The Darkness II PS3. (See Top 100 in Video Games) #4,008 in PlayStation 3 Games: Pricing The strikethrough price is the List Price. Savings represents a discount off the List Price.
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. WW: April 18, 2012Mode(s),The Darkness II is a 2012 video game developed by and published.
The game is the sequel to (2007) and based on the published. The player controls Jackie Estacado, a mafia hitman who possesses a mysterious power called 'the Darkness' that grants him supernatural abilities and a pair of Demon Arms. The game features elements found in such as, and a four-player cooperative mode.
The player must rescue the soul of Jackie's dead girlfriend, which was trapped by the Darkness in hell, and confront the Brotherhood, a group of armed cultists trying to take the Darkness away from Jackie.Digital Extremes replaced the first game's developer, though returned to write the script for the sequel. While the main narrative was envisioned to be a personal journey for Jackie, developers described the cooperative multiplayer mode as a 'dark comedy'. Singer returned to voice the Darkness, and provided the voice for Jackie Estacado, replacing. The development artists hand-painted the majority of the game's assets to create a comic book-influenced visual style.Announced in May 2011, the game was released for, and in February 2012. The game received positive reviews upon release, with critics praising the gameplay, story, pacing, and art style. Criticisms were directed at the game's short length, technical issues, and lack of replay value. The game debuted as the third best-selling game in its first week of release in the United Kingdom.
Players can weapons and control a pair of Demon Arms. The left arm is used to grab objects while the right arm is used to slash enemies.Jackie can use various firearms, such as submachine guns, shotguns, and assault rifles, and has the ability to some of these weapons. Additionally, he is armed with a pair of demon tentacles, which can be used to slash enemies or pick up various items within the environment (parking meters, car doors, etc.) to use as projectile weapons or shields.
The demon tendrils can rip out the heart of fallen enemies and devour them for, pick up enemies for execution, or throw them. The player is guided by a Darkling, a goblin-like creature that assists in combat and gathers weapons and ammo. At several points, the player can directly control the Darkling, allowing them to squeeze into tight spaces that Jackie cannot enter and execute enemies from behind. When exposed to light, Jackie's health regeneration and Darkness abilities are disabled and the Darkling will vanish, leaving Jackie with firearms as his only defense. Jackie's vision will blur and he will experience a high-pitched ringing.
The player must avoid directly exposing Jackie to light sources or disable them by shooting out lights or destroying power generators.The game features elements found in. Killing enemies, devouring hearts and performing executions earn the player Essence, which can be used to purchase upgrades at various talent shrines. Collecting relics, which serves as, earn a small amount of Essence. The is divided into four main aspects: Hitman, Execution, Darkness Powers, and Demon Arm. The Hitman aspect consists of passive upgrades that improve the weapon's reload time and magazine size. The Execution tree allows each execution to net more benefits, such as gaining a massive amount of health, ammo or a shield.
Darkness Powers and the Demon Arms grant players access to active abilities, some of which have a brief after use. These abilities include Gun Channeling, an ability that gives the player unlimited ammo and enhanced damage for a short time; Swarm, which distracts enemies; and Black Hole, which triggers a large attack that sucks enemies into a vortex.The game features a campaign called Vendettas that runs parallel to the main campaign and allows up to four players to play together. The story involves four hitmen working for Jackie as they attempt to stop the Brotherhood from obtaining the. Each character has different Darkness powers and is armed with a unique special weapon. For instance, Inugami is a character who uses a Darkness-infused samurai sword, while Shoshanna uses a blunderbuss which can shoot without bullets. Although the mode can be played solo, the experience is significantly more difficult.
