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Fun game mechanics. Unlocking new non-default characters is an arduous process that may turn away more casual players, and each character's story mode is short and not particularly engaging. However, despite these flaws it's decent fun nonetheless.

An amazing follow-up to the 2012 masterpiece that stole my heart. The Dishonoured series' stealth mechanics, ability sets, and polished gameplay make it a mainstay in my steam library. This sequel improves on beloved mechanics from its predecessor and introduces more ways to play. Take my money already, would ya?

~8/10

Amazing story full of well-developed characters and an engaging use of classic JRPG mechanics to keep the plot/gameplay fresh. Game mechanics are well-explained at the outset. While this game is time-intensive, you'll get addicted soon; probably the most engaging 100 hours I've ever played of any single game. Charming aesthetic and an amazing soundtrack to boot. Probably one of my favourite titles of all time.

Buy on sale and thank me later.

9.5/10

Great storyline, lovable characters, smooth and satisfying combat; what's not to love?

Definitely worth the dozens of hours I know you'll sink into the game. Easily one of the best games of the past half-decade.
9S/10

As you may notice, I've played 7 hours of this game, but I've been able to explore the different modes of the game (as my playthrough occurred a while back, and I recently played Vendettas with some friends). I have labelled my possible game spoilers throughout the review, so if you haven't played the game yet, I'd refrain from reading those parts until you've had the full unspoiled experience.

PROS
The story is great! - From an outsider's view inward on the game universe (I never played the original The Darkness game), the story drags you in and immerses you in the universe of the game without having huge plot holes that will hinder the game's consistency. Without spoiling anything for potential players, I really enjoyed the method that the devs used to tell the story. It does many things correctly in the way of story-telling. I hope the devs decide to make The Darkness III, which I will certainly be purchasing.

Solid choice of a game engine - I know this game is on the older side (2011), but the game engine is really solid even on cheaper rigs that I've owned in the past (even without GFX cards, believe it or not), but if you want the whole graphic experience (for all the graphics sticklers), I'd be sure to be rocking a mid-tier graphics card. I experienced no game-breaking bugs in the game at ALL, which really made the gaming experience great. The Evolution engine really holds up, and it's even used today in games like Warframe.

The extra game modes are entertaining as hell - I love what the devs did with the extra game modes (Vendetta, Co-op). The extra characters all have larger than life personalities that I can't help but chuckle at each time I boot up a game of co-op with a friend. The devs put time and effort into the extra content, which is becoming ever more rare in many modern titles.

Ability point system is great - *GAME SPOILER* I think the way The Darkness II handles the Ability Point Tree is great. I feel like I can truly specialise in the style of play I hope to use the most. Would I rather rely more on my Darkness abilities, or would I rather run n' gun my way through the baddies? This ability tree does what I hoped the weapon choice in the game would've achieved as well.

Difficulty levels are well calibrated - This game has difficulty levels that will test you if you're new to FPS games or even if you're an FPS veteran.

CONS
Gameplay can be repetitive - I understand the premise of The Darkness II is very much an action game rooted in a story setting and the story needs to be driven along by killing baddies, but I feel like this game's Achilles heel is much akin to that of the Assassin's Creed series. As you play through the game more and more, you find that the variety in game missions is lacking. Don't get me wrong, I love the missions where the devs do switch up the formula a little bit , I just think this game is very safe in what it chooses to put forward. The story allows for a lot of experimentation with how the protagonist fulfills missions, and I don't think this leeway was used to deviate from what they knew would work. This means that sometimes the gameplay can feel repetitive sometimes, despite having a great story. It just feels weird that the devs didn't choose to really test the limits of what the engine could allow them to do (forgive me if this safety is due to the engine's capabilities, I'm not a game developer).

Weapon choices are slim - While I'm not usually a stickler for having a full arsenal of weapons in a single-player game, weapon choice in The Darkness II feels very slim. You can approach any situation with any weapon and still kill everything, which leads me to specialise in using one weapon combo and use it for the whole game. Not to say other weapons are unavailable, I would've just like to have seen more situational weapons make an appearance. For example, what if there were baddies who could only killed using this weapon, and your objective for the mission was to use this "special item" to eliminate all the enemies? I feel like this addition of a few special items would switch up the gameplay enough for players to be forced to adapt to the situation, rather than using their favourite weapon combo for the whole game. A few more options for weapons in weapon classes would've been amazing as well, just so players can experiment more with their choices.

