The original Darkness told the tale of mob hit man Jackie Estacado who manifested darkness powers on his 21st birthday to stop an evil entity. He took down the mob that killed his beloved girlfriend Jenny, rose through the ranks and became the don. The Darkness II picks up two years after the events of its predecessor. In the debut demo revealed back in March, we see our hero nailed to a cross in a dark torture chamber. A disfigured villain tries to take the darkness powers from Jackie, a mysterious man who was officially revealed at E3 as Victor Valente, leader of a new enemy type called The Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood is an ancient organization with great knowledge of darkness powers that the enemies use to Jackie's disadvantage. The Brotherhood formed 1,000 years ago with the help of a saint and they're goal was to remove darkness from the world (Jackie can't use his darkness powers in the light), but instead became corrupted by the darkness. This enemy type charges at Jackie to engage in combat and utilize light such as flashbangs and flashlights to keep him from using his darkness powers.
The team at Digital Extremes also introduced Darkness II's progression system at E3. Every time you successfully get a kill, deliver executions, or when Jackie's demon arms eat the hearts out of helpless corpses, you'll earn "essence". Throughout the game you'll find "talent shrines" where you can spend essence for advanced abilities across four trees including a weapon tree, mystical tree, demonic tree, and a gun channeling tree. In the demo Digital Extremes showcased gun channeling, which allows you to channel darkness through your guns giving you unlimited ammo and better firepower for a short period of time. As you progress on the gun channeling tree you'll extend the time the power lasts. You can also unlock new abilities such as heart of darkness that allows you to see through walls and shoot enemies in cover.
The Darkness II will be available later this year.