The Future of The Darkness Is Looking Mighty Bright

Four years is quite a stretch between games in a series. A series is considered dead in that long of a period, except if you are from Valve. The Darkness came out way back in 2007 to mixed reviews, but reached that financial pinnacle of a million games sold to warrant a sequel. Whether the second game was being reworked or what, it's refreshing to see that 2K hadn't given up on it. Starbreeze, however, is not handling the development duties; Digital Extremes has taken over the reigns.

Set two years after the original, Jackie is now caught up in a rabid gang war whilst reeling to grab a handle on his powers. And that's all we know. The game was slyly confirmed for a Q4 release but with no details. I hate when this happens because writing a blog post, or really anything, about the unveil makes it a more difficult task. The existence of the project had slipped up before; back in 2008, 2K had slipped a letter to a Dutch rap artist, while other people confirmed having done voice work for it. And there is one thing I don't get - why developers always anticipate a hype train when one won't exist in any capacity for such a small release. Maybe I'll write a separate blog post about that. I love ranting sometimes.

To see 2K have faith in what many called a disappointment is surely promising. In the first game, weird glitches, odd shooting mechanics and terrible multiplayer at launch made it fall into the bargain bin quickly. But an intriguing story and wonderful graphics (at the time) kept it on peoples' radar. A sequel will, hopefully, fix all the issues and set up an interesting end to the trilogy.

On a complete different note, I never actually played the first Darkness. When the game was announced I was skeptical and never paid enough attention to care. Having the plot explained to me by a good friend beckoned some hilarious reactions, ones that I weren't expecting, but nevertheless left me oddly delighted. I'll get the game one day or borrow it off a friend; maybe in time for the sequel later this year.