I only give a s**t about a few of the important characters - *SPOILERS AHEAD* While I think the story is great and all, I don't think the story really ended up developing the characters well. Each character had a personality, but it seemed that these somewhat minor-major characters oddly didn't really serve as anything important in the plot. They always seemed distant from Jackie, despite being possible figments of his imagination. Why weren't they closer friends to him? Is he meant to be this isolated from everybody? Jackie's relationship with anybody but Jenny seems so inconsequential that they can often feel like tedious ways of advancing the plot artificially.

FINAL VERDICT
If you're looking for a game that'll provide rainy day entertainment, you're in the right place. For its low price tag (I got it for free during the short time it was free), it's a great grab. If you're looking for something with a lot of replay value, I'd look elsewhere. This game is amazing the first time you play through it and explore the extra game modes, but I don't see myself playing through this game again, as it's really safe and unambitious with the gameplay (a game I would turn off my brain to play). I played this game for the story, and I was satisfied. It was a short story nonetheless, but this game simply doesn't do anything to switch up the gameplay enough for me to say it's outstanding for anything other than the story. Only purchase if you can get a good deal on the game (I imagine it goes on sale during the cyclical Steam sales).

6.5/10

TL;DR
+story
+decent game environments
+solid game engine
-repetitive gameplay
-some one dimensional characters
=buy on sale, great rainy day entertainment (or late night boredom entertainment), doesn't hold much replay value IN MY OPINION.

It took me a little while to think about how to review this game. With every game comes both good and bad aspects in the gameplay, except I think I'm well able to assess the game at this point, having explored most (if not all) of the game's aspects.

Pros:
- Nostalgic gameplay reminiscent of old Quake games, with weapons such as the Rocket Launcher, Railgun, etc.
- Cool characters from other games, such as BJ from Wolfenstein.
- Arcadey feel.
- Daily rewards for logging in.
- Gun camos and character skins are all unlockable through tiered chests which you earn from playing the game (much akin to something like COD Supply Drops).
- Solid Graphics and runs smoothly.

Cons:
- While all characters are unlockable via the "favour" system (where you earn currency from playing games and completing challenges), it takes AGES to unlock a new champion. They give you 2 champions for completing the tutorial, and one is generally free for a week, while the others stay locked. Unless you're willing to shell out the 10 dollars to buy a new champion, consider yourself committed to grinding this game on one or two champions and milking it for all of the favor you can get whilst banging your head against the table repeatedly.

SOME MATH: You start off with 200k free favor from playing the tutorial, and characters take 250k favor to unlock. Your daily missions give you 6k favor, and each game gives you roughly 500-600 (according to my games). This system means you'd have to play for ages for this to be worth not buying each champion with real money (each champ is 800 platinum, which comes out to 10 dollars). Consider you have a regular job that only allows you to really get your missions done each day before having to go to bed or do something else. This means that even if you got your missions done in 3 games (roughly 7.5k favour and 45 minutes considering queue and play time), you'd have to grind for 33.3 days, or a month to unlock your next new champion, assuming you play each day.

- Queue times can often be very long. I've had queues that have lasted anywhere between 2 minutes and 5 minutes for a game that lasts 10 minutes, which only tells me that very few people play this game.
- (Might be nitpicking, but) Loading screens seem like they take a long time to load. I'm stuck in them consistently for a minute or two, despite having a great system (Alienware 15 R3) and strong internet connection. Nothing too big in the long run.
- Few champions to play. Despite having the system that League of Legends uses for unlocking and playing champions, this game has very expensive and very few champions. There are no "starter champions" that cost less than others. You're stuck playing one to three champions until you give up and buy more or you grind enough to buy another.
- Few modes. Despite there being a decent number of maps, I've only encountered a few modes. There are two playlists, a solo playlist (Instagib mode, FFA Deathmatch modes of sorts), and a team playlist (basically TDM). This means that every mode is a deathmatch mode, there's really no variety in gameplay other than having a team or not having a team to back you up.
- Feels unfinished. As expressed before in my previous cons, this game feels unfinished. Despite many changes to come (as I imagine this game will evolve over time), the state of this game after quite a long time is concerning. Every casual mode being a version of a deathmatch and there being a ton of cosmetic items and camos in the game with very difficult paths to unlocking new characters reminds me of a pay to win game. You can more easily make your gun glow a million different colours than actually PLAY THE GAME WITH NEW CHARACTERS. This game has potential, trust me. I just hope it comes sooner than later.

Note: I recieved this game free a little while back when they were giving it away.