I still have bruises from my time spent in the first Darkest Dungeon. Now I wouldn’t consider myself a glutton for punishment but every so often I felt the need to test my skills, to sharpen my mental fortitude, to be absolutely splattered across the rough cobblestones by a half-demon cultist. And this familiar, yet daunting feeling has me itching to stop this review and continue my foray into Darkest Dungeon II.   

A booming, yet familiar voice echoes through the speakers. A voice that evokes failure, trepidation, and the faintest tinge of hope. Your ancestor has once again come to beckon you onward, to test your mettle against the horrid creatures that populate the land. And this time he brought you a carriage.  

Darkest Dungeon II, developed by Red Hook Studios, was released (early access) on October 26th, 2021 at around noon eastern time. And since that release I have poured about 15 hours into it and I can’t say I’m stopping soon.

Should you play this?

If you’re like me, and you have an itch to return to Darkest Dungeon, to feel the hope slip through your fingers, to face the unwavering hordes, then yes you must play this sequel. To any newcomers looking for a challenge, a bonafide turn based survival game, then yes. Darkest Dungeon II is certainly worth your time, money, and all the effort you will pour into this game as you will your team of heroes to the precipice of madness, and victory. This sequel to the 2015 hit is faithful, nuanced, and brave. The team at Red Hook took their unique style of art, sound design, and gameplay and let it evolve. The staggering difficulty, the daunting challenge, and sense of impending doom are all here. Everything we loved in the first one, is back and improved.

Art Design

Just wanted to plug the art design in this game. Darkest Dungeon nailed its own style in the first iteration, and decided in the sequel to move to a more animated, life-like, 3D style. And it works. The characters flourish during, and after attacks, they’re actions are more representative of their current state, everything feels more alive. Plugging the sound team here as well as the attacks, and monsters sound amazing as well as the monsters. Your characters have weight to them, and the sound design drives that home. I often found myself winding up with my characters as it all felt so real. Critical strikes and death blows, all wonderfully designed.  

Speaking of monster design, there are some real doozies in this one too. Between trees made of flesh, decaying ancient knights, and blood-mad cultists, you will find a full buffet of evil to fight in your crusade. 

Again I cannot stress enough how well the art team, and sound team did in this installment. Bravo to them and to Red Hook as I felt this was a coreagous step for them to take in the sequel. 

Gameplay Review

The stagecoach addition adds a considerable size, a gravitas, to the world of Darkest Dungeon. It gives credence to the idea that your party must always, and unyieldingly travel forward. Onward into the abyss to save these lands, these people, and yourself. It replaces the exploring, dungeon-crawling, of the previous game in a refreshing change of pace. Your party, as always, will have its own opinions, and quirks. They will make tired suggestions at which route the stagecoach should take, and react accordingly to your decisions. A brave step forward for Red Hook as they build and improve their craft. Darkest Dungeon II takes everything the first did, and improves it from art design, to gameplay, and beyond. I imagine some will call this installment a departure from the original, but I can’t agree with that. Everything I love from the first game is here, and improved upon. Especially as an early access title, this gives me hope for how great this game will be. Bravo to Red Hook for being so willing to take major steps forward in their design, especially in the art, and gameplay mechanics. 

Another thing I enjoyed about the stagecoach implementation is that you no longer have a base of operations you can return to, or a haven to rest after abandoning a tough fight. Your haven is an Inn, and it is 80 leagues away. You will not receive safe haven until then, and you will not be allowed to rest. An ingenious choice as we move away from the base-building segments of the last game, and a move towards a more rogue-like experience. This simple design change really drives home the urgency a player needs, the push to move forward to the next place of respite.

As with the previous installment you may elect to push the boundaries, stretch your luck to paper thin margins in the hope that you may be greatly rewarded with trinkets, baubles, and wealth beyond measure. You will find, however, that the unrelenting forces of evil that scatter the land will become more powerful, and more dangerous. If you are returning to the series you will find much you are familiar with as the core elements of gameplay are still here. You command a party of four in a turn-based strategy game that requires careful planning, and key decision making. You must carefully plan your route though be wary of the road as chance encounters may dislodge you from sanity, and hope. 

Not only will you encounter vast hordes of enemies but you will also be challenged by your greed, and your timing. Random road encounters, read as ambushes, will show themselves as blockages on the road ahead. An overturned carriage splayed next to some rudimentary barricades will have your party facing a slew of bandits. But the most daunting challenge of these particular encounters is that you have five turns to finish them or you will walk away with nothing but the blood, and party members you have lost. This forces the player to perform a tightrope act of doing damage in time while also preventing the loss of life. You may also encounter a horde, or ruins that force the player to fight on or to cower in fear. You will be rewarded if you can mitigate the risk of having to fight over, and over again. 

In my first ever run, I may have misunderstood the brand new relationship mechanic to the point where my Man-at-arms had fallen deeply in love with my Highway Man which made the rest of the party incredibly suspicious, and resentful. The growing discontent surrounding the deep, endearing love ended up stun-locking most of my party during battles. Love was the death of duty. But the relationship mechanic is actually interesting. A brand new element added in the sequel, your characters will build, and form relationships depending on the actions taken in battle, on the road, and at the Inn. Though these relationships can provide a dashing amount of buffs, they may also lead to your demise so their management becomes paramount in the fight for survival. And just because you may have two characters fall for each other, it does not mean that love is eternal.   

I found the UI to be more digestible in this iteration. Not to bemoan the last instalment but Darkest Dungeon II presents the player with all the information they need without the player needing to go search for it. Every possible buff, debuff, and resistance is represented underneath or next to the health bar of each character, and enemy. I found it more manageable overall and would like to applaud the developers for improving on the overall look. 

Just wanted to mention, as I have now beaten the first run, that the overarching progression system is a welcome change. Each run allows the player to unlock characters, items, and more to use on future adventures. I can only imagine that as I unlock more, and more the challenges I face will be evermore daunting. 

Early Access Issues

Wanted to reiterate that this title is still in early access so expect a fair number of bugs and gameplay issues during your runs. I haven’t experienced anything game breaking yet but there is always a chance. Some of the voice line overlaps can be pretty funny. Whilst using flashing daggers, an ability my Grave Robber has, I scored a critical hit and a miss simultaneously on two enemies. The booming voice-over commended me and then asked if I had made a mistake. Also once you really start to struggle, the relationship reminders can be a bit annoying. It got to the point where before I could take any action I would have to see my character fight, and bemoan each other. Could be me being a bad player haha.

When attacking multiple enemies, their sprites would overlap as well as the damage numbers which made it difficult to understand exactly what was happening.

A Final Word

Darkest Dungeon II is currently an early access exclusive on the Epic Games Store with the full release planned in the coming months. The developers have expressed that the game contains about two thirds of the expected final game content. You can expect a fair amount of change based on player feedback but at this point in time, the game is still worth its current price tag, even in early access. Right now you can get it for $30 and if you log in to the Epic Games Store before November 6th, 2021 you are eligible for a $10 coupon by opting into emails from Epic. Seems like a no-brainer. If you would prefer to get it on Steam, I don’t know if there is a targeted release date yet but if it is in line with other “Epic Exclusives” it should be available in about six months.  

I look undoubtedly forward to the full release as Darkest Dungeon II is a wonder to experience, even in early access. I left a lot of what I wanted to include out of this review because I think you have the right to experience it yourself firsthand. So many different things that excited me, surprised me,and even shook me that I will not deprive you of. Go onwards, and experience the deep, listless oblivion that is the Mountain.  

And remember, “You are not expected to succeed…”