Probably the most conflicted review I have ever written. Darkest Dungeon is one of my favorite games of all time, but Darkest Dungeon 2 is an exhausting experience. What made the first game so enjoyable was its sense of urgency and pacing. It was a thrill to explore a dungeon and leave with your party barely intact, grateful you had survived, or to dominate a run completely with loot to show for your skill. You were in, you were out, and you had a story worth telling. If you were not in the mood for an intense challenge, you could bring strong gear, keep your torch level high, and do the bare minimum for less loot. If you wanted a desperate fight for valuable materials, you could still optimize your gear but take fewer supplies, keep the torches low, and brace yourself for a run that was both punishing and fun. Either way, it was a short but exhilarating rollercoaster. It had its flaws, but the experience was powerful and rewarding when you played well and made the most of your resou...

It's a complete slot machine for the first thirty hours. After that, it becomes a slot machine that you can influence. It's dice-rolls on top of dice-rolls on top of dice-rolls and they call it game design, then slap a disclaimer that "oh, it's hard." on top of it to excuse the complete lack of balance. This game does not respect your time. A group that works perfectly fine for an entire run will just get completely wiped out due to a boss or random fight with the right enemy team that you can't overcome, simply because you didn't choose the right team members at the beginning. That's fine in most rouge-lites, but the problem here is that each run takes *HOURS*. After about fifty hours, I feel like an abused spouse that keeps coming back because I think it'll be different this time around. I feel like *this* time, I'll finally get whatever it is that isn't clicking in my brain about the mechanics that will make this haphazard, "just stack RNG and call it a day" design make ...

One of the most significant games to me personally. Disclaimer: it's nothing like Darkest Dungeon 1, not even close. I am honestly puzzled as to why they called the game "DD2" at all. Whatever minor PR won by this is clearly outweighted by previous game fans' backlash. It's a spinoff at best, both in story and gameplay. So, why like this game? To me it's mostly themes of the world, the characters, the story. Someone astutely said that there is a Silent Hill vibe (a very different game), because the entire world is build around spiritual torment, and obsession with it. Combined with beautiful immortal voice of Wayne June (who ever lives in our hearts), the games gruelling gameplay becomes more of a meditative experience. You play just to hear another one of his great quotes. I won't sugarcoat it: this game's triumph is also it's weakness, Wayne carried 90% of it all. Without him this game is pretty much exactly what negative reviews paint it as. Still, visual and sound design, combin...

doesn't play like DD1, took a few tries to get used to DD2. DD2 is a good game, but not for those that only want DD1 continuation.

i think this game is criminally underrated it has the most thought out and amazing balancing and system ive ever seen the themes are so beautiful and greatly delivers on the “making the most of a bad situation” everything screams inspired from enemies to characters to music to literally everything, I’ll run out of characters if I list it all top that all off with an entirely free post game alternate game mode which, in my opinion, delivers on some of the themes from the first game even better than the first i don’t know how they’ll continue without Wayne Jude, RIP. i trust that they’ll do their best to honor his memory and carry on respectfully. in a way I’m happy Wayne Jude got to play the role of the Academic instead of the antagonistic Ancestor before his passing, but this might actually be me coping with the loss of a beloved VA.

Okay the screen shots already show you what the game is, so lets skip that and get one thing cleared up real quick: You will see a lot of reviews saying how Darkest Dungeon is "better", and how Darkest Dungeon II is "Not as good" as Darkest Dungeon. Take that with a LARGE grain of salt. Now, if you have never played Darkest Dungeon, yes you will want to play that one first. Reason being it gives you a lot of backstory you need if you want to fully enjoy this game, which provides the backstory to the heroes you had in the first Darkest Dungeons Game. Darkest Dungeon is the main plot and universe building. Darkest Dungeons II is the subtext omnibus that helps complete it if you really want to learn more about the various lives involved and the dark happenings since. So, is it not as good as Darkest Dungeon? It is, BUT it is a different type of game play and that is the key thing to know. Don't let the fact the game play changed a good deal confuse you. It is NOT a worse game, but ...

Is it a bad game? no. It looks great, sounds good, and the modding community is there. But it is a roguelike, and unlike most roguelikes which have a run last an hour or less, this can usually last for 2 hours. It is very unfriendly to beginners with often obscure mechanics both in characters and the game itself, poor balancing, bosses with hyper-specific mechanics that guarantee party wipes unless you know the mechanic and build your party for it, massive grind with mediocre payoff, and is a roguelike sequel to a dungeon crawler because obviously that is what the fanbase wanted, Basically, its a spinoff that no one asked for. Not bad, but not that good, Steam needs a middle thumb rating. If you want a sequel then play Black Reliquary

I've been enjoying it a lot more than the first one. more rouge like less micromanaging. Recommending it for sure!

hey boss, just finished the sequel to our beloved game and completely changed everything about it, just like you asked!

The core gameplay loop misses the mark from the original so much that it'd be impressive if it wasn't so disappointing. Besides the aesthetic, what made the original great was the emphasis placed on preparation. Every zone had native enemies that were stronger or weaker against certain hero compositions and creating a suitable party played a major role in deciding your likelihood of success. This strategic element was almost entirely stripped out in DD2. Unlike the original, this is not an inexorable crusade against antideluvian evil. It is an attempt to speedrun such a premise with only a single party. So, a single team comp has to go through every single type of zone, which had to be "balanced" with brilliant design decisions like zombies and skeletons that aren't immune to bleeding. This leads to a greater overall problem. Progress in DD1 was measured by success. You began with small, manageable runs to secure resources that allowed you to upgrade your Hamlet and build a stronger ro...