Darkest Dungeon 2 test

The game has been tested on a version early access after its publication on 10/26/2021. The developers believe that this early version is playable and can be offered to the public. The content does not however reflect the final version of the product, so our rating should be considered as a preview note.

After a first Darkest Dungeon which had everyone agree with its licked graphics, a zest of Lovecraft, its pleasant writing and an absolutely brilliant hardcore gameplay, Red Hook Studios puts the cover again with a second opus which goes well beyond of all that.

Welcome back in Darkest Dungeon

The first thing that strikes when launching the game, in addition to the return of the excellent Wayne June as narrator and a writing still as neatis the new artistic direction. Always so gloomy and with marked black features, the DA is nevertheless growing and is working to display true 3D on all its models, which also gain in detail.

The sets are all the darker and the atmosphere decidedly creepy. We will also note a range of renewed animations, additional skill effects and which still have as much impact, as well as welcome camera games to embellish the whole. Visually, if it’s not a technical slap, Darkest Dungeon 2 is an artistic achievement.

This new graphic version is also an opportunity for the software to take another 180 ° turn and change its gameplay by offering a small dose of exploration.

Yes, No more random dungeons, Darkest Dungeon 2 explores another facet of rogue-like and offers a more linear adventure in its construction but littered with choices and random encounters. It is at the controls of a caravan that we now travel in real time, the winding roads strewn with pitfalls that the game unfolds. account its limited storage capacities), but also many encounters that can result in a beautiful friendship or a bloody fight. Furthermore, you will very often be asked to make choices and / or take sides for one of your heroes, thus impacting the sequence of events and the good understanding of the group, a group that we will create from scratch before attempting the adventure.

Darkest Dungeon is a very difficult title where death is final

Of poor souls on the path of death

Here, we will have the choice between various classes, for the moment that a handful, Early Access requires. In the heap, we find some known faces from the previous opus such as the Brigand, the Man-at-Arms or the Plague Doctor and the Lepreux. As in the first episode, each character will have specific character traits influencing their attitude, and therefore the gameplay, as well as several skills that can be used in combat.. The Plague Doctor, for example, will be able to heal the wounded but also poison his opponents when the Brigand has the ability to quickly annihilate the opposing forces. Once again, the confrontations take place in turn by taking into account the positioning of the characters, allies as enemies. An important data that must be remembered to position your heroes correctly in order to draw their full potential (represented by a more or less pronounced colored sphere in the statistics), but also for the use of skills which are obligatory impacted by the position of your mercenaries, and those of the enemies in front of you.

It’s good to remember that if there’s no mana management or anything else, Darkest Dungeon is a very difficult title where death is final and forces us to start all over again. Each action must be meticulously considered, just like the enemy attacks which must be anticipated. It will also be necessary to consider the good understanding of the group (which has been patched since, since before it was almost impossible to have a united group), as well as the level of stress. If one or the other of these parameters went wrong, it is a guaranteed game over. Teammates who don’t get along, don’t help each other, and refuse to perform certain actions, along with high stress levels, can cause flight, or worse, outright madness. Your hero then performs all kinds of surreal actions and may even hurt his comrades.

Fortunately, there is a whole range of objects allowing you to gauge the team’s mentality, usable during a well-deserved moment of respite between two areas to explore. But this rest is also synonymous with a balance sheet for the troