Game On: Great and terrifying, indie RPG Darkest Dungeon gets a sequel

After spending well over a year in early access on Epic Games Store, on Monday Darkest Dungeon II’s release date was announced. It’ll be available in full on Windows PC and Mac on May 8 through Epic Games Store and Steam. It’s rather poetic that the game will release a day after my birthday, because the first title is easily one of my favorite video games of the 2010s.

I’ve purposefully avoided playing the early access demo for Darkest Dungeon II. I’d much rather play the game in its completed state, and the whole fad of releasing games in their beta seems scammy. Over the past few years, dozens of games have launched in early access only to be abandoned before their full release. Some of those games have even employed “supporter tiers,” microtransactions and other tactics to get money soon and release a proper product later – or in some cases, never at all.

Though you won’t see the likes of Red Hook Studios pulling that kind of stunt, even reputable developers employing the early access model feels like unpaid labor to me. Why hire quality assurance testers when you can get legions of impatient nerds to provide feedback for free? I’ll stick to being a patient nerd, thank you.

I have full and complete confidence in Red Hook’s ability to deliver a quality product. The original Darkest Dungeon was released in 2016 after a successful Kickstarter campaign. Their funding goal of $75,000 was reached within two days, and the project ultimately received $313,000 in funding from over 10,000 backers.

The studio went on to release several sets of downloadable content for the game – the Crimson Court in 2017, the Color of Madness in 2018 and the Butcher’s Circus in 2020. All three breathed new life into an already binge-worthy game, and it’s especially noteworthy that the Butcher’s Circus was released after Darkest Dungeon II was announced. It’s incredibly rare for developers to support their older games in such a fashion.

But there’s a good reason for it. Darkest Dungeon II is fundamentally different from its predecessor, and Red Hook hasn’t been shy about that fact. The original game tasked players with maintaining a team of 20-some unlikely heroes in their quest to rid the land of an ancient, awakening evil. You’d dispatch a team to accomplish a quick mission, and they’d return home battered and bruised – physically and mentally.

Darkest Dungeon is incredibly addicting because you’re effectively playing two games in one. Missions use exploration and strategic turn-based combat, while the overarching game tasks players with maintaining resources, upgrading buildings and tending to heroes in need of physical and psychiatric help.

Accordingly, it’s a long grind. It took me about 60 hours to complete my first playthrough of the game, and the team to clear the final dungeon was far from ideal – I lost several of my favorite heroes along the way. It’s a unique experience, but not everyone is looking for such an arduous campaign.

For the sake of variety and originality, I fully support Red Hook’s decision to steer the game’s sequel in a different direction. The player once again guides heroes on a quest to destroy an ancient evil, but there is no home base this time – four persistent characters travel the world by stagecoach, and they learn to love or hate each other along the way.

While the gameplay is changed in many ways, the oppressive atmosphere and high level of difficulty remains the same. Darkest Dungeon II can hypothetically be beaten in two hours, but chances are your first dozen runs won’t end with you saving the world. Once your four heroes meet their grizzly end, new characters and items are unlocked for use in subsequent runs, making your chances of success greater and greater.

I can’t recommend this franchise enough for fans of challenging role-playing games. If you’re into medieval history or Lovecraftian themes, all the better. The original frequently goes on sale for under $10 and is available on iOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch as well as Windows PC, Mac and Linux via Steam. I look forward to reviewing Darkest Dungeon II in full when it releases in May.

Riordan Zentler can be reached at riordanzentler@gmail.com.