The Darkness II features a re-spec option should you mess up its skill tree, but saves the most powerful abilities for random drops.

Creative director Sheldon Carter told Siliconera players will only be able to use the Black Hole - one of the first darkness game's most powerful abilities - after picking up randomly dropped hearts.

"We’re trying to encourage you to be up close and personal with combat. That’s just another tool in the belt," he explained.

"Once you get black hole you’re looking for enemies to see what they drop when they die. It’s like – 'Oh, that heart! Oh God, that’s the black hole heart!'"

Players still have to purchase that rank on the skill tree to trigger the correct item drops, and will want to be near their kills because if they miss their chance to pick up a black hole heart, it's gone forever.

"Hearts don’t last forever. You kill a guy, heart drops, and after a few seconds it’s gone. Sometimes you’re in the middle of combat and you kill a guy and you see it and you think 'Oh god, there’s the the black hole heart I’ve got to go get it!'" Carter said.

The Darkness II release on PC, PlaySTation 3 and Xbox 360 in October, with a Wii U version to follow.