What does it mean to be an adventurer? The issue is not strange, in the sense that the public always assumes that the hero fears nothing and does not hesitate in the slightest in the face of danger. In particular, video game protagonists have always demonstrated superhuman abilities, managing to take on dozens, if not thousands, of opponents without blinking and managing to drink dozens, if not hundreds, of healing potions and mana in the space of a few minutes without even having had to go to the bathroom. What if it wasn't that simple? What if constant confrontations with horrible creatures also cost them something in terms of sanity? Has anyone ever thought that, blow after blow, dead enemy after dead enemy, wound sustained after wound sustained, even the toughest of heroes might need some psychological (and urological, in the case of game protagonists) support? role)? )?
In the Darkest Dungeon 2 Review We will discover whether or not it is worth leading a group of heroes always on the verge of madness.
In a carriage!
The first Darkest Dungeon put the player in command of a group of heroes who had to enter dark dungeons to search for enemies and treasure. The Lovecraftian smell had led the developers to focus the game system on madness, that is, in the progressive loss of sanity of the characters to which many of the other mechanics were connected. Darkest Dungeon 2 replicates the concept almost slavishly, but places it in a completely different setting. Once the group is assembled, the player must take control of a carriage that carries the light of hope. Then you must begin the journey that will take you from city to city, from inn to inn, until you reach your final goal. Along the way, however, anything can happen and the bold heroes will have to deal with demons of all kinds, internal and external, so to speak.
The idea of car It was probably born from a desire to create something more dynamic than the first Darkest Dungeon, eliminating the concept of an operating base from which all operations can begin. In this sense, the sequel is more of a travel game, literally on the road, with procedurally generated maps that offer many branches and many places to find to obtain bonuses, equipment or go one step further into the abyss of the mind.
When you reach an intersection, you're asked where you want to go, with the type of main building you'll encounter along the way clearly visible, so the player's decisions are more informed. As emphasized, the carriage must be controlled directly and it also has its own resistance and equipment, to the point that some events that we encounter during the journey are designed to damage it. Sometimes we also have to avoid simple obstacles or traps, which risk ending our adventure prematurely. Everything works quite well, except that each game of Darkest Dungeon 2 can last several hours - an aspect that, as we will see, is a problem in its own way.
Darkest Dungeon 2's combat system
Among the main events to face along the way are, naturally, some hostile encounters with more or less large creatures. He combat system It has remained almost identical to that of the first chapter: party members and enemies act in turns based on initiative and use their techniques and abilities in relation to the position assumed in the deployment. For example, a shot can target the rear, but not the first enemy in the line, while a slash can hit the first two creatures in the lineup, but not the third or fourth. Additionally, some attacks are inhibited when the character is behind the lines. There are exceptions, such as bosses that make a separate story, but in general a lot depends on the hero's class and how it was developed.
That said, heroes who take multiple hits and don't die have theirs raised. stress level, to the point of having real crises in battle and developing psychological traits that influence their overall performance. Furthermore, over time the relationships between party members also begin to change, making the concept of positioning and collaboration less banal and increasing the factors to take into account to get out alive and reach the end of the map.
Al Posada Heroes will be able to rest, buy or sell equipment, distribute their experience points and perform all those group micromanagement actions necessary to continue, including some that alleviate stress problems. The problem in this case is an unexceptional balance and the apparent arbitrariness of some decisions. The player himself does not have direct control of the match except in some cases in which, faced with options, he must decide which of the proposals to support, rejecting the others. The result is that some relationships that are created within the group never feel like the fruit of one's own actions, but rather like something dropped from above by a mysterious algorithm.
More time, but you get tired sooner.
During the first games the outcome of the expeditions is written, so to speak: all the heroes will die. It's unlikely you'll be able to reach the end of the road with the first few characters selected, which mainly serve to acclimatize you to the numerous game systems, thankfully explained via a rich text tutorial that can be consulted at any time. Once one part dies, another begins., you could say, but in the case of Darkest Dungeon 2 we found it quite onerous, due to the length of the individual games, which was longer than the average for titles in the genre. As mentioned, in the first chapter we always start from an operational base, where it was possible to hire new heroes, heal old ones, etc. Here you lead one group at a time and take them on adventures until all their members are killed. The structure of the game, however, tends to create slowdowns that, added to the characters' propensity for often useless chatter, lengthen each trip quite a bit. By the way: in some cases they can last several hours and, honestly, having to start from scratch after each defeat is a bit tiresome, perhaps because the slightest precariousness of the group leads you to get to know it and in a way to get attached. to its dynamics, perhaps because we are still talking about an important moment, which clashes a bit with the typical agility of roguelikes, which usually offer much faster game cycles precisely to be able to focus more on the progression of the character/group.
If we add to this the fact that leading a single group at a time greatly reduces the intensity of some systems, including the madness system, which appear more diluted within the experience, the result is that Darkest Dungeon 2 tired us out sooner than we expected. expected, despite the greater number of contents and the greater variety of situations that can be found.
Technically, Red Hook Studios' title does its job, presenting itself exactly in the visual style of the first chapter, with which the continuity is total, but offering more animations, more environments and a 3D world created in the style of a very simple but pleasant game to look at. From this point of view it is very successful and it is clear that it was built on previous experience. Expect, therefore, drawings with very hard and marked lines and especially accentuated dark tones, tones that are also reflected in the soundtrack, richer in sounds and music than its predecessor. The variety of settings and the number of enemies are also good, more so than in the first episode.
Conclusions
Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam, epic games store Price 23,99 € Holygamerz.com 7.0 Readers (23) 7.6 your voteDarkest Dungeon 2 is certainly a good game, expertly built on the experience of the first episode. Perhaps, however, it was precisely the comparison with the predecessor that led the developers to go overboard, mixing the original formula with more traditional RPG narrative ambitions, which end up creating obvious contrasts (not always pleasant) and making the games too much, which makes it very difficult to have to start from scratch every time. It's definitely worth playing, but overall it seems less intense and engaging than Darkest Dungeon, despite its greater richness.
PRO
- Much more ambitious than its predecessor
- Stylistically very refined
- So many events to face
AGAINST
- Less intense than Darkest Dungeon
- Individual matches last too long and the experience feels very diluted.
