At a recent behind closed doors event newbreview.com’s Ian Young was fortunate enough to get some hands on time with 2k Games’ The Darkness II, sequel to 2007′s cult hit first person shooter The Darkness.

While there Ian met with Matt Roche, 2k Games’ PR Executive, to discuss the way this dark and gritty title has moved on from the original, and what they feel sets this game apart from all the other first person shooters on the market.

I’ve just finished playing the two demos and immediately the first thing that struck me was the game’s dark, visceral comic book art style. What do you think is the game’s biggest selling point? After all there are a lot of first person shooters out on the market right now.

Basically, as you touched on, it’s the graphical style. One of the things the developers really wanted to get across was the whole graphic noire (art style), which is in the comics they’ve done at Top Cow, and taking them into the game. One of the things that you may’ve seen in the demo is Quad-Weilding, which lets you use all four shoulder buttons (Left trigger, Left Bumper, Right Trigger, and Right Bumper) on an Xbox (controller). This basically means that you can dual wield but you also have two demon arms.

One of these demon arms is called Slashy, which lets you slash things, you can cut people in half, and other cool moves like that. It’s a little bit gory! The other is called Grabby, which that ability you can actually grab people or objects in the world. For example, you can grab doors, you can use them as a shield or throw them at opponents to slice them in half. You can also use (Grabby) to grab enemies and do execution moves – pull off their head, do a thing called Anaconda, where the demon arm wraps around a guy and spears him through the stomach – all kinds of nasty things!

It really is a change from more natural first person shooters, and very different from other shooters. It has also got a great story written by Paul Jenkins, the guy who actually wrote some of The Darkness comic books for Top Cow, as well as the original (video game’s) story, making it a true continuation of the story from the first game. Hopefully fans of the original will really like it, and there’s a whole mixture of things that contribute (to setting it apart) but I think those are the three main things.

Your demon limbs can be used to perform some gruesome executions

One of the things that I liked about the original game was the stealth mechanic, where you had to shoot out lights creating darkness, making you feel like a real predator. Does stealth still play a part in The Darkness II?

In the game this time around the developers felt that the lights in the first game, while they were good, didn’t make much of a difference. So what you will see this time is that when you go into the light your vision is impaired, you can’t really see anything because it is very bright, and you can’t use your darkness powers in the light. You do still have to shoot out lights, but one of the things is that The Brotherhood, a group that you encounter in the game, throw light grenades at you. These explode in a big ball of light, and basically blind you.

There is still a tactical element to the game. Later on in the game there are these guys with big light guns, they’ll point the light at you, blinding you, and you’ll have to be quite tactical about how you take them out. There are also sections where you can also play as a Darkling (one of The Darkness’ minions). If you remember there were parts of the first game where you played as a slithering demon arm, in The Darkness II you play as a Darkling instead. This leads to some cool stealth sections, creeping around, executing people. For fans of the original there is a mixture (of gameplay), but this game is more action orientated, more bad ass Jacky Estecado style action, but yes, there are stealth sections as well.

One of the most obvious changes is the shift from the dark realistic graphical style to a more cel shaded look – any thoughts on the reason behind that shift?

One of the things that Digital Extremes (The Darkness II’s developer) wanted to do was to make it look more like the comic books. They’re massive fans of the comics, and if you go to their studio they’ve got all of the source material on their desks, and they’re big comic book fans anyway. They really wanted to recreate the comic books, and their vision was to make The Darkness II seem like you were playing through a graphic novel. You can see from screenshots that the lighting effects are nice and clear, and really gets across the look of the game. It really is fantastic. It is supposed to represent the look of the comic books, the graphic noire comic book look, as opposed to look of the original game. I think it looks great, and it’s one of the main stand out points of the game, and I hope that consumers will like it.

Darklings can be used tactically during gun fights to turn the tide of battle

A lot of people liked the original game, it may not have been a massive success in terms of sales, and it has been quite a while since that was made, so can we hope for a third instalment?