There is an mode called 'Hit List' that allows players to replay certain Vendetta missions and complete challenges. Voices Jackie EstacadoThe game begins two years after the events of the first game, with the player controlling Jackie Estacado , who has become head of the Franchetti family and has learned to suppress the Darkness , an ancient demonic force which has inhabited Jackie's bloodline for generations. Jackie is haunted by the memory of his murdered girlfriend, Jenny Romano (Stephanie Frame), and sees apparitions of her. While relaxing at a restaurant, Jackie and his crew are attacked by a rival gang. Grievously wounded, Jackie is forced to let the Darkness out once more, restoring his powers. Aided by the Darkling (Peter Newman)—a goblin-like familiar of the Darkness—Jackie pursues his attackers into the subway. Jackie is mesmerized by a vision of Jenny on the tracks, only to be apparently hit by a train.
He wakes up in what appears to be an asylum occupied by his crew.Reawakening back into the living world, Jackie regroups with his men at his penthouse to plan a counterattack. One of Jackie's closest associates, Jimmy the Grape , provides a lead that points to Swifty, a smaller crime boss. After subduing Swifty, he explains that a shady group he met at the Brimstone Club brothel paid him to put the hit on Jackie. Before he can reveal anything else, the Darkness brutally murders him. Vinnie —one of Jackie's men—enlists his contact at Brimstone to help them.
At the club, Jackie encounters armed cultists of the Brotherhood, a secret society who ordered the hit and wish to use the Darkness for themselves. They ambush Jackie with blinding lights that inhibit the Darkness’ powers, and Jackie is knocked out.
Waking up, he finds himself crucified and a device (the Siphon) draining his dark power. He is greeted by Victor who offers to take the Darkness from him in exchange for the lives of his family.
Refusing, he loses consciousness momentarily and finds himself in Hell where the Darkness keeps Jenny's soul.After Jackie breaks free, Victor threatens to murder Jackie's Aunt, Sarah (Bridger Fox). As the club burns, the Darkness offers Jenny's soul in exchange for the Siphon. Jackie regroups with his men to retake the penthouse, but Jackie is shot and incapacitated by Bragg, a top Brotherhood enforcer, who murders Sarah. After being shot, Jackie awakens in a psychiatric ward where Jenny and members of his crew appear as staff and patients. They tell him that his mob stories are delusions. At Sarah's funeral, the Brotherhood launches another attack.
Jackie subdues Bragg, who reveals that Victor is operating out of an abandoned theme park. Jackie is soon captured by Victor in an and loses consciousness from blood loss. Again, he wakes in the ward, but the janitor, revealed to be his Darkling, explains that the asylum is a trap for Jackie to keep him alive and away from Jenny.Jackie awakens to find that Victor has successfully drained the Darkness from him. The Darkling helps Jackie escape and retake a small portion of the Darkness.
Jackie pursues Victor through a mansion once owned by Carlo Estacado, Jackie's father. Jackie learns from Victor that Carlo had promised the Darkness to the Brotherhood to ensure Jackie didn't have to suffer as he did. Reaching the attic, Jackie kills Victor and impales himself with the Siphon, regaining the Darkness and killing himself to rescue Jenny from Hell. Jackie once again wakes up in the psychiatric ward where the staff offer to take him to Jenny. The Darkling appears and sacrifices himself to help Jackie escape. Jackie reaches the roof and is confronted by Victor (appearing as a doctor), Jenny, and an orderly who attempt to convince Jackie that his life as a mob boss is a delusion and that the world in the psychiatric ward is real.On the roof of the asylum, the player is given a choice to either have Jackie stay with Jenny in the ward, or reject the asylum and attempt to reach Hell.
If the player chooses to stay, both Jenny and Jackie will head back into the asylum and slow dance to ', and the game ends. If the player chooses to reject the asylum, Jackie will jump from the roof and fall into Hell. The Darkness, in a fit of rage, sends demons to stop Jackie from reaching Jenny, but Jackie manages to release Jenny from her bindings and the couple embrace.
In a post-credits scene, Jenny is revealed to have become the new host for the, who has seen the destruction Jackie and the Darkness have caused, and states Jackie has become too powerful and leaves them trapped in Hell; leaving an enraged Jackie screaming as the screen fades out.Development. Returned to write the game.Publisher approached Canadian developer to develop The Darkness II, replacing which worked on the first game. The team worked on the title for three years.
