 1, but still quite fun - 6/10; characters and story are genuinely original and a breath of fresh air paired with some familiar controls on a wacky concept of controlling the literal darkness around you.

we NEED 3

i recommend the darkness II - here is why

pros:

- mature story with a heartwarming romantic twist
- no woke agenda due to the age of this game
- nice art direction
- gruesome, brutal and satisfying gore
- serviceable gunplay (shootgun is punchy)
- interesting darkness powers
- option to skip all cutscenes and conversations
- you can disable all HUD elements
- runs with high refresh rates - in this case with 144 fps
- runs out of the box on modern systems

cons:

- too short - without the story you can complete the main campaign in ~4h on hardest difficulty
- fov is bad even with the implemented slider
- ends on a cliff hanger and we will most likely never see a continuation

you should get it on a discount or get a key

I've always loved this game, the combat is super fun and the voice acting is top notch. my only problem is the cliffhanger ending especially since we never got the third game.

The Darkness 1 ? never heard of it

TLDR: Great combat shooter for 10-15$, but don't overpay. Good story but ends on a cliffhanger. Limited replay value.

Pros: Great 360-era shooter that plays like a prototype of Doom 2016 complete with optional collectibles, RPG mechanics, and glory kills. Dual-wielding feels great, and the enemies feel balanced, although the game does feel easier than it should. The storyline is simple, but compelling, and actually has some decent twists.

Cons: The game is extremely short by modern standards, and can be beaten in less than 5 hours. 100% completion will take you around 9, but that mainly involves achievements, repetitive multiplayer missions, and hunting collectibles.
The story is good, but most cutscenes are unskippable walking segments that lose all their charm on the second playthrough where you're forced to mash the skip button over and over to get to the next level. There's basically no variety in the enemies, bosses, or level design that present any challenge, so the entire game leans on the combat, which is extremely fun (especially with all Jackie's powers unlocked) but it's about 4.5 levels of combat with 3 bosses (two of which are identical)

Conclusion:
Whether you like the Darkness II or not depends entirely on whether you like the combat. Most of the game's flaws can be looked past if you find the combat as fun as I do. If you're shakey on shooters, or comic-booky violence, skip it. It's as close to us ever getting a really good Venom video game.

childhood favorite. thanks for still selling it.

.

ONE OF THE BEST GAMES I PLAYED IN YEARS!

And yes, just played it now, in 2025...

The game has issues. A main plot from a B-movie, some bugs (not serious), monotony of enemies… But you can handle that. This is a typical linear shooter with a plot from the 2000s and early 2010s.

The game is short and doesn't waste your time too much. Emotional swings, good music, dynamic shootouts, a little fiend… These things make the game enjoyable and memorable.

It's not a masterpiece, but it deserve a chance. And maybe it deseve a sequel…

Had my headset on and the fist time i boot up the game it blasted my ears, game has more cinematics than gameplay, bugs out when i go through the first vent section at the whore house.
Gameplay is fun tho

Worked fine when I had win10 but not now that I have win11.

This game helped me through some shit 10 years ago.

Pair this game with a broken heart, and the song "Jenny" by Nothing More.

10/10 would almost lose my mind again.

A surprisingly good gorific FPS shooter expirience. I wish I had expirienced the first "The Darkness" game as well (if it even exist at all). The combat is top notch and it becomes insane with the death animations, plus some of the upgrades are really strong. If it becomes too easy, then you can try out the DON difficulty, and if it gets too boring, then you can try the "vendettas" mode. A pretty solid expirience overall.

I got this in the sale for £1.99 and at that price I'd say I got my monies worth. Half the game felt like cut scenes and dialogue. The other half is repetitive missions where you just go from the start of the map to a objective marker whilst killing enemies. I remember playing the demo for this game a LONG time ago and thinking it could be really good. It doesn't live up to the hype. It always seems to be one of those games people reminisce about when older FPS titles are brought it. My advise, don't play it if you don't want to be disappointed, but then that's just my opinion.
As standard the controls are off, it's like a bad console port in that regards. E regens your health via consuming hearts of dead bodies on the floor, E also picks up weapons on the ground. . .So you try and regen your health by consuming hearts and end up swapping out a weapon you didn't want. It's one of those games where you can't carry many weapons. I think the max is 3 different types and 4 slot is reserved for duel wielding. Personally? I hate duel wielding, you waste ammo, your accuracy is worse, I don't want that but you can't remove it. There also auto aim with the throwing objects. So your little sock puppet demon friends can pick up objects in the world. Scaffold poles, chairs, those pesky gas canisters people just leave around then you can throw them at the enemies. Sounds cool but it isn't rewarding because the hit boxes are either huge or it just homes in on the enemies.

Overall it's a 6 out of 10 for me. It's okay, it just doesn't do anything special or good.

TL:DR
too much dialogue (You can skip it), too many cutscenes (you can skip them) gun play is ruined by limited weapon to carry, running out of ammo is often click click, not much weight behind weapons, plenty of ways to kill enemies, levels are average in their design and it just feels like the game tries way to hard to be this deep story driven title. I wish they had spent more time and money on the game play.

Oh and is this a Prey copy? Main character looks very similar. Yes that's it. It's basically PREY 2006 but if you take away some gunplay from Prey, add in more cutscenes with worse level design you get Darkness ll.

a quick solid 8-10 hours gameplay with "fake ending" and true ending

Nostalgia - whilst an incredibly edgy game with an inferior story to the first in the series the art direction and gameplay out performs allowing for an interesting shooter. The Darkness arms allow for diverse combat options for slashing, throwing objects, grabbing car doors as shields and allowing for gory execution finishers they are truly what stands out.
If you want simple fun that is reminiscent of that edgy Xbox 360 era of games its worth trying
RIP piss boy

a blast from the beginning till the credits kinda short but still fun with an great story that sadly ends with a cliffhanger

10/10 for the game startup scenes blowing my ears out and surprising the sh./p;t out of me every time i play because I forget that happens

Come to THE darknessssssss