The first video games were originally designed to be punishingly difficult because they were arcade games that existed to devour quarters. Of course, they had to be fun to play otherwise no one would spend their time, or money, on them. However, as home game systems became more common and video games in general became more accessible and mainstream, many games have shifted to focusing on accessibility and removing friction.
AAA games are the worst offenders, but thankfully the indie video game industry has been steadily growing over the last few years, and it’s those games that often experiment with new mechanics and harder difficulties.
Darkest Dungeon II is obviously a sequel to the first Darkest Dungeon, a brutally difficult roguelike that was received well by both the general audience and critics. So how does the second hold up?
Admittedly, I did not spend much time with the first entry, but immediately upon booting up Darkest Dungeon II, it’s obvious that they were going for something different with the second entry. Beyond certain aspects of the art style and a shared world, Darkest Dungeon II is vastly different from the first entry in the series. This will be a turn-off for anyone looking for a more updated version of the first.
The gameplay loop of Darkest Dungeon II focuses on a carriage ride through a corrupted world, with random encounters, combat, and hazards that can be either a boon or a trial.
But let’s be honest, trials are the bulk of this adventure. This is a game that revels in creating insurmountable challenges and not always giving the player a path through them. Death and loss are part of the gameplay loop, and casual players looking for a leisurely time need not bother with this game.
However, those with more masochistic tendencies, and a healthy level of patience, are in for a fun time.
Darkest Dungeon II welcomes players as an old friend of the narrator, setting the atmosphere and building out the world of the bloody gauntlet that is set to follow the prologue. As the narrator sets the stage, your carriage rides on through the darkness. It doesn’t take long for an encounter to appear where combat is briefly explained. The gameplay systems of the carriage, combat, and the inn where you rest and progress are all hastily explained, leaving a lot of unanswered questions.
This is a bit frustrating, especially as someone who hasn’t played the first game in years and wasn’t quite sure of the systems anymore. While the first game has a major focus on a light system, that feels a lot more secondary in Darkest Dungeon II. It’s still present, but it isn’t explained immediately, and with many of the tutorials being present as a text wall in the menu, it makes Darkest Dungeon II a bit harder to access as a new player.
It is not helped by the fact that the menu system and controls do seem to be a bit more laid out for keyboard and mouse. Items need to have their descriptions toggled on and off, and it would honestly be better if the game just listed the descriptions automatically. Once you get used to the couple of quirks, then the menu gets easier to navigate, but it does feel cumbersome.
Despite those criticisms, though, the game does provide a very challenging roguelike experience that is satisfying to overcome. Progression is tied to gathering candlesticks through each run and each run can be ended at virtually any time without consequence. The farther you get, the more candlesticks you acquire. These can be used to unlock new items and buffs to your carriage and characters. They are also used to unlock new characters with different abilities and play styles.
These characters can be assembled into a party of four, where the positioning dictates which abilities they can use. Optimising this layout is the first step to take before beginning a run, and failing to take the character’s strengths and weaknesses into consideration will doom a run before it begins.
Once set, they head off in the carriage. The carriage can be damaged via certain obstacles on the path to the mountain, the final area of the game. The damage the carriage takes affects the attitude of the party and stats, as well as makes it more susceptible to random attacks. This is similar to the lighting system, where letting the light value decrease will result in enemies receiving buffs. And as difficult as Darkest Dungeon II is, any advantage the enemies receive can and will lead to devastating results.
Combat is turn based, with player and enemy characters being assigned a position in the turn queue. Deciding on how to use a turn is more than just choosing to attack or use a special ability, but it’s also a matter of managing the stress of your party. Dealing damage, buffing allies, and weakening enemies is of course important, but each character also has a stress level that can be affected by certain actions. For example, skipping a turn can heal a character, but it can also increase stress. Whenever stress maxes out on a character then they will more often than not have a meltdown. Meltdowns not only can reduce health, but give negative traits and harm the relationships that each NPC has.
In combat, characters can be envious or angry about certain actions. Healing a certain ally can irritate them and cause them to become even more stressed, further hurting the team dynamic and ultimately making things harder for the player character.
It is possible for a character to instead remain resolute once stress maxes out. This leads to them regaining health, gaining abilities, and inspiring allies, but these instances are few and far between comparably.
As a side note, it is rather comical to see a character stand resolute after watching the other three characters all die in a single combat encounter. It’s a bit of false hope when all is already lost. Darkest Dungeon II is not forgiving, and having only a single party member left makes the game, for all intents and purposes, impossible to finish. But overcoming a difficult battle and seeing your party heal and recover is incredibly gratifying. It’s not often that it happens, but that makes it all the more rewarding.
Thankfully, Darkest Dungeon II fully intends for failure to be a part of the gameplay loop and does not punish it. Losing doesn’t cost the candles that are received for upgrades, so a single bad encounter may cause you to lose the battle, but it doesn’t harm the overall war, so to speak.
Learning to interact with the many systems and fully engaging with the relationship system and combat mechanics gives a sense of satisfaction. It is a grindy game, but it doesn’t rob the player of progress. Which is the one relief that the game grants because failure can come at any time. The RNG is unforgiving, decisions can be difficult to make, and oftentimes regardless of what you do, there will be a penalty.
Darkest Dungeon II is a hardcore game that offers a unique roguelike experience. It’s important that fans of the first temper their expectations going into the second, because it is vastly different, and expecting more of the same will only set those individuals up for disappointment. There is challenge, and there is satisfaction in overcoming that challenge, but it will take time and patience as you learn the various systems that come together to make a complex and engaging roguelike.
A Stagecoach to Hell: Darkest Dungeon II’s Roguelike Journeys Take Centre Stage – https://www.thexboxhub.com/a-stagecoach-to-hell-darkest-dungeon-iis-roguelike-journeys-take-centre-stage/
Buy Darkest Dungeon II – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/darkest-dungeon-ii/9n0q3tgwhg1f