(laughing) Well I personally cannot comment on that, but people really loved the first one. It was a real cult hit in some respects. Speaking to the average gamer on the street you’ll probably find that most people will have played it on their Xbox or PS3. So, for us, The Darkness II is going out there, hopefully people will like it, and then it’s all up to the powers that be if there will be a third one. It’s not up to me, but who knows.

The Darkness II is due for release in February 2012. Currently there is a promotion going on where, if you preorder the game, you are upgraded to the limited edition version of the game at no extra charge. Stay tuned to newbreview.com for our full review of The Darkness II shortly after the game’s release.

In the meantime, why not read Ian’s hands on preview with The Darkness II by clicking on the following link: Preview:- The Darkness II

For those that are not familiar with the comic book series, The Darkness is the tale of Jackie Estacado, a high ranking member of the New York Mafia, and the awakening within him of a demonic parasite known as The Darkness, on his twenty first birthday. The Darkness is an entity of untold mystical power that preys on the evil within men’s hearts, both as a source of power and as a means to controlling a vessel that will enable it to extinguish all sources of light and goodness.

If you were not fortunate enough to play the first installment of the The Darkness, I beseech you to go out and rummage in your local store to try and find a copy. Whilst the first game was not perfect, and may appear a little dated with games toting vastly superior graphics nowadays, it was a solid shooter with a dark sombre atmosphere, excellent screenplay and voice acting that certainly left me reeling at the closing scene.
So far you can obviously gather that I was particularly glad when it was announced that a sequel is due for the first quarter of 2012.  This new installment has the potential to create a bold, new franchise for 2k.  A publisher as prestigious as any, with titles including the Bioshock games, the Sid Meier’s series (Civilisation), Mafia II, Duke Nukem Forever, and Borderlands. Despite a change in developer, from what I have played so far, the Darkness II has remained true to its predecessor and any departures from the original have only enhanced what was already an excellent game.

Right off the bat the graphical style, whilst still fitting directly in with The Darkness ethos, is very different.  Whereas before you had a well rendered, gritty, three dimensional environment to wreak havoc in, the same flavour is kept but delivered in a cell shaded, comic book package.  While not as crude as games of yore that utilised a cell shaded style, such as XIII and Jet Set Radio, we still have a black outline around all dynamic objects, with a use of bold colours and a slight two dimensional feel. But a considerable amount of texture and depth was present, especially on all NPCs, making every character incredibly unique, showing signs of a developer pushing its character design and graphics engine.

Plenty of fun can be found playing with your two new best friends "slashy" and "grabby".

A lot of care and attention has clearly gone into the look of characters, especially the game’s antagonist, Victor Valente. His scarred face and physical embellishments were a sight to behold. This also applies to the other grisly NPCs, with the skin of the characters moving and stretching in ways that really had me stare at the grotesque and pitted nature of their faces as they conversed with my character.  Although the graphics were certainly not intended to reflect a real life simulation, I personally felt a greater depth of immersion than if they had gone down that route.

From the soft gloomy lighting of the brothel to the glaring spot lights of the construction site, I fought my way through a range of areas equipped with a variety of textures, colours and tones that accurately depicted, and drew me into, the environments I found myself in.  The level design was consistently at a high standard with everything seemingly unique and hand crafted.  While this can lead to a somewhat linear game, there is room to move as you and your enemies attempt to out flank each other.

Throughout the first game your experience with the story is an excellent blend of first person experience, minimal cutscenes, coupled with Darkness monologues and Jackie Estacado’s  soliloquies to keep excellent flow and pace with the action.  The same artistic flair is present in the sequel. During the first demo I began walking (with a false sense of security) into a restaurant for some sort of rendezvous, only to to find the place ram-raided by mafioso screaming for my blood. During the battle Jackie’s  legs become injured, and it became my job to defend myself, rail shooter style, firing off shots as I am clumsily dragged away from the scene by one of my mafia underlings.  This sequence is a unique, fresh, action packed and well choreographed sequence, and I hope to see more of this creativity in the final game.