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The team spent a lot of time creating the game's narrative, with returning as the title's writer. According to Starbreeze's CEO Mikael Nermark, the company was not given the option of working on the sequel and was already busy working on when The Darkness II was announced.According to Carter, Digital Extremes agreed to assume development responsibilities as the team wanted to create a shooter with a large emphasis on the story. Both Jenkins and the team at Digital Extremes worked closely, with the team making adjustments to Jenkins' script to suit the gameplay.
Carter called the narrative a 'love story', which he felt 'balanced the adrenaline of the action', while the first part of the game's three-act plot was about 'survival' since Jackie was attacked by an opposing mob. The team spent a lot of time working on the tone of Jackie. Carter compared Jackie to, a 'badass' character who has to face a lot of internal struggles. The team hoped that the story could make the players sympathize with Jackie. According to designer Tom Galt, while Jackie was a mob boss on the surface, 'in his heart he is human and a good-natured guy'.
With the game's large focus on narrative, the Darkling was given a personality and played a huge role in the story. The game does not cut to so that a limited extent of control can be granted to players even in cinematics. While the game has a heavy narrative focus, all and cinematics can be skipped for players who only want to enjoy the gameplay. One of the biggest requests from players of the first game was to have return to voice the Darkness. Served as a stand-in voice actor for Jackie during the game's pre-production, before was chosen to voice the character.The Darkness comic was a large inspiration for the team. The team read the comic and decided to adopt a comic book-influenced 'graphic noir', as they believed the comic's use of high contrast colors contributed to its success.
The team used some of the assets made by Starbreeze as a reference, and created new ones using their own internal proprietary named the Evolution Engine, which powered the studio's previous game (2008). The development artists hand-painted the majority of the game's assets, though this idea was initially met with resistance within the art team due to the huge amount of workload such an approach would create.The team decided to make the title more action-orientated in an attempt to differentiate itself from its predecessor. The shooting mechanic was refined, and the concept of 'quad-wielding', which allows players to engage in combat using both the Demon Arms and duel-wielding weapons, was introduced.
Carter explained that they saw the Demon Arms as an opportunity to make the combat more 'up close and personal'. The team changed the game's abilities to supplement this, such as turning the ability of Black Hole into a random drop from enemies.
The quad-wielding mechanic enabled the combat to have more variety, allowing players to approach the same scenario with different combat styles and encourages players to experiment with different tactics. The gameplay was designed to be violent, with some execution animations being removed for being not 'extravagant' enough. To ensure the game was not too easy, the team disabled Jackie's powers when he is exposed to light and created various enemy types to challenge the player in different ways.The game's cooperative mode Vendetta features a story that runs parallel to the game's main narrative. The team envisioned Vendetta as a with over-the-top characters. It is tonally very different from the main game, and the team hoped that players would use the Vendetta mode to 'blow off some steam' after experiencing Jackie's story in the main narrative.
The team used the mode to explore other characters and elements in the universe, and Jenkins has written more than 10 pages of backstory for each of the four playable characters.2K unveiled the game in May 2011. The game was initially set to be released in October the same year, though 2K announced in July 2011 that the game would be delayed until February 2012. Players who pre-ordered the game would be upgraded to the Limited Edition; which includes gameplay bonuses, illustration drawn by, and digital download for The Darkness Origins Volume 1 and Volume 2. 2K provided extensive marketing for the game, launching a four-week promotion program on, partnering with for window displays and in-store promotions, and placing TV advertisements on both. A for the game was released in January 2012 on,. Reception Critical reception ReceptionAggregate scoreAggregatorScore(PC) 77/100(PS3) 79/100(X360) 80/100Review scoresPublicationScore7.5/107/107/107/108/1080/100The story received critical acclaim from players.
