In the gaming community, the original Darkness is a title perhaps most well-known for inspiring the “minions” of Yahtzee’s Zero Punctuation. True, it also included the touching scene wherein protagonist Jackie Estacado and his girlfriend Jenny shared a rare moment of romantic normality, but such beautiful subtlety is easily forgotten by many. Taking a hint from just such tendencies, Digital Extremes decided to abandon all subtlety for the sequel, making The Darkness II a gory thrill ride from beginning to end.

Before diving into the story or gameplay, it’s important to first address a shift in game design between the two Darkness games. The first installment was a relatively open game for its genre, with minor puzzle elements and an emphasis on staying hidden in shadows in order to take your enemies by surprise. The sequel is much more linear–although there are breaks between levels–with far less puzzle and stealth trappings. While this would equal “dumbing down” for most franchises, The Darkness II actually benefits immensely from this, as it provides a much more focused experience. Linearity isn’t always bad, folks.

This shift is also important because the game leans pretty heavily on the first one for its emotional core. There is a “Last Time on The Darkness” you can watch to bring you up to speed, but unless you actually played it and came to care about Jenny, expect to be underwhelmed by Jackie’s motivations. That isn’t to say it doesn’t try to make you care, but you do lose a lot of the heart if you never personally sat on the couch with your girlfriend and watched TV together (yes, that happened). Other than that, The Darkness II has a simple plot about a bad guy who wants the hero’s power so he can become a God. Although there are certainly memorable moments along the way, the story isn’t anything too remarkable.

Something very bad is about to happen to their hearts and/or anuses.

The core of The Darkness II is Jackie Estacado’s ability to “quad-wield,” or fire two guns whilst also using the titular Darkness to mangle, dismember, and mutilate his foes. On console, this manifests in having shoulder buttons that correspond to each of the four available weapons, while PC users get left and right click for their guns, the mouse wheel for slashes, and keys for picking up and executing enemies. Obviously, the controller setup more accurately reflects Jackie’s setup, but it does leave him with “jump” and “execute” mapped to the same button, so occasionally you’ll find yourself hopping in place when you’d rather be shoving an eel down somebody’s throat. These things happen.

Once you get a hang of the controls of your preferred system, The Darkness II becomes incredibly empowering. One minute you’re hurling fan blades through a gangster’s head from 50 yards away (thanks to generous aim assist), the next minute you’re tearing through a mob of cultists with an AK47, until you finally get overwhelmed and have to summon a black hole to devour everything that is trying to murder you. It’s dark, violent, and satisfying in a way that probably hurts Jack Thompson somewhere deep inside. This game earns its M rating.

You control the darkling for a few stealthy throat-ripping sections.

Luckily, as Kanye West once said, “No one man should have all that power,” and the game manages to balance a sense of power with appropriately escalating challenges. Most fights just boil down to Zerg rushes, but the waves of soon-to-be-mincemeat find new ways to disarm and de-power you as you progress through the campaign. Your most constant foe is light, so finding streetlamps and enemies with spotlights right away is always the first order of business, followed by removing armor, tearing away shields, and finally cracking their rib-cage open to get to the creamy nougat center.

Combat is further deepened by an upgrade system which allows you to augment your weapons, executions, and Darkness powers. More points for improvement are gained for more brutal kills, but unlike BulletStorm’s similar system, The Darkness II doesn’t reward experimentation. Executions always yield the most dark essence, so expect to see the same animation so many times that you question your basic assumptions about video games desensitizing you to violence. That said, the animations are nice and the powers you can unlock are pretty awesome, so it’s worth the repetition.