Support NeoGAF

[Bartski]

Darkest Dungeon II is a roguelike road trip of the damned. Form a party, equip your stagecoach, and set off across the decaying landscape on a last gasp quest to avert the apocalypse. The greatest dangers you face, however, may come from within...

Gather your courage and ride out into the chaos of a world undone.
Four heroes and a stagecoach are all that stand between darkness and salvation.

Tried and True Turn-based Combat, Improved
The ground-breaking genre-defining combat from Darkest Dungeon returns, but everything from stats to rules has been refined and improved. The all new Token System helps make your decisions impactful while adding even more depth of play.

Unforgettable Heroes
Uncover and experience the tragic origin stories of each hero. Unlock their full potential via new skills, paths, items, and more.

Roguelike Runs, Each With Its Own Emerging Story
Each expedition lasts from 30 minutes to several hours. Even an untimely end will arm you with resources that can be spent to improve your next journey.

The Altar of Hope
Engage with a massive system of upgrades and boons that opens up new strategies for each expedition. Choose what’s important to you as you formulate your assaults on the Mountain.

The Affinity System
As travels progress, heroes bond with each other or grate on each others’ nerves, leading to desperately needed combat synergies or journey-ending dysfunction. Manage their stress and interaction to keep the team together until the bitter end.

Nightmarish Environs
From the burning Sprawl to the diseased Foetor, the long road to the Mountain will challenge your strategies and your endurance.

Explore five distinct regions, each with their own unique creatures and challenges.

A Moment’s Peace
Rest your weary, shell-shocked heroes at the Inn, where you can relieve their stress and try to improve their relationships with a variety of diversions and delights.

Face Your Failures
Journey to the Mountain and face down five terrifying manifestations of your weaknesses.

Signature Art Style, Evolved
Darkest Dungeon’s genre-defining art now improved with no expense spared on 3D visuals, animation, and visual FX.

A Feast for the Ears
The audio team from Darkest Dungeon is back. Revel in an all new narration performance by voice actor Wayne June, a brand new expansive score by Stuart Chatwood, and bone-crunching sound effects from Power Up Audio.

​

https://launcher.store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/darkest-dungeon-2

​

 

[Yoshichan]

Sick thread wtf

 

[Con_Z_ǝdʇ]

Well done man!

 

[Bartski]

Well done man!

snipping tool saves the day

 

[SJRB]

Dope OT, I hope the game delivers.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Never managed to finish the first. Guess Ill give it a try again.

 

[TexMex]

Love the presentation, just horrible at the first game. Will try the second but don’t expect to make it very far.

 

[Bartski]

 

[SonicVolcano]

What are the key differences between the first and this one? I tried the first one a very long time ago, but I never came even close to finishing it.

 

[ANDS]

That. . .is a sizeable discount for owners of DD1. I was expecting a pittance. This is probably more "Yeah, we took the Epic loot after building our name on the back of STEAM, here's some dinars back to shut up about it. . ." than a loyalty discount. Either way it seems fair.

What are the key differences between the first and this one? I tried the first one a very long time ago, but I never came even close to finishing it.

Objectively: game is now a rogue-lite, with you trying to complete expeditions to build up - I presume - to take on the Darkest Dungeon. No village this time around or leveling up random dopes showing up to the village. All classes are an actual person and you're working through their issues. . .I suppose. Narratively I'm not quite sure what the game is going for in terms of big bad, beyond the dungeon looming in the background.

Practical gameplay is still: punishing combat where you are managing stress as much as turn-based attacks from enemies.

Subjectively: the game is going for a more realistic look. . .in everything. I know "NPC's" in the first game were drawn fairly realistically, but here, even your character models are more grounded, which makes the improved graphics and combat animation engine more appreciated. Game somehow manages to look "the same" but still have a clear leap in quality (and confidence) between the two games.

 

[SJRB]

25% discount simply for owning the first game is pretty fucking cool.

 

[Bartski]

Darkest Dungeon II Reviews

Darkest Dungeon II is rated 'Strong' after being reviewed by 75 critics, with an overall average score of 80. It's ranked in the top 17% of games and recommended by 85% of critics.

opencritic.com

 

[Burger]

No controllers, no Mac, no GFN, no Cloud Saves. For 1.0 it's missing a lot.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Mini Review: ( Bartski fantastic OT btw)
Context:
I own the first game and have 270 hours into it.
I purchased DD2 on EGS and have 64 hours into it (more on that in a second).
I have this purchased on Steam but have not played it yet.

