Darkest Dungeon II

Darkest Dungeon II is a tough one to review due to its past. The first game rose to fame after several years and big patches, so Red Hook Studios might be able to repeat the same success even after the divisive first impressions.

Instead of handling a village full of the occult and evil, in Darkest Dungeon II the player is now pushed on the road in a more traditional roguelite spirit, where each playthrough is different, and full of random events and happenings. The game is no longer about managing a group of "gladiators", but rather choosing a team of four for each run. Most of the characters from the first game are still here, with some having their skills greatly adjusted to the new gameplay formula. They also come with their own backstories now, explaining their origins and gaining new skills as you delve deeper into them bit by bit. But it's all a rather slow burn, as unlocking new item types, characters and abilities takes a long time to become impactful. And the road to victory will be a rocky one, as the unforgiving difficulty level and sheer amount of bad luck can end even the most promising of runs in an instant. For example, the game no longer wants you to slow play an encounter and heal up (a common tactic in the first Darkest Dungeon), as potent healing abilities have long cooldowns, minimum health requirements or both.

Darkest Dungeon II is at its most familiar during battles, where two groups meet up. Each has their own place (or "rank" in the game's terms), which dictates the skills they can use. Some characters work the best from the front lines, some from the middle and others from the back, so assembling a versatile team is paramount. You might end up in a situation where you are looking down the barrels of an enemy spellcaster who can easily deal damage, and there's no one in your group to reach them. There's a ton of different skills to choose from, further enforced by different subclasses the characters can unlock. Your basic frontline Man-At-Arms, for example, can become a buff expert Sergeant or a tanky Bulwark. But your choices will be very limited for the first dozen hours or so, as everything has to be unlocked. This is especially annoying when you unlock a new character, who has just the base skills, no subclasses and no specialised trinkets.

it's commendable that Red Hook Studios has dared to tear down and rebuild such massive parts of the original game. Unfortunately, some of these efforts are either misguided or still a work in progress in terms of creating meaningful gameplay. While all - even failed - attempts produce candles of Hope (the currency for all new unlocks), the progression doesn't feel as meaty as building up your sinister town in the first Darkest Dungeon. Individual runs are much more prone to luck, and it often goes against the player. One good roll might get you through a harrowing encounter, but one bad roll might kill your run right then and there. When you're dealing 4-6 points of damage per hit, a random opponent's 18 point crit and the ensuing instant deletion of your frontliner can really get on your nerves, especially if you've played intelligently up until that point.

Another theoretically interesting but problematic feature lies in character relations. Different items, events, choices and sheer luck alter how your teammates view each other. When they're good buddies, they might join each other's attacks for extra damage. When they're rivals, they clash, add stress and cause other kinds of random havoc. This comes across especially troublesome at times, for example, when a character gets annoyed at you for healing someone else who's on death's door. That kind of bickering is just plain awful and makes no thematic sense. These are characters in horrible, life-threatening situations and not children who have to share toys with one another.

On the positive side of things, the unique and striking visuals of the first game have been updated to 3D in a very successful manner. Different attacks and their accompanied animations have real impact and the expressiveness of the game world hasn't diminished one bit. The user interface, however, needs more time in the oven. The minimalistic approach relies too much on poorly labelled icons and doesn't take advantage of the screen space on a PC monitor. Wayne June deserves a special nod as the narrator, who - despite a different role - delivers dry humour, laconic moments and grim reminders as before.

Darkest Dungeon II is still promising, but lacks meat around its bones. The 3D art style has been a success, but many changes to core mechanics are either underbaked or too plain, and the user interface needs more love. The early progression should be revised to let players get to the good stuff faster and the amount of randomness needs to be reined in. The game might come into its own after a year's worth of updates and changes, but right now it's a tough sell unless you're willing to ride a bumpy road with little suspension to smooth things out.