Mikel Reparaz from described the narrative as 'part mob drama, part surreal comedy, and part supernatural revenge romance', though he disliked the ending. While the game focuses on the relationship between Jackie and Jenny, Reparaz noted that the supporting characters were 'endearing', and remarked that they were well-written and well-acted.
He stated he liked the combinations of gun-play and Demon Arms gameplay, which he felt turned Jackie into 'an unstoppable dynamo of horror'. He also enjoyed the execution animations, which he felt were 'brutal' and 'never quite get old', though he felt that the gun-play became repetitive by the end of the game. Anthony Gallegos from felt that the story was not as immediately interesting as the first game and noted that it reused some of its predecessors' plot devices. However, he remarked that some of the scenes with Jenny were 'touching', which made the story more 'personal' for the player. He further commented that the game's story focus enabled the title to have better pacing. Rich McCormick from praised the story for being 'involving', and that the title 'plays with concepts of in a way that only games allow'.
Conrad Zimmerman from felt the narrative was fairly average, but the game's storytelling was 'handled remarkably well'. Andrew Reiner from remarked that unlike the original game, the title is more of a fast-paced shooter than a supernatural thriller, and he felt that the story and the characters were inferior when compared to the first game. Kevin VanOrd from praised the character development and the game's pacing. He described the story as 'unusual' and 'creepy', and added that the game's narrative excels when it 'plays with your expectations and has you wondering'.The gameplay received a positive response from critics. Daniel Bischoff from called the gun-play 'responsive' and the Demon Arms 'fun to control'. He particularly liked the combat variety and enemy types, which put the players in various combat scenarios. However, he was disappointed by the game's length, which lasted for only seven hours.
Zimmerman agreed that the game was short, but said the title was fun throughout. Dan Whitehead from also praised the Demon Arms and added that it helped 'opening up combat possibilities that other shooters can't hope to compete with'. He further praised the developer for making the combat faster and refining the gameplay of the original. Gallegos praised the combat for being 'vastly superior' to the first game and said that Jackie's overpowered nature made the game more exciting as players could focus on fun ways to kill enemies. He also liked the skill trees, which he felt have reinvigorated the combat during the later sections of the game.
McCormick noted that the game's control was not too overwhelming for players despite needing to control multiple limbs at once. However, he was disappointed by the final levels, which he felt was a 'slog' to play through. Reiner praised the game for making players feel powerful, but he felt that the game was repetitive due to the lack of combat variety and remarked that combat 'relies on reflexes more than strategy'. Most reviewers thought that the cooperative multiplayer mode was fun and that it provided extra gameplay for an otherwise short title, though both Ben Gilbert from and Zimmerman thought the combat not as exciting as the main game since the playable characters in the Vendetta mode do not have Demon Arms. Whitehead noted that the mode was 'basic to the point of being crude', though he felt the secondary story was 'enjoyable'.The game's presentation received mixed reviews. Gilbert praised the art direction, calling it 'gorgeous' and 'impressive'.
Zimmerman liked the cel-shaded graphics, which he felt was 'evocative of the comic books from which these games originate' and made the game 'surprisingly easy to get sucked in'. Reiner, however, felt that the new art style did not capture the eerie feeling of the original game. Gallegos noted that the reviewed copy suffered from, broken animations, and issues and felt that the game was marred by polish issues. Sales The game was the third best-selling retail game in its week of release in the UK, surpassed.
