Darkest Dungeon 2 has made some quite profound changes, and I wasn’t sure about them at first. I think they annoyed me. But in going back to the original to refamiliarise myself, it made me see them differently – isn’t it funny how our minds can idolise things to the point of infallibility? I thought very highly of Darkest Dungeon. But by seeing it laid bare, I see the sequel better, and now, I’m a fan.
It’s all about the carriage – that’s the big change. It’s a wooden thing pulled by a horse, very much like the carriage in Darkest Dungeon’s opening sequence. And this time it’s your home. You no longer have a static base. That hamlet on the hill that you rebuilt in DD, that’s gone. Now you live life on the road.
Immediately, you’ll notice this gives the game a more cinematic look. The carriage sections are 3D – a first for the series – and you steer it through areas that change depending on your mission. There are cursed farm landscapes where bulging flesh grows like parasites on crops, there are cities aflame like hellish infernos, and there are towns turned to graveyards, where flayed corpses hang like dirty washing on lines. It’s impressively atmospheric, and as grotesquely horrible as Darkest Dungeon ever was.
Darkest Dungeon 2 early access impressionsDeveloper: Red Hook StudiosPublisher: Red Hook StudiosPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Released 26th Oct in early access on the Epic Game Store for £24. Early access timeline TBC but expected to be a year. Other platforms TBC but the original made it consoles so have hope, if you dare
The second thing you’ll notice, in time, is the carriage changes the shape of the game. Darkest Dungeon 2, in some senses, is a Rogue-like. You get one attempt to see how far you can take your carriage. You pick your team at the beginning, at the Crossroads, and if any of them die along the way, that’s it, no substituting them – not as far as I’ve seen, anyway. And if you all die, it’s back to the beginning again.
The carriage changes how the game progresses moment to moment, too. In the old game, you walked along hallways in dungeons and into rooms. Here, you ride along roads or tracks, and these are presented as either-or decisions, a bit like the map in Slay the Spire – sorry to use that reference again but I hope most of you know it. You see the routes and sometimes what you’ll encounter on them, and then junction by junction, you choose where to go.
Let’s Play Darkest Dungeon 2 – THE END IS HERE! Darkest Dungeon 2 Gameplay, Reaction, & Early Access Watch on YouTube
Because there’s no base, the buildings you relied on before are now stops on your route. Merchants, healers, character upgrades – you do that all on the move. My favourite are the new Hero Story moments each character has, broken into mini-chapters, which give a bit of backstory and then unlock a new skill for them (which is permanent and remembered between runs). Occasionally, there are special set-pieces like breaking out of prison or commanding armies, or facing a drunken, abusive husband. They are intriguing glimpses at who these ruthless fighters once were, and you can also fail them and receive no reward.