Darkest Dungeon 2 – Spotlight
Please, if animosity is your thing, I’d like to meet you. This sequel to Darkest Dungeon eats your eyes and deems you selfish for wanting them back. Anyone who played the first Darkest Dungeon, a turn-based homage to H.P. Lovecraft and slow-acting poison, will be familiar with the brutality with which it treats its players. In addition, anyone who played the game’s early access version will not be surprised by this. The sequel’s difficulty and madness aren’t derived from the roguelike turnpike’s dangerous creatures, but from the rough design of a road trip that hasn’t yet been finished. Disbelief and attrition are the constant companions on this despondent, sometimes frustrating journey. You may want to postpone this trip until the wobbly wagon has all of its wheels securely fastened.
Slay the Spire’s forks and encounter nodes are represented by a scrolling landscape that you’re tossed around in a stagecoach as it travels. Final battle awaits you on an unreachable peak. The Dark Dungeoneers will recognize your battle formation if you come across them. Fighting for their lives against a slew of terrifying adversaries. Slamming on the mace, firing pistols, hurling knives, and setting off fire bombs are all possibilities. Even the baddies have a role to play. Gruesome beasts, blight, blindness, horror and full-on nervous breakdowns are all things your brawlers have to deal with. Once it’s back on the road, a flickering flame slowly dies as it trundles to the next location.
“Hope” has been given a number and given a grandiose name. Bonuses for your team will be given if it’s burning brightly in the battles. The enemy is boosted in the dark. You’ll have to face a horde of monstrous cultists if it goes out completely. For the sake of reviving some of the flame, these demons can be defeated. Your characters are likely to succumb to the next ambush even if you win the battle. Cobblestones are a death trap.
As long as you don’t mind, that is. Full team wipes are less devastating than in the original Dim Dankhole, which felt like a non-recoverable failure of XCOM proportions when they happened. Roguelikes have taken over the sequel, and it’s a bold move. Death of all characters results in an immediate game over, and you begin the game from the beginning with new trinkets or items to stumble upon. For each of your characters, you’ll find shrines where you can learn permanent abilities (more on this box of scorpions later). New characters can be unlocked as you progress through the game.
There will be death, struggle, and gradual progress in this game. When your Dungeonlings die, the stakes are lower. Ironman devotees may be disappointed. The new Dampest Downplace will be welcomed by those like myself who were unable to complete the original due to numerous critical errors or bad saves.
The relationship system, on the other hand, is the most recent addition to this wagon of rotting flesh. Your fighters are now able to form close relationships. Inns and refugee camps are good places to meet your Man-at-Arms and your grouchy berserker. If they play darts together, or if she says the right things to him, they could develop a friendship. If you’re “Amorous” or “Respectful” or “Inseparable,” you’ll receive random healing or protection bonuses in battle. While in love, the Hellion may put herself in danger to protect her beefy love interest.
But, oh, that’s just not Drabbest Depression’s style. An unruly mob is more likely to form negative bonds, which can have far-reaching effects. As “Resentful,” your Grave Robber will berate the Plague Doctor for his attempts to heal the sick. An unstable relationship will develop between Mr. Beeftank and the Highwayman, resulting in mid-battle snark that cuts the weapon’s attack power by half. In the end, a quarrelsome band of misfit adventurers makes every battle more difficult than it should be. Bothersome Basement’s tone and traditions are perfectly aligned with this additional layer of attrition and troublemaking.
It’s a complete mess, too.
There are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to establishing a healthy relationship (sadly accurate). Secondly, the mood is acrid during a fight. Some characters are irritated when others take their kills or complain when a healer chooses to treat someone else instead of them. Trying to predict how a person will respond to a given action is a futile endeavor. Also, little barks of affection constantly interrupt the conflict. As frustrating as it is to be unable to influence the outcome of interpersonal relations, the dark gods of RNG are also in charge of hit counters. It’s possible that this is exactly what the game’s designers were going for, but the grievance-o-meter could be dialed down a notch or two.
It’s been a while. In the early stages. A noticeable amount of grumpiness has been taken out of the characters by Red Hook Studios, who seem to know that the relationship system isn’t working. It wasn’t until I finished my first run last night that I realised that my teammates were no longer constantly sniping at each other.
That victory, however, reveals that only one of the five chapters is currently available. I expect new enemies, areas, and bosses to be introduced in future updates. A chapter titled “Denial” suggests that the rest of the grief stages will be covered. The only reason I’d play on right now is to unlock the return of the Leper and the Occultist characters. Darkest Dungeon 2 suffers from the illusion that it is more polished than it actually is because of its shimmering art style and overall soundness of form.
It is, however, staggering in the right direction.. There is a return of the best elements. If your characters are under too much stress, they will suffer emotional breakdowns (a metre of white pips). A meltdown wreaks havoc on their health and leaves them with a peculiarity. These children may become haemophiliacs, which could make them more susceptible to bleeding attacks. Maybe they’ll injure themselves and inflict less harm. Hopefully, they’ll get their hands on The Runs (you do not want The Runs).
Relationships suffer from breakdowns as well. Coworkers in the brutal bickering world will always view you as less competent because of your mental breakdowns. A bleak depiction of society’s attitude toward mental distress (there is no relationship based on “Pity”). While under attack by zombies, your fighters will be forced to call it quits on their romantic relationships. All of those haphazard body blocks will come to an end. Another character will have a breakdown and lose almost all of their health as the horror sets in. The spiral is now in motion. Even in this sequel, avoiding a failure cascade is a major part of the fun and challenge. It’s been a little too punishing for me on most of my runs. Horse-drawn carriages’ mileage varies, however.
Did you know that the stagecoach is actually driven by you? Between encounter nodes, there’s a mini-game of cart-steering. Crashing into crates like a sadistic Crash Bandicoot nets you coins and healing salves, both of which you can use in combat. The cart’s handling was slow and unwieldy at first because of all of this extraneous fluff. I’ve grown to enjoy the suspense of watching the travellers’ stress levels rise, making road choices based on the votes of my team, and wondering if their health bars would regenerate sufficiently for the next fi— oh god, there’s a barricade. Everyone, get ready to slash.
If Darkest Dungeon 2 has a major flaw, it’s the encounters players have at shrines as part of the story. These are where you can learn more about each character’s past while also gaining access to new abilities. These are extremely worthwhile pit stops. These special encounters often involve turn-based tactics that are repurposed as combat puzzles, with the prison warden or professors of a character’s past taking on the roles. In the worst cases, the combat feels like a slog through a Pokémon level, preventing you from moving up the skill tree. Some failures are unavoidable, while others deny you the opportunity to learn something new. For 33 rounds, I hid from a nun and alternated between hiding and switching positions. These are probably there to spice things up, but I found them to be a pain in the neck and a violation of the game’s established combat rules.
I’m not going to be able to criticise the overall course of action, though. Even though it could use some more work, the relationship system is one of my favourites. As in the original Hurtiest Hellhole, a single character will serve as both a necessary asset and an utterly useless liability. As a result of characters who have become liabilities and are despised by their peers, you may find yourself actively seeking their murder to ensure a fresh cast of characters takes their place when you move to the next inn down the road.
Darkest Dungeon 2 has gotten lost in the woods while transitioning to a true roguelike. It’ll be a handsome coach when it shows up finished and dusky, according to what I can see through the trees. If that’s the case, I’ll gladly board the train.