Mike Patton from Faith No More reprises his role as The Darkness, using his amazing ability to provide guttural vocal gymnastics.  Celebrities aside, all voice acting has so far been top notch and lent highly to a visceral experience.  Guns reload, pop and fire with excellent authority and ballistics physics keep me content as I dispatched my attackers.  As I worked my way through the demos back to back, I certainly had the feeling of fighting for my life in a less scripted, unpredictable sequence of events that kept things exhilarating.

Darklings can be used tactically during gun fights to turn the tide of battle

With regards to weapons, you will find a good range of short to medium range artillery. For those interested in sniping or being overly cautious, this may not be the game for you.  During my experience I was able to utilise a range of semi to fully automatic weapons such as Uzis, P45s, Glocks, Shotguns and 0.45 Magnums, each behaving as one would expect them to.  The enemies however, are a little different. If you have watched any trailers you will know that some sort of cult is hounding you to strip you of your unearthly power.  With this in mind your enemies know exactly what you are and will use a range of light-based weapons, from high intensity spot lights and augmented flash grenades, to somewhat more demonic weapons and augmentations of their own.

As The Darkness is a conscious entity, and certainly not benign in nature, assists you in a number of interesting ways that take you beyond the average FPS.  First of all you are equipped with an extra pair of appendages namely “Grabby” and “Slashy”.  These hellish appendages, when coupled with the option of duel wielding guns, proudly elevates to what 2k like to call “quad wielding”.  Their function is simple and generally self explanatory. “Grabby’s” job (via clicking the left bumper) is to latch onto anything and everything you can set your sights on for use as either a shield, or to catapult at approaching enemies.  Examples of excellent shields in my experience were both enemies themselves and tearing off car doors, the latter making an excellent projectile in cleaving attackers in half. My favourite move was using rebars and scaffolding to pin my adversaries to nearby scenery. If anyone has played the Alien Vs. Predator games as the Predator with his spear gun, you would already know how sadistically fulfilling this is.

“Slashy’s” role is a little more simplistic, by holding down the right bumper you can flail him around as a serrated, blood thirsty whip of death in any direction utilising the right analogue stick.  This became particularly useful on higher difficulties when being aggressively flanked by enemies. When in tough situations a perfectly valid tactic is to thrash that right analogue stick as wildly as possible.

Other than your new limbs, the rest of the combat mechanics were mostly hinted at.  There appeared to be a relatively intricate skill tree to unlock an array of darkness powers, which can be earned via consuming the hearts from your fallen enemies. This also acts as a way of replenishing your health.  Other powers available in the demo include the ability to summon a greenish black cloud of ominous fog to descend upon the immediate vision of enemies, which can be used as a short distraction to flank larger groups, or immediately dispatcher smaller clusters. Another power, reminiscent of the first game, was to control a minion, either to send into battle as a tactical distraction, or via possession, able to deftly sneak behind enemies via otherwise unreachable methods (namely ventilation shafts so far) for stealth kills. Although I was not given exact numbers, I was told to expect many more Darkness powers to be included in the final product.

Even on normal difficulty The Darkness II is quite a challenging game

Overall the range of powers seemed to be of a good number implying excellent variety, theoretically I am hoping an avenue to customise a person’s experience and playing style (namely the more patiently clandestine player or ADHD warmonger).

From what I have experienced so far,  I found my proverbial backside being handed to me every two seconds.  The enemy  AI is tuned to work as a team, coordinating movements and communicating to each other so they can take you out as efficiently as possible.  If you are the type of gamer who is a little more casual and wishes to run in feeling like a god of destruction, bathing  in the blood of your foes, you will not find any such experience on a difficulty higher than easy.  Even on a medium difficulty you will be challenged to think as you progress through the levels and re-coordinate your strategies as you respawn during play.  For masochists I assure you, hard mode is as it says on the tin, but without the feeling that you are being cheated with cheap deaths or progressing via sheer luck as much as trial and error.

