Official Review
Getting its first full release on PC back in May 2023 following 18 months of Early Access, Darkest Dungeon 2 takes place in a grim, Lovecraftian world overrun by all manner of undead creatures and eldritch abominations after an academic named The Scholar messed around with an ancient relic called the Iron Crown. All the horrors stem from a mountain looming ominously in the distance, and you're thus tasked with assembling a team of four adventurers and using their combat and survival skills to help you carry a flame called Hope aboard a stagecoach to the mountain, where you will confront the source of the evil and hopefully rid the land of it for good.
It's not much of a nuanced plot, but what the story here lacks in depth it more than makes up with overall atmosphere. Wayne June returns to the narrator role and his deep, gravelly voice feels like the perfect match for the wicked, twisted world. His descriptions of characters and environments as you explore are as detailed as they are enrapturing, and this narration really goes a long way in pulling you into the story and settling into the creepy vibes.
In a rather controversial shift among the fans, gameplay in Darkest Dungeon 2 now employs a revised roguelike loop that brings things a little more in line with something like Slay the Spire. After you've picked your four characters, a run sees you powering your way through a few biomes, each of which ultimately amounts to a long, forked road with important nodes every few 'leagues'. The nodes are where you stumble upon things like enemy encounters, mid-run shops, or hospitals to patch up your crew, while the space between every node sees you taking control of the stagecoach and maneuvering it back and forth to avoid hazards and run over item caches that can grant you helpful rewards.
The stagecoach admittedly feels a little cumbersome to control, but we appreciated how it offers just enough of a palette cleanser from the grind of typical enemy encounters. You're only in control for a minute or two at a time, but these sections still prove to be tense as you anxiously watch the horizon for obstacles and attempt to maneuver around or into them. As you drive, characters will slowly heal from their last fight and periodically grow closer together or farther apart as the stress of the journey takes its toll. And if you don't manage the condition of the stagecoach's wheels or armor well enough, you'll find yourself pulled into an emergency battle wherein each turn a random team member will have to repair the damage while the other three desperately hold your foes off.
Whether you are jumped on the road or find yourself charging into a fight you planned for, battles still unfold in a delightfully tense turn-based setting. Each side can have up to four participants lined up single file, and positioning is extra important here due to some skills only working on specific positions of the lineup. As you and your enemies trade blows, you'll have to carefully balance various buffs, debuffs, and status conditions to eke out a win. Arguably the most important thing to manage here (besides your health) is each character's 'stress' level. As damage and pressure build up, characters will become more stressed, and if this maxes out, a Meltdown will ensue that randomly grants a whole host of negative status effects and slashes their health.
Part of what makes combat so engaging is the fact that it's almost impossible to get out of any encounter without some scars to show for it. And given that recovery options both in and out of fights are rather limited, you need to consider the effects of each battle on your long-term chances. Darkest Dungeon 2 is the kind of game where you don't necessarily plan to win, but to lose slower and perhaps manage to just crawl your way over the finish line at the end. It's like a twisted take on Oregon Trail in that respect—not everyone is going to make it out by the end, so you have to consider what sacrifices must be made to keep the journey going just a little longer.
Victories along the way will net you candles that can be spent between runs on things like stat boosts and newer, more powerful items that could potentially show up in shops or battle rewards for future runs. Also, upon completing a run—pass or fail—you're given a certain amount of Hope based on your performance, which then bolsters your profile level and leads to unlocking things like new class types. We appreciated the usage of metaprogression elements, as they ensure that Darkest Dungeon 2 doesn't feel too punishing because you're always making some sort of progress. The unlocks and upgrades are no substitute for a lack of skill, but they do certainly help to take the edge off and give you a wider margin for error as you better come to grips with how to manage risk and maximize your few advantages.
The relationship system is another new feature and another system you need to carefully manage if you want to make it all the way to the mountain. Various actions in battle or events will influence a character's relationship with the other three team members, and if it goes high enough, they'll form a bond that allows them to synergize better through new passives introduced to a variety of skills. Yet if it goes low enough, the opposite will happen and some skills will be 'cursed' as group infighting causes them to be less functional as a team. We appreciated the extra tension this mechanic added to an already stressful experience, as it feels like a natural addition to the gameplay loop of careful resource management while not being overly distracting.
We were quite impressed by Darkest Dungeon 2, though the gameplay can feel a little too grindy over time. Though you can technically always beat the game on any run, it doesn't feel like this is quite viable until after you've invested some time into getting more of those unlocks and stat boosts built up from several runs. This is admittedly more of a nitpick, as Darkest Dungeon 2 is still a joy to play through, but just be prepared to run on the treadmill before you feel you're starting to really get somewhere.
Visually, Darkest Dungeon 2 employs a gorgeously corrupted art style from Chris Bourassa that feels quite similar to the signature work of Joe Mad. Characters and environments are characterized by a comic book-like presentation with thick lines and lots of shadow, giving things a very stylized look that smartly combines 3D models with flat 2D textures that give the illusion of 3D space. Animations are kept to a minimum, but are employed to great effect in combat through the usage of a quick snap to action when a character uses a skill. Each biome utilizes its own color palette to keep things from getting too stale during a run, while the enemies in each one are gruesomely detailed and thrillingly diverse.
Conclusion
Darkest Dungeon 2 may not be the sequel that ardent fans of the original wanted it to be, but its unique approach to that hard-edged, brutal roguelike gameplay is compelling all the same. A memorable art style, tons of replayability, and lots of mechanical depth make this one an easy recommendation to any roguelike fans, even if it can be a little grindy at times. If you've been looking for yet another tough roguelike to add to your collection, Darkest Dungeon 2 is certainly worth your time and your money.