STFU TLDR Version:
Out of the gate I would say if you LOVED the first game, pick this up. If you own it on steam (as someone already pointed out) you get a bit of a discount off the price, and there is enough of the same feel from the first game to justify the purchase.

Longer version:
I am giving this an overall (and enthusiastic) BUY recommendation for a few reasons.
1) I respect that the devs wanted to try something different, put time into their development approach for the sequel given the first games successes and opportunities, and spent the time to deliver a mostly polished 1.0 version of the second game.
2) I really love the art of DD, and here I really think they did a great job of looking like they didn't reinvent the wheel. However, when you REALLY look at the art style/execution of DD2 they busted their ass with the polish the put on the game and they turned in a stellar upgrade in terms of visual assets/presentation.
3) Music is fantastic.
4) It is both a shorter and LONGER experience than DD...which is what may put off casual/non-hardcore fans of the fist game.

I bought this on EGS when it entered early access and would revisit it for a few hours every time they released a new feature or content update. So while it looks like I have a lot of time in DD2, I would argue that I will spend double that to really enjoy the content that is out with 1.0.

The main story from the first game (around 40 hours or so) has been replaced by a much shorter metered out Rogue-Lite/Like expierence. So while you are not investing a TON of time into characters, you are investing I would argue WAY more time in building up a strong enough "group" to complete the play through. Where as in the first game you could take on challenges and, if they were above your character ability, bow out of the fight, keep some of your loot/treasure, and live to fight another day.

DD2 takes a more methodical approach, letting the player run through their 3 - 5 hour store experience and continually build on their group to provide better chances of success in future play throughs.

This is the hardest element to adjust to (based on some of the reviews I have seen) and it can rub players the wrong way when they equate loss in DD2 to loss in DD1. They are NOT the same, as loss in DD2 still provides progression, albeit slowly, while full wipes in DD1 were punishing in many instances.

Stick with it for a few runs (just make sure you are under that 2 hour mark) and if it really rubs you the wrong way, get that refund!

 

[sofakng]

I'm really disappointed by the lack of macOS support.

My MacBook isn't my primary gaming machine, but it's nice to play these types of games on the couch. (and the first game had macOS support)

(Fake edit: No lack of cloud saves either? Wow...)

 

[Dr. Acid Avatar]

Bought it this morning on Steam for 29.99 but haven't been able to try it yet. Has anyone tried it on the Steam Deck?

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

Just finished my first run. Died in the mountain fighting 4 metal things on chains, I could only kill 2 metal things and they did AoE attacks that my healing couldn't keep up with. I don't like how a lot of great things that defined DD have been lost in the change, like hanging out in an atmospheric hub world between dungeons and building a large roster of heroes to choose from where you leave some home knowing the rest of the roster will be there to play around with when you get back. But it has got its hooks in me so I'll try another run and hopefully things just get better from here. I do really like how they appear to have maybe added origin story flashback missions for each character that unlock powers. I did a cool "jail break" mission for the highwayman and unlocked one of his awesome skills from the 1st game as the reward!

 

[Arsic]

Seems sort of hit and miss based off of impressions here and elsewhere online.

Looks like you’ll either love it or hate it, and not really anything in between.

I LOVED the first one but felt like it was some of the worst paced slog gaming I’ve ever encountered. After 20+ hours I felt I had accomplished nothing playing it, and while I came back to it here and there, I never beat it.

Unsure how pacing is here but it sounds like I’ll feel more accomplished at the 20 hour mark than the first one.

 

[dreamstation]

I loved everything about the first game except for the horrible RNG which caused me to give up. Does this game have the same problem or not?

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

I loved everything about the first game except for the horrible RNG which caused me to give up. Does this game have the same problem or not?

RNG is a factor but less so. For example there is no chance to dodge an attack or miss an attack unless a buff/debuff is applied, in which case you can be sure you will hit or miss based on looking at the icons on your character and the enemy

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

Just did my second run. I beat the 4 metal chain thingys with 2 guys left and then my run was just over. Will they be there next run or did I clear the way to go further or something?