Overall I think this game has plenty of action to satisfy the average gamer and enough mystery combined with story for those needing a solid narrative to commit to something more than a generic shooter.  With the skill tree and intelligent AI it would seem that plenty of replayability will be found even if there isn’t word so far of a new game+ mode.  Whilst even if you aren’t already a die hard fan of the comic franchise, anyone should be able to pick up this game and receive a challenging, unique, action packed and visceral experience.

The Darkness II is currently due to be released on 10th February 2012 in the UK. Expect our full review to land sometime around that date.

- Ian Young

Adam Radcliffe (right) shows off his move with Kinect's Dance Central

Initially the organisation of Saturday’s show left a lot to be desired; the security team couldn’t decide if they were going to bother with a press only queue or not. Eventually, after forcing the good people of The Newb Review to queue round the back of the building with the skips, we were ushered to the front of the building to wait for the doors to open.

While waiting to be let in, we managed to see some familiar faces, including Idle Michael of Joypod fame, and caught brief glimpses of the chaps from Media Molecule and Yuji Naka, who also were locked out of the building by security.

Once inside, the show floor was bustling with excitement as the room began to fill with frantic gamers, eager to get their hands on some of the hottest titles due for release over the next year, including Killzone 3 (in 3D), Gears of War 3, Dead Space 2, Kinect Sports, Fable 3, Medal of Honour, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and Marvel Vs Capcom 3.

From left to right: Eddie Johnston, Ash Tregay, Ian Young, Tom Wallis, Luke Mears, Adam Radcliffe, Steve Garrett, and Kieran Roycroft.

Today marks the beginning of our coverage of the event, including a special podcast directly from the show floor. Over the next few weeks we will be bringing you our hands on impressions of the games that were on show, as well as all of our usual news, previews, reviews, and articles.

For now we present a small selection of photos from the show to whet your appetite.

As ever, stay tuned to The Newb Review!

- Luke Mears

Tom is back in the hosting seat this week, joined by Adam, Crofterz, Ian and new podcast regular, Simon Parker. Together they guide you through the latest and greatest in gaming news, as well as site updates, community feedback and obscure song references, thus creating many LOLZ for you, the listener, to enjoy.

MP3 Download / iTunes / RSS Feed

Together they take you through the latest news this week including all the fallout from the launch of Halo: Reach, as well as the usual tomfoolery.

MP3 Download / iTunes / RSS Feed

MP3 Download / iTunes / RSS Feed

Do you think you can kill Lynch, the balding self medicated psychopath? Check out the latest trailer for Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days and get back to us on what you think your chances are.

You may remember we went hands on with the game a short while ago and we really liked what we saw.  With a brilliant hand held camera visual style, smooth controls, and plenty of multiplayer madness Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days looks to be one of the gaming highlights of the year.

There is currently a demo available for download on Xbox Live, Playstation Network, and on PC. Do yourself a favour and download it.

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days will be available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC on 20th August.

- Luke Mears

Topics up for discussion include a profitable PS3, Bobby Kotick thinking everyone should pay him and news of Nintendo’s 3DS launch details.

There’s also the chance to win the final Medal Of Honour Beta code as well as a whole host of regular features.

MP3 Download / iTunes / RSS Feed

And his enthusiasm rubbed off on us. So impressed were we here at Newb Review Towers that we decided to do a few videos looking at what you can expect from this title.

So what are you waiting for?

Remember, all these videos and more can be found on our official Youtube feed at www.youtube.com/thenewbreview

Make sure you subscribe to our videos, because we’ve got a whole lot of material in the works!

Single Player

Multiplayer

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog days will be released on August 27th in the USA and August 30th in the United Kingdom. Frankly, we can’t wait!

Game: Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days
Format: Xbox 360
Developer: IO Interactive
Publisher: Eidos Interactive

It’s probably worth mentioning that I have not played the original Kane and Lynch game. Since current gen consoles became more affordable and commonplace in most households, “frag style” shooters that forgo finesse and storyline in favour of perseverance and a more chaotic, crimson splattered roller-coaster of a ride have truly ruled the day.