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Xbox 360PlayStation 3Disc Size6.0GB6.04GBInstall6.0GB (optional)-Surround SupportDolby DigitalDolby Digital, 5.1LPCM, 7.1LPCMFeaturing a range of impressive lighting and shader effects along with extensive use of post-processing, Digital Extremes' proprietary Evolution engine is a great fit for The Darkness 2, thanks in no small part to a superb cel-shaded art style that brings Top Cow's comic to life in a beautifully vibrant, violently gory manner. After the disappointments surrounding the PS3 version of the original game - with its sub-HD resolution, pared down effects and lower quality textures - the good news is that the standard of the cross-platform development work this time around is hugely improved: The Darkness 2 is very, very close on both consoles.To be honest this isn't particularly surprising given that Digital Extremes' custom Evolution engine has clearly been optimised for both consoles for quite a while now. 2007's Dark Sector was an early example of impressive cross-platform conversion work done right; fairly closely matched in terms of performance, the main difference resting with the sub-HD framebuffer resolution of the PS3 game.The Darkness 2 pushes both consoles thoroughly with an extensive range of visual effects. Dynamic light sources are scattered about the environments and post-processing is abundant throughout, making for an expansive range of impressive graphical effects. However, this all comes at a cost: there have been some compromises made on both consoles to accommodate these features while working within a 33ms rendering budget necessary to maintain a steady 30 frames per second update.As our head-to-head video demonstrates, The Darkness 2 features a soft and visibly fuzzy appearance, pointing towards a sub-HD resolution being employed on both platforms to ease the rendering load - the side-effects of which are ever so slightly more noticeable on the PS3. A closer inspection reveals that the blurriness of the image actually comes from the developers employing a post-process anti-aliasing solution on both formats - what looks like an implementation of - combined with rendering the framebuffer out at 1152x600. The impact can easily be seen with geometry and texture details being smoothed over, while edges aren't as clean compared to a native resolution presentation using similar post-process based anti-aliasing techniques.The Rise of FXAA'Dynamic light sources are scattered about the environments and post-processing is abundant throughout, making for an expansive range of impressive graphical effects.'
From what we gather, Digital Extremes appears to be using a tweaked version of FXAA3, first showcased on the programmer's blog last year. While it's impossible to confirm this with absolute authority, we know that coders at Digital Extremes were experimenting with the technique around the same time, and the way in which the final image is blurred strongly suggests that we are seeing something similar here. This would also explain the mild additional softness on the PS3 version: it most likely comes from the specific code path used to implement this form of FXAA on the console, which results in slightly less accurate edge-detection compared to the Xbox 360 implementation.Using just 1.1ms of GPU time, FXAA would be a very good fit for the gritty, comic-book art style of The Darkness 2: fine details aren't quite so integral to the core look of the game, while the loss in image quality isn't quite so noticeable when roaming around the many dimly lit, low-contrast environments. That said, in brighter scenes the combination of the upscale blur plus overzealous edge-detection isn't so pleasing on the eye.
The Darkness 2 renders in 1152x600 on both platforms using what appears to be FXAA instead of regular multi-sampling anti-aliasing. As we've seen with other titles that use similar post-process AA techniques, both edges and texture details get smoothed over.
However, the technique seems to work very well with the cell-shaded aesthetic of the game.While the softness might disappoint some, the whole point of post-process AA is to free up precious rendering resources for other tasks - a worthwhile trade-off because the core gameplay is strongly influenced by certain aspects of the visuals. Take the lighting model for example: not only are there plenty of dynamic lights in play (these can be destroyed, or in some cases reactivated by enemies) but these also adds plenty of atmosphere to the game while forming an integral part of the gameplay - Darkness powers can only be used in low-light conditions, thus adding a interesting hook to the action.Furthermore, as the camera approaches various light sources their intensity and exposure changes, with post-process distortion effects covering the screen. A bloom component is also present, which seamlessly decreases in strength and fades away when the camera moves in close, revealing previously hidden environmental details obscured by the lighting conditions.
The use of HDR lighting and bloom is further complemented by the inclusion of light shafts, though some of these are static in nature and appear to be faked using transparent geometry in place of rendering true 'god rays'.The good news is that these elements are largely identical across both platforms. In some scenes we find that bloom is dialled up slightly more on the PS3 release, while in others some of the light sources are stronger on the 360.' Lighting, post-processing effects and artwork are match on both systems with only texture streaming differences separating the two console SKUs.' Lighting plays a huge part in The Darkness 2 - many dynamic lights can be shot out, chaging the look of the scene, while some can be moved and re-activated by enemies (top). Shadow resolution is low on both platforms, but a sharper filtering method on the PS3 sometimes gives them a cleaner appearance (bottom).Elsewhere, shadows are rendered in a somewhat low resolution on both platforms, although in some circumstances they appear cleaner on the PS3 - filtering on the 360 looks to be done using a double penumbra, while PCF (percentage closer filtering) is present on the PS3.
