The Darkness 2 gives you personal Darklings

Having your own personal darkling to do your bidding for you is top of the wish list for any self-respecting psychopath. These otherworldly critters get the job done with more ferocity than the toughest mafia hard nut – assuming ‘the job’ is, you know, killing someone.

Exciting news that 2K’s upcoming Darkness II gives you your own personal Darkling, then. It’s a persistent sidekick character in number two, rather than an expendable drone, as Sheldon Carter, Digital Extremes creative director explains;

“We had this huge opportunity with a sidekick character who can be with you the whole game. Especially in a first-person game its great to have other characters – especially when you’re fighting through dire circumstances – that can help you out in situations, that can bring humour to the environment in the middle of it.”

He’ll be pretty handy when your back’s against the wall, but also offer a bit of extra dimensionality to the story, it seems:

“we really felt that for [the darkling] – having another character rather than a gameplay tool…like he’ll pull guys out of cover and you can throw them… we really wanted him to be a true character in the game that you care about.”

Not many games get that sidekick relationship just right, but the results on show from Half Life 2, Fallout 3 and the Uncharted series demonstrate that when it works, it adds a valuable level of immersion and tactics to the game. Digital Extremes are especially keen on that idea:

“He’s got a base AI in which he tries to do things that are basically the most helpful for you. So if a guy’s attacking you and he’s out of your range, he’ll maybe go and jump on him and start doing his cowboy routine on him.”