You know the sort I’m sure. The kind of games that have your character seemingly outmatched and facing dozens of enemies at a time with your best friend being the cover system. Frankly, I find it boring, especially when these games demand that ¾ of your gun’s clip must be emptied into just one of your targets in order for them to fall.

The tedium is enhanced by the story lines, which are often sparse and unimaginative. Frustration saturates my very senses as I recover from one monotonous death after another, with seemingly no end to the enemies.

In Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days, you make the realisation that Mr Lynch’s beloved wench is in trouble. All hell breaks loose after you make a rendez-vous with the other protagonist, Kane, and slaughter your way through a sea of blood, noodles and policemen/some kind of black ops task force to rescue aforementioned damsel. Simple right?

One of the most striking things about the game is its visual style. The game focuses on a news footage/youtube video style of realism. You might think that this would get in the way of things, or obscure the image, but it works surprisingly well.  In fact the first thing I said upon starting the game was “wow!”.

The visual style mimics amateur hand held camera footage you might see on the news

Do not get me wrong, I love to blow things up and lay my digital enemies to waste, but it’s the little details that make one game truly unique from all the other cover based third person shooters out there. The demo build of Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days definitely intrigues me by presenting itself as a unique third person action shooter.

The controls and cover system are both intuitive and really quite sensitive. When you are reloading your weapon behind cover, the game does not pander to mindless drones by having the cross-hair constantly visible. Thus, you are prevented from aiming behind cover and simply popping out for ‘instant kills-a-plenty’. Little things like this demand just a little bit more focus from players and add a greater sense of realism and immersion into the game.

There's a really dirty look to this game, without it being all grey and brown

The general lighting is subtle and extremely effective. It complements the dank urban playground of death you are frolicking around. The whole atmosphere of the demo is indeed seedy. The character’s appear to be dirty, sweaty and an assured part of the Asian, neon sparkled ghetto you are fleeing through. Parts of the environment prove to be destructible, particularly the furniture and internal support structure of the restaurant and shanty town you ballistically molest. Shards and chunks of wood splintering away in satisfactory chunks as you wear down the cover of nearby peons.

Cover breaks apart and splinters whenever it is hit by bullets

The enemy AI forces NPCs to take cover regularly without leaving themselves open as stationary targets. Members of the enemy team also routinely flank you from any side. The AI of your partner, Kane, has him as a worthy comrade / psycho in arms. He’s certainly competent at picking up the crumbs you let tumble from your banquet table of cadavers, or for the more inexperienced: fighting tooth and nail to pick up the slack in the body count.

The graphics are pleasing and the ambiance of the game does a great job of making you feel like a ruthless, sociopathic, skullet-toting mercenary, wishing to rescue his lady friend. The environments, while linear, give a few routes to experiment with in order to flank your foes. These range from rooftop vantage points to ushering through shops, avoiding the open high-street road. However, this game is in the developmental stage and still has problems concerning lighting glitches with street lamps. Also breakable parts of the environment either fragment before your eyes or simply disappear.

The story of the game is presented in a concise but mysterious way that has indeed caught my attention. The characters themselves are also charismatic and appealing in their desperate fight for survival and moral depravity.

The physics are relatively good but could be improved on. When slain, enemies literally collapse to the ground as if their strings have simply been severed. I would expect that, when someone is the recipient for a 12 gauge to the face at close range, the point of force with their centre of gravity acting as a fulcrum would inevitably have their body thrown backwards violently. This combined with Lynch casually firing his shotgun like he’s operating an airsoft pistol with the recoil akin to something like a baby’s flatulence. Maybe he has fantastic technique, maybe this adds a balance to help compose the player in battle… I’ll let you decide.

Despite the problems mentioned so far, I have faith they will be resolved upon the game’s release. As mentioned at the beginning, I don’t play games for the sake of simply shooting things, and I feel this game elevates beyond weak action shooters.

If you want some substance to your mayhem, judging from this demo, Kane and Lynch: Dog Days looks like a title to watch. Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days will be available for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on 27th August 2010.

- Ian Young

Stay tuned to The Newb Review for further coverage of this game.