Fair warning – there is little room for levity in the appropriately titled The Darkness II. Lead character Jackie Estacado is a mafia don possessed by a demon, his condition taking the form of snake-like tendrils and an aversion to light, and he is capable of doing some extremely reprehensible things. Just as well, it turns out, because he's not only in mourning for the woman he loves but under attack from a gang of religious fanatics who want control of his powers.

As a first-person shooter, the control mechanism isn't as precise or as focused as the Call of Duty games. Here things are much messier and more visceral: Jackie uses both guns and magic tentacles to tear his way through the New York underworld. The star of the show, however, is his sidekick, a poisonous goblin who wears a Union Jack shirt. Both pointer and attack dog, he also provides his own cockney commentary on the action.

The Darkness II is beautiful and stylish, akin to an animated graphic novel (hardly surprising given its comic book origins), and its story veers between horror and tragedy – Orpheus and Eurydice retold by George Romero or Abel Ferrara – with real skill. It's just a little lean on the laughs.