Digital Extremes explains the use of demon arms in The Darkness II
Digital Extremes' Tom Galt has detailed a bit how folks will use Jackie Estacado’s demon arms in The Darkness II.
Speaking with ScrawlFX, Galt said for starters, getting the animation right when it comes to doling out vengeance and suffering was the first priority. Galt said the team built on Dark Sector's Evolution Engine for the game, and once that was right, it was time for the bludgeoning to commence.
"First, we have the demon arms, which are core to our combat," explained Galt. "The slashing demon arm allows you to knock enemies anywhere you want based on how you push the right analog stick. That was really important to get a good animation system to support that — so when you hit an enemy, he has an animated reaction, then he goes into rag doll, so he’ll react physically with the world in a believable way. But then if he hasn’t been killed yet, he can actually get up off the ground. So that’s a great example of the way our animation system has been built and tailored for The Darkness II.
"Grabbing different body parts allows you to execute enemies in different ways. One of the new features of The Darkness II are our demon arm executions, so once you grab an enemy with the demon arm, you can execute him. Where you grab them controls how you execute them, and we have a lot of different executions. So if you grab a guy by the leg, it’ll play out a different execution than if you grab him by the torso or the head.
"Basically, it just gives variety to the player, so you’re not, throughout the course of the entire game, seeing the same execution again and again and again. We showed off three in the demo. There’s one that we call the 'Daisy Pop,' where you pop off a guys head. There’s one we call the 'Wishbone,' where you pull a guy in half. And then we also have the 'Anaconda,' where the demon arm wraps around them, and then the other demon arm pokes through his chest — I love that one. And we have a lot of other ones we haven’t shown yet."
The demo we saw at GDC with Nathan showed these moves off, and it looked like a gruesome way to go indeed.
The Darkness II is slated for a fall release PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
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