2K Games has announced that Mike Patton, lead singer of the bands Faith No More and Tomahawk, will be growling evilly at gamers once more as the devilish chaos force known as The Darkness in the sequel to 2007's aptly named The Darkness. With few details so far on The Darkness II, it is also important to announce that 2k Games will be showcasing the game for the first time at the Game Developers Conference 2011 in San Francisco, which takes place from March 2 - 4 (ps. We'll be there).
For those unfamiliar with the game/series, The Darkness is a comic series by Top Cow Productions, who are also responsible for the Tomb Raider series. The Darkness video game is here described:
Players control Jackie Estacado, who inherited the demonic powers of The Darkness on his 21st birthday from his father who carried the curse before him. By staying in the shadows and avoiding the light, Jackie can summon the tremendous powers of The Darkness to eviscerate his enemies with deadly Demon Arms and supernatural abilities, all while enduring the taunts and goading of the evil that consumes him.
On his reprisal of the role of the most evil of all evils Mike Patton had to say, "It feels really good to be the bad guy, and The Darkness is as bad as it gets. I've read through the script and Jackie is going to be a brutally tortured soul. I'm looking forward to making his life a living hell." Is it sadomasochistic to say that we're looking forward to being brutally tortured by him again?
Just a week and a half ago we expressed concern over the developer switch on The Darkness 2 to Digital Extremes, but with the confirmation of the return of one of the best aspects of the game, coupled with the "Quad-Wielding gameplay, which will allow players to slash, grab, and throw objects and enemies with their Demon Arms while simultaneously firing two weapons," I think the sequel only has to worry about writing a good plot with enough differences in style to let it stand out from the first.
2K has been secretive about any further details but the game's website gives us one screenshot to consider:
The press release describes the visual style as, "hand-painted graphic noir," which this doesn't strike me as at all. But, it's clearly an early build, and one expects the game to look a lot more polished when they showcase it at GDC. For now what do you ranters think? Will Digital Extremes redeem themselves for Dark Sector and satisfy our hunger for wanton super-powered gore and violence?
The Darkness II is set for release this fall.
Source: Joystiq