I was surprised to find myself sitting in a darkened, candlelit room, at a bar in downtown San Francisco during GDC, about to get a first glimpse at The Darkness II. It’s not that the first Darkness was a bad game or anything. In fact, it was pretty well received, critically. I just didn’t expect to ever see a sequel. It seems too often that unique, cool ideas aren’t given a second chance. But, alas, 2K Games handed the reigns over to Digital Extremes and if the brief presentation I saw is anything like the final game, they are more than capable of delivering an improved sequel.

Taking place two years after the events of the first game, The Darkness II opens up with protagonist Jack Estacado (now don of his mobster family) being crucified and tortured by a mysterious man. You gather from their exchanges of dialog that he is trying to steal the Darkness out of Jackie, something the carrier must voluntarily agree too. During this sequence the game enters a series of playable flashbacks, leading up to Jackie’s capture.

It’s probably about now that I should mention the art style change in The Darkness II. Instead of merely replicating the look of the first game, Digital Extremes has coated the game in what they are calling a “graphic noir” art style. I’d call it cel-shaded. Basically they have achieved an almost comic book aesthetic as character models and objects are sporting a thick, black border, and bold, hand painted textures. It resembles something like a slightly more subtitle Borderlands-like look.

Digital Extremes also has some combat-related improvements slated for The Darkness II. Some new and totally brutal finishing moves were shown off during the quick combat sequence we saw. One such move, called the Wishbone, has Jackie grabbing an enemy’s legs with his demon arms and pulling until they are ripped in two. It looks pretty painful. Environment-based combat seems to be another focus. Maybe the coolest moment of the demo was during a shoot out on the streets. Jackie used one of his demon arms to pull a door off of a near by car. At this point, he used the door as a shield and then flung it off at his opponents. It’s slight improvements like this that make me optimistic about the direction of The Darkness II.

The development team is also taking a slightly different direction with the Darklings, the small demon-like creatures that you could spawn from the ground and have them take out your enemies. This time around there is only one Darkling. He’ll have his own elements and beats through out the game’s narrative.

The Light and Dark dynamic from The Darkness will certainly make an appearance in this game as well. When Jackie enters a heavily lit area, he will not be able to use his demon arms or any other of his darkness powers. Shooting out a light or moving yourself back into the Darkness will allow you to go at it again.

The game demo ended with Jackie breaking free from his mysterious captores. While things were pretty light, narratively, it’s clear this game is still a story-driven shooter. After some of the seriously tragic and dark (haha) events that befell Jackie in the first game, I’m curious to see where this next one goes.