The shaper looking shadows in some shots on the PS3 is most likely down to the distance between the shadow-casting light source and the surface it's hitting being different, rather than any resolution differences. Additionally, the alpha buffers are rendered in the same resolution on both systems and the various post-processing elements that come into play are also a match.Cross-Platform Conformity Taken to the Digital ExtremesDigital Extremes has obviously taken care to ensure that the core graphical make-up of the game on both systems is as close as possible, clearly designing the game from the ground up with considerations made for each platform to ensure a near-identical release.
Artwork is essentially the same between the 360 and PS3, and there are no stray, pared-back textures on either platform to spoil the unique look of the game.Streaming is the only element where we do see some differences between the consoles, with textures - and in some cases lighting - appearing first on Xbox 360. This is more noticeable at the beginning of each level, but occurs less obviously further into gameplay. On top of that, during gameplay, there also fewer transitions between texture changes on the 360 when the switch between mip-maps occur. The Darkness 2 doesn't feature a mandatory install on either platform, with the game streaming in assets directly from each console's disc drive, although an optional install is, of course, available on the 360. Usually we'd be inclined to believe that the difference in LOD (level of detail) transitions in this case is down to data being streamed faster from the 360's DVD drive compared to the same data being read from the Blu-ray on the PS3.However, the fact that the PC game also has these issues on occasion suggests that there could be other issues in play: in this case most likely relating to how the game code and data flow is being handled along the rendering pipeline.
Thankfully, during play the transitions between artwork are very minor once an area has loaded and don't negatively impact on the experience.' There are some unintentionally hilarious bugs: enemies can clip through environmental objects, animations glitch, and sometimes they break entirely.' Artwork and other assets are generally streamed in faster on the 360, but while this is obvious at the start of a level, during play the differences are far more subtle (top). On the other hand both versions suffer from having some amusingly odd visual bugs - for example, this NPC's mouth stays permanently open throughout the entire cut-scene (bottom).Despite the level of polish on offer with regards to the visuals, this doesn't always extend to other areas of the game. There are a number of bugs that occasionally crop up during play, and sometimes they are cause for some hilarity: enemies can clip through environmental objects, animations glitch, and sometimes they break entirely. While none of these are game-breaking they do serve to temporarily disconnect the player from being totally immersed in the action.In terms of performance, a look at a series of gameplay clips show that Digital Extremes' Evolution engine runs very smoothly on both platforms with very few issues that are noticeable during gameplay. Occasionally the game drops below its intended 30FPS target on both formats, but by and large, they're like-for-like.
In scenes where the engine is being pushed the PS3 version drops a few more frames a tad more often, but at the same time it does so with lower levels of screen tear. Our analysis tools show that at times The Darkness 2 tears quite heavily in small bouts during stressful scenes, though not all that frequently.
At the same time a great deal of this goes completely unnoticed when looking at the footage by eye. By choosing plenty of dark, low-contrast environments, the differences between frames can be very hard to spot, even when there is quite a lot of fast movement on screen.
It's only in scenes in which light and dark objects occupy the same frame where the differences become apparent and the tearing becomes plainly visible - most notably, when the muzzle flash from large weapons is displayed on screen, which tends to cause the engine to render out multiple torn frames at time.Interestingly, the PS3 version acquits itself better in this regard: we see the engine rendering more clean frames, resulting in improved image consistency. However, in all honesty the difference isn't really so apparent during gameplay and when tearing or frame-rate drops do become noticeable the engine quickly recovers, swiftly restoring a clean and smooth update.Also displayed from a first-person perspective, cut-scenes are largely smooth and mostly free from tearing when there isn't much action going on, but as the load increases we see that frame-rates can drop visibly and screen tearing is introduced into the mix.