 

[Bonfires Down]

First game is one of my favorite games full stop. Very disappointing they haven’t included controller support or cloud saves for 1.0 though.

 

[Bartski]

Just did my second run. I beat the 4 metal chain thingys with 2 guys left and then my run was just over. Will they be there next run or did I clear the way to go further or something?

You can now enter 2nd confession which is like the 2nd act out of 5. Everything gets more difficult and it ends with a different boss at the mountain.
Characters that survived can be further buffed using memories in the altar of hope and used again or "stored" for later if you unlocked other characters to replace them with.

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

Day 1 when it eventually hits PS5, loved the first game

 

[Herbspiceguy]

I'm very pleased they toned down the relationship system. How it was before would drive me nuts and was the main reason I'd quit playing for a while.

 

[lefty1117]

I donno if I like this roguelite approach or whatever it's called. Preferred having a base and doing dungeons. eh I don't know, I'm trying it out but I dunno. It's a pretty big departure from the first game

 

[struggler_guts]

Is it better to end a run at an inn or die further along?

 

[Herbspiceguy]

Is it better to end a run at an inn or die further along?

Up to you make the assessment. I think it comes down to is my time investment & joy worth it to realistically gain more candles if I embark. I quit a run yesterday at the inn just before the mountain, because I didn't want to through the slump with multiple destroyed relationships, plus items/trinkets weren't all that great.

 

[Luipadre]

How come you cant find cheaper game keys on key sites for this? 40 is a bit steep for me, will wait for a sale

 

[Bartski]

seems like the devs took those comments about the early access being too easy to heart

 

[struggler_guts]

Up to you make the assessment. I think it comes down to is my time investment & joy worth it to realistically gain more candles if I embark. I quit a run yesterday at the inn just before the mountain, because I didn't want to through the slump with multiple destroyed relationships, plus items/trinkets weren't all that great.

Thats true, skipping the mountain is a good idea since I get crushed every time. You also dont lose any candles on death I noticed

 

[Bartski]

One thing that could use some tweaking is hero path descriptions. I love the idea and how they can totally change the role and team synergies, but while in some cases it's clear what skills are altered, sometimes it totally isn't as the game tries describing skills in some vague ways. Wtf are "shield attack skills" of Barristan?

Other than that I'm having a blast and hope to hit chapter 3 soon.

 

[Herbspiceguy]

I just beat the Act II boss and starting to feel addicted to the game, which I didn't really expect. I don't think the game grabbed me like this during EA.

My meta progression strategy:

• Journey
• Resourcefulness (Wealth)
• Companionship (1st pet only)
• Character upgrades (I prefer all out on the 'unusual suspects' first, before unlocking others and switching it up, some of the paths do wonders)
• Items (prioritize inn items until you get decent food/relationship items, while also sprinkling some candles on combat items and trinkets)

 

[Bartski]

 

[Herbspiceguy]

I reached the chapter III final boss for the first time and it trashed me hard. Doing a full run from chapter I for the memories and quirk refinements.

 

[Yoshichan]

Just started playing this game again (last time was the early access). Holyyy, it’s gotten a LOT better. The meta rewards with candles and whatnot is super addictive!

 

[Herbspiceguy]

I just beat the chapter III final boss on my 4th attempt. It's funny how with each attempt I got +1 seen token on MaA.
I went with:
PD (Alchemist) /Jes (Virtuoso) / Flag (Scourge) / MaA (Vanguard)
Full stacks of 2x healing salve, mineral water and invigorating intoxicant

There have been conflicting reports about taunt, with the most recent one being: it used to work in EA, but not in the current version. Well, in my fight taunt did indeed draw seen tokens. It's just tricky to get the right timing. Before phase 2, I ended up with 1 seen token through taunt, 1 rank 1 position, and 2 through movement to rank 3 and 4.
I used 2 or 3 healing salves on MaA in phase 1 to save healing skills.
With 4 seen tokens on MaA, phase 2 wasn't hard at all. Just spam dots and keep 2 (big) blocks up per turn (stand fast). MaA did meet death's door, because I made mistake so I dropped an invigorating intoxicant on him.

 

[Bartski]

I never finished Darkest Dungeon 1. I loved it but it defeated me. Putting 20 hrs into a run and getting my level 4/5 party wiped by one mistake followed by a string of bad RNG was just too much after it happened to me twice.

