“Ruin has come to our family” from Darkest Dungeon is probably one of the most memorable lines in video games in terms of presentation. Needless to say, the venerable title by Red Hook Studios definitely left an impression me. Now that the IP has gotten the long awaited sequel, I had to try it out.

Ride out into Chaos

Despite being a sequel, Darkest Dungeon II completely redo gameplay mechanics as compared to the original game. Instead of having its central hub area of the Hamlet, you’ll have to travel across the world on a stagecoach, where you’ll navigate your journey from node to node across each region. Failure to reach then summit means that you’ll need to restart the game and use your collected candles to unlock heroes and improvements that will make your subsequent attempts easier.

The roguelike game system addresses the issues many people had with the general punishing aspect of the first game, while also providing significant and fulfilling options both within runs and in-between them. Nothing felt more discouraging than losing all of your characters in the first game, as each character required a significant amount of work and it takes a lot of time to build a replacement from the ground up.

How well your party gets along with each other is dictated by the new affinity system. Once you realise that all of your seemingly insignificant choices have your heroes turn against one another and diminish certain skills, the tense knob is dialed to 10. However, this mechanic also can act as a saving grace by having your heroes perform combination attacks and other benefits.

Darkest Dungeon II also introduces the Radiant Flame which can be equipped onto the Stagecoach and grants you a variety of buffs during the run. It’s definitely a nice addition to have to alleviate some of the difficulties in the game since the buffs granted from the flame will get stronger.

To the Summit

Sessions for each run can take quite some time both in terms of length and the amount of effort needed to collect candles in order to unlock trinkets, upgrades, items and the like for your advantage in future runs.

Each run will have you engage in combat and guide your stagecoach through obstacles. You can let the coach move on its own but you might miss out on potential hidden items in the bushes on the road. Additionally, you have the freedom to choose your own routes based on the mini-map.

In addition to overcoming difficulties, you spend your time enhancing heroes by collecting items, having negative quirks removed at hospitals, and gaining new skills from the shrine of reflection as you get to know the backstory of your heroes. Each hero’s origin story comprises of five chapters, and each one permanently grants them access to a new combat ability.

Some chapters will cleverly mix up the typical combat gameplay by telling a brief story, turning combat into a debate or even a prison break. It’s a simple but effective way that combines both gameplay and narrative.

Face Your Failures

There are certain stops and money exchange opportunities at inns. You can spend your mastery points to buy trinkets or equipment, enhancing character skills, and fixing carriage damages. It’s best to spend your money wisely on whatever will benefit your group the most, because some goods can only be used at the inn, which normally helps by granting characters buffs that will last till the following region.

You can also now apply buffs and debuffs to your heroes and opponents during battle that have effects and duration that are clearly specified with the new token system. By placing a token on the target of your attack, the subsequent attack will deal 50% more damage to the target.

A knock-on effect can occur when one of your heroes dies mid-run, and a random character has to step in. However, they don’t have their best abilities and can struggle to be rank flexible.

Losing a hero doesn’t mean the end of their journey, you’re able to get them back and even unlock new heroes through the Living City. There are 12 types of Heroes you can unlock along with hero paths, permanent stat buff, hero specific Trinkets and more. The heroes will have more chances in surviving if you invest Candles of Hope along the Hero’s track.

The opportunity to upgrade your characters and stagecoach after a loss in Darkest Dungeon II makes it feel worthwhile to put in the time even though these runs can take a long time to reach the final boss.

Nightmarish Environs

Darkest Dungeon initially captured my interest with its stunning visuals and stellar art direction, and while the sequel doesn’t follow suit with its predecessor, the new 3D graphics still manages to retain that charm. Each attack animation is still highlighted by the trademark freeze-frame effect, added with some small details that made them look gorgeous.

The sound design are as crisp as they are in the first game and I’m very glad they brought back Wayne June as the role of the Academic in Darkest Dungeon II, who acts as your friend and mentor as you discover the world.

Verdict

While some player don’t like the new changes in this sequel, Darkest Dungeon II still manages to retain that charm making the best of a bad situation. There will be times when the odds feel like they’re stacked against you, but the being able to steer your way through tough situations feels super rewarding.

Darkest Dungeon II was reviewed on PC via Steam. Review Code provided by the publishers.

Darkest Dungeon II

Publisher: Red Hook Studios

Developer: Red Hook Studios

Release Date TBC

Epic Games Store, Microsoft Windows, Steam

Darkest Dungeon II is a roguelike role-playing video game developed and published by Red Hook Studios as the sequel to Darkest Dungeon. The game was released in early access for Windows in October 2021. The full version of the game was released in May 2023.