A daring sequel to a darkish and good roguelike RPG.
Darkest Dungeon hit Nintendo Change greater than six years in the past and it was a great option to play an unimaginable (however punishing) roguelike, dungeon-crawling, turn-based RPG. Developer Pink Hook Studios then did the factor most groups do after a really profitable sport: they labored on a sequel. However the finish end result, aptly named Darkest Dungeon II, isn’t just a by-the-books sequel. The inspiration continues to be acquainted. The sport nonetheless retains the darkish Lovecraftian theme stuffed with depleting sanity and grungy visuals. The turn-based battle system is essentially a refined model of what was within the first sport. Nevertheless the general construction is a large swerve. As a substitute of hanging out in a single particular city, attacking dungeons from that headquarters, you’re driving a stagecoach and going from inn to inn. As a substitute of staying in a single place, Darkest Dungeon II turns into a highway journey sport and within the course of provides a distinct expertise from the unique that, at the least for me, is stuffed with much more selection.
Darkest Dungeon II is extra centered on the way you react to occasions versus the way you pre-plan for them. The primary sport relied extra on the latter as you could possibly particularly piece collectively your workforce and kit to be prepared for the duty forward. The sequel is extra unpredictable in its journey, requiring the participant to suppose on their toes extra typically. Inns function checkpoints the place you money within the Candles of Hope you collected in your journey to incrementally improve your talents and unlock new character courses. The sport continues to be punishing, however even in failure, you sometimes make some quantity of progress. It could actually turn into a struggle of attrition the place you make sluggish steps to the endgame, however the nature of it’s basically even in case you suck, you’re nonetheless going to unlock stuff.
In contrast to the primary sport although, the sport doesn’t attain a plateau the place all the things is kind of across-the-board simpler. The roguelike runs have a better diploma of selection, extending playthroughs past the pure finish. They’re additionally completely engineered for handheld play on the Change because it’s simple to hop in and do a run. It helps that the efficiency on Change is steady and good, making the brand new fashionable 3D fashions come out (particularly on an OLED display). Runs themselves are extra concentrated with far more particular person alternative. Going between inns options tons of branching paths, resulting in dialogue selections that may impression the get together affinity or a collection of battles that may take a look at your get together’s composition. Each cease alongside the best way provides to the story of your journey, providing you with a ton of company but additionally staying considerably unpredictable.
That being mentioned, the stagecoach journey segments are a number of the weakest parts of the sport. You may direct the coach left and proper on the display because it hurdles ahead, however it slowly turns into extra of a chore of happenstance than one thing that builds like the opposite points of the journey. Even when the stagecoach is absolutely powered up, you’ll be able to nonetheless go utterly off the rails. In contrast to the battles and dialogue selections, it feels extra like unhealthy luck than unhealthy play.
That’s to not say the RNG gods gained’t completely screw you over in battle, as a result of that also occurs typically. I’ve had many quests get turned sideways by stumbling upon a den of enemies that wrecked me. Nonetheless, I can crawl on the wall to attempt to get out of it alive. When a wheel breaks off on the stagecoach, I simply must hope the cube rolls in my favor (even when there are some methods to compensate for it). The modifications to the battle system appear to be made to not allow you to cheese it fairly as a lot. You may’t have multiples of the identical class and the general get together affinity issues much more. It is advisable make the best choices alongside the best way in order that method your get together works collectively higher behind the scenes. Celebration composition issues a lot, however what I’ve observed as nicely is you could make virtually any quartet work within the discipline. Some are more durable than others, however the instruments are there to leverage character talents in concord to outlive and thrive.
I didn’t carefully observe the pre-release interval of Darkest Dungeon II, however my expectations have been simply that it could be an pleasing however by-product sequel. I’m totally impressed that the fact of Darkest Dungeon II is far more bold than that. It is a sport that doesn’t supplant the unique, however as an alternative stands subsequent to it, providing up an expertise that’s acquainted however very completely different. I want extra sequels of this sort took the comparatively large swings that Darkest Dungeon II has made. The meticulous pre-planning prevalent within the first Darkest Dungeon is unimaginable, however so is larger deal with in-the-moment reactions within the sequel. Darkest Dungeon II is a formidable, well-crafted sport that may completely pound you into the bottom with loss of life and detritus, but additionally will reward your technique and perseverance.
