In first few moments of the game, the player watches as Jackie wanders through a rather swanky restaurant, seats himself in front of a couple of giggling women and then has his whole world go to hell as a firebomb rips through the building. He's also apparently become to the head of a New York crime family, so what that does to the players' sympathies towards him is anyone's guess. As The Darkness II opens, the player discovers that Jackie has buried the hellish parasite deep down by resisting the urge to use its powers. This explains why, in the two years since the events of the last game, Jackie has kept his personal demon bottled up completely. It also drove him to use his powers as destructively as possible, as in doing so, he would push his soul ever closer to oblivion, allowing The Darkness to assume control of him. This power came at a cost, however The Darkness conspired to prevent Jackie from saving his soulmate, Sarah, thus severing his last link with humanity. He joined the ranks of the depressed and superpowered on his 21st birthday, when a demonic spirit called The Darkness possessed him and granted him the supernatural ability to wreak all manner of havoc.
The Darkness II is an obvious example of this, although you could also apply the same rule of thumb to any half-dozen superhero games.īased on a cult series of comics published by Top Cow, The Darkness II (along with its predecessor) follows the misfortunes of one Jackie Estacado, a mob hitman with a penchant for long black hair and long black trenchcoats. Instead, they make you miserable by turning you into a monster and wrecking your entire life. By all accounts, superpowers aren't fun and they don't make you popular.
Now that I'm older and wiser, I'm relieved they exist only in the realms of fiction. When I was a lad, I used to dream of having superpowers.
Here's an odd thing about superhero stories: the older and more mature the audience they seem to be aimed at, the more angst-ridden their protagonist is likely to be.