Both formats are affected at similar points, and although the 360 commands a small lead in some scenes - particularly where frame-rate is concerned - in others there's little to separate the two at all.' From a performance perspective, the Xbox 360 version tends to be smoother overall, but the PlayStation 3 game has lower levels of screen tear.'
However, as these sequences aren't interactive at all the dip in performance has no impact on how well the game plays. Tearing, like during gameplay, is also hard to spot in dark scenes, and it's only on occasion where torn frames and frame-rate drops make things look displeasing to the eye, and then it's only for very short periods of time. Ultimately, outside of isolated issues in specific scenes, by and large things are generally rather solid overall.Overall then, in terms of performance both versions are smooth and for the most part tearing isn't really an issue.
During gameplay the PS3 has a very slight edge (hardly any tearing is present) while things are a tad smoother on the 360 when the engine is being pushed. In the end though, the differences are pretty minor in real world terms, and shouldn't really bother players engrossed in the action.A PC The ActionWhile the console versions are pretty evenly matched, the PC platform offers up the enticing ability to improve upon the console releases in many respects. For one, dealing with sub-HD framebuffers is a non-issue, while higher-quality effects work can often enhance an already polished experience.
But how what has Digital Extremes done to improve the PC release of The Darkness 2 over its console counterparts?We start with our 720p Xbox 360 and PC head-to-head video, while an alternative is also available for those interested in seeing how the Sony console shapes up against the computer version. As expected, it's possible to run The Darkness 2 in native 720p although the advantage over the sub-HD console versions isn't quite so obvious are you might think, even factoring in that extra 33 per cent of resolution. The additional sharpness helps to improve texture clarity, but the slightly soft look that is present on both the 360 and PS3 is still there to a lesser degree. The PC version of The Darkness 2 also uses FXAA in lieu of regular MSAA, but the native 720p framebuffer means that there's slightly less blurring of texture details, and the overall effect works well with the game cell-shaded aesthetic. Certain art styles aren't disgraced by a drop to sub-HD resolutions when handled correctly, and The Darkness 2 demonstrates this rather nicely.Curiously, FXAA is also permanently activated with no other edge-smoothing options available. Given that The Darkness 2 features a plentiful amount of dynamic light sources in play throughout, the locked use of FXAA indicates that a deferred lighting solution is in play in all three versions of the game.
Regular MSAA generally doesn't play well with a deferred rendering set-up, owing to the massive RAM requirements, so implementing a high performance post-process effect makes sense.' There are few surprises with the PC version - only really offering higher frame-rates and resolutions over the console builds.'
Running at higher resolutions, such as 1080p, brings out more details in the game's artwork whilst also complimenting the use of FXAA - the amount of texture blur is noticeably reduced due to the extra pixel precision on offer. The Darkness 2: The Digital Foundry VerdictAll of these elements come together to form a more refined look to an already solid title. On top of that there's a real sense that playing in higher resolutions like 1080p brings out the very best the game has to offer graphically. If you've got the requisite hardware, the PC version of The Darkness 2 is clearly the one to get, but the good news is that the game still packs a hell of a punch on both consoles.While not without its flaws, with The Darkness 2 Digital Extremes successfully takes the blueprint laid down by Starbreeze in the original, refining and expanding upon it, before putting its own unique stamp across this latest instalment. The stripped-down control scheme is a big improvement, allowing you to use your Darkness powers while shooting at the same time and the concept of using light as a gameplay mechanic is promising, though somewhat under-developed.Despite this, the bloody-thirsty exploits of Jackie Estacado make for a rather enjoyable alternative to many other first-person shooters doing the rounds right now. In a market dominated by identikit action games, we feel that The Darkness 2 is well worth checking out.
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