The Darkness II is a ten year old reminder of games that no longer exist

gamepur.com:

Contemporary video games could use more schlock. In the age of Sony prestige, grimy exploitation revenge (see Last of Us: Part II) as well as gory sword and sorcery (see God of War) get advertised as high art. Even when schlock does show up, it tends to be arch or overly self-aware, cheapening the effect. In some sense, there are more small video games than ever, but “B” games have practically ceased to exist.

10 years ago, these kinds of games were on the decline. The next console generation loomed. Time devouring titles like Destiny were just on the horizon. In retrospect, it’s very easy to see the shape of games to come. Increased hardware capabilities means increased manpower and time spent on game production, which means fewer games get made, which means every title has to be a huge return on investment. At the time though, the future probably felt more open.

The Darkness II concludes with a sequel tease, a large bet that never paid off. But even before its ill-advised end, it feels like a game caught between past and future. It’s a linear, level-based first-person shooter, based on an infrequently remembered comic book, with only tertiary amounts of lore. These games just don’t exist anymore. Despite The Darkness II’s multitude of flaws, it makes me miss them.

This sequel picks up soon after the last game. Jackie Estacado is the head mafioso of a cartoonish Italian crime family. With the help of The Darkness, an ancient demonic force inherited from his father, he killed all who stood in his way, but only after his beloved goth gf Jenny died. For two years, Jackie has kept the Darkness suppressed in the chambers of his heart. After a mysterious Brotherhood attempts to take his powers from him, it awakens again.