Darkest Dungeonwas one of the harder roguelikes I’ve played. It’s brilliant, but always tricky. One of those games where at any moment everything can go wrong. If you haven’t played it, you choose a group of four adventurers and explore various dungeons fighting grisly and ghostly creatures while monitoring their sanity levels. No matter what you did, unless you analysed every detail of the attacks and characters sheets, everything could fall apart.
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Darkest Dungeon 2 - Red Hook Studios
It’s helpful that the developers have given players an easy-to-read glossary because it feels like something new pops up every minute of the opening hour.Darkest Dungeon 2takes everything that made the first game so engaging and attempts to elevate the experience via lots of new additions. While it may feel a bit too much at first, the learning curve is relatively gradual, though if you’re anything like me you’ll be checking the rules and symbols constantly as there are a lot to track.
Now, for those who never played the first game, your four heroes will move from battle to battle, previously through dungeons, this time across a haunted landscape of Lovecraftian proportions. Rather than schlepping around on foot, you travel via a wagon, along some visually gorgeous avenues, through clustered cities and towns. The art style, which has a Mike Mignola-esque style of vivid colours and stark blacks, has never looked better.
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One run might see you do very well in each fight, finding enemies that go a little easier on you than others would, all while picking up and buying items that buff your fighters in battle. Another run could be a complete disaster, seeing you tackle a lair that features waves of enemies, gradually getting tougher, in the hopes of scoring some huge rewards, but getting your ass handed to you.
Each fight starts the same way. Your four adventurers facing off against up to four enemies. Before the run starts you put your characters into ranks, for example, your tank character goes at the front, and your ranged fighter will stand at the back. This can get shaken up via abilities performed or enemies shoving them around, but let’s not worry about that for now.
Darkest Dungeon 2 - Red Hook Studios
Combat begins and you can use battle items, which are limited, or abilities that aren’t. You choose enemies to attack depending on which ability will hit their position in the team and try to wipe them out before they kill you. It’s rather simple before you bring in the hundreds of combinations of abilities, damage stats, buffs, debuffs, positional power in the team, the randomness of damage and defence, plus the ongoing madness that can consume your team.
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Essentially, everything is trying to kill you. When you take damage, a stress metre rises and your character gets closer to a breakdown. Reach that point and they can become useless, nearing death or being unable to act in the usual way.
When I say that everything is trying to kill you, I mean it. Aside from the Inn, where each area of the map ends and you can rest and spend money, place trinkets, and upgrade your heroes, everywhere you look is danger.Darkest Dungeon 2is far from easy. In fact, I still haven’t successfully completed a run, despite sinking many hours into it.
I feel like saying more or diving into every little feature, would either overwhelm you, or I’d end up writing an essay - let’s just say you’ll be spoiled for choice when it comes to how you play this game. There are various character types, lots to unlock as you play, and you’ll learn new mechanics and skills to use in combat.
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The game has been out for a while on PC and it’s seen a lot of success. When you’re taking what made the first game brilliant and improving on it in most ways, it’s going to be well received. However, this review is for the console version of the game and I will say that playing on Nintendo Switch was a bit of a pain. The UI isn’t overly accessible and the myriad of options available often clutters the screen, combine that with playing in handheld and you’ll be squinting a lot or losing your cursor.
Darkest Dungeon 2 - Red Hook Studios
It’s clear this is a PC game - it really needs a mouse to feel right. Scrolling through countless menus just doesn’t work as well on a controller. It’s serviceable, but you’ll wish there was an easier way.
I can’t fault the content of the game. It’s a challenge that many will rise to and the battles combined with the sprawling world - which constantly looks lush - are a joy. Playing on a handheld just isn’t as ideal as I would have liked. I can imagine that Xbox or PlayStation offers a better experience, but you’ll still have to scroll through many menus using shoulder buttons.
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In many ways,Darkest Dungeon 2is an upgrade, but some may think it went too far. When you boil it down to exploring and fighting, it’s a joy even when the enemies are slamming you around. And you will sink many hours into working your way through the various biomes in the hope of surviving this nightmare world.
Pros: Stylish horror, superb battle system, intricate upgrading
Cons: Very challenging for some, overwhelming, cluttered menus
For fans of: Slay the Spire, Hades, Roguelikes
6/10: Good
Topics:Reviews,Nintendo Switch,PlayStation,PlayStation 4,PlayStation 5,Xbox,Xbox One,Xbox Series S,Xbox Series X,PC,Steam