The sequel addresses this by completely redesigning its loop - failure and repetition are both at the core of the meta progression as they are of the story.

Having spent most of my gaming time I had available last 3 weeks with DD2 I'm just blown away by how good it is.

I just beat Chapter 5 boss with my favorite team. It's hard to even pick a favorite since all characters are great in their own right and figuring out all the synergies is just an awesome time.
The art and audio are just incredible, especially during boss fight story crescendos. The grand finale was simply PERFECT.

The fact that a run lasts a couple of hours on average in no way means the game is easy. It is in fact extremely difficult at first and just like DD1 it takes time to understand the interplay of its intricate systems.
How damage over time works, tokens, turn sequencing, stats... all essential to stand a chance past chapter 1.

There is still a lot of RNG there that sometimes can kill you, it's just a different type of RNG, way more transparent and fair than DD1.

With the exception of one boss that is currently getting redesigned - combat feels really balanced, like the slower you go and the more thought you put into every move while should at least get you through an area... even if it's a shit run and you know you're screwed - you can always collect your meta progression candles at the next inn (which also saves heroes with boss memories unlocked) and go again.

The bad? Hero path descriptions need work. Some are very clear in how they alter stats and which skills, some use vague expressions and it's hard to tell what they do. Some items are utterly pointless, almost like the game is trolling you.
They also scaled down the relationship system, still feels very much a work in progress. I hate the RNG rolls giving you buffs on skills you are not using at positive affinities but I've seen they are addressing that in future patches.

Wanna go for an all-memory squad of 4, to do that I need to replay ch2 and 3.... but that's all after Diablo, I think I may even fire up DD1 and see if I can get back into it.

Safe travels!

 

[Bartski]

Reynauld Returns in DLC called Binding Blades, coming this December

 

[ClanOfNone]

Still patiently awaiting a console release for this.

 

[Bartski]

Works great on the steam deck. I managed to do grand slam recently, tell me again how this game is easy

 

[Bartski]

11th December, 10 bucks

 

[Con_Z_ǝdʇ]

​

 

[Bartski]

​

Introducing Kingdoms - a FREE stand alone campaign game mode coming to Darkest Dungeon II later this year.

Protect and nurture your Kingdom by defending safe havens and purging dangerous environments of insidious threats.

Upgrade Inns to bolster defenses, embark on unique quest lines, and fight back against 3 new factions - The Coven, Beastmen and Crimson Courtiers.

We’ll be releasing more information on this free update in the coming months.

via STEAM:

This new game mode challenges players in a desperate race against the clock to find and defeat a monstrous threat before it overwhelms and destroys the Kingdom. Journey across the land to gather resources and battle evil incursions, all while defending a network of safe haven Inns.

Acquired resources are used to upgrade heroes and also the Inns themselves, which can be improved via extensive upgrade trees. Players will embark on unique quest lines and fight back against three new monster factions: The Coven, Beastmen and Crimson Courtiers. Kingdoms can be played independently of the game’s original “Confessions” campaign.

 

[Con_Z_ǝdʇ]

​

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

​

Hell yeah, been waiting for the PS5 release! July is perfect and with a PS+ discount to boot, can't wait

 

[Con_Z_ǝdʇ]

July is perfect...

I saw it written in the comments but i can't seem to find an official confirmation for a release at July the 15th.

 

[Con_Z_ǝdʇ]

There it is!

Darkest Dungeon II rolls onto PS5, PS4 July 15

Form a party of four flawed heroes and embark on a roguelike road trip of the damned.

blog.playstation.com

Does it also come to other consoles?

 

[Bartski]

​

Awesome. I'll be back for the Kingdoms update for sure.

Also, while you can't beat M&K for a game like this, I've played tons of it on the deck, so I can confirm it works great on a controller, much better than the first game.

 

[Con_Z_ǝdʇ]

Awesome. I'll be back for the Kingdoms update for sure.

Also, while you can't beat M&K for a game like this, I've played tons of it on the deck, so I can confirm it works great on a controller, much better than the first game.

It was easy to shrug this off as timed PC exclusive since there is always too much to play nowadays but i'm really excited to finally play it. Especially after 150 hours of The Last Spell i'm pumped again for excessive difficulty and tactics.



Have you tried the latest changes to gamepad controls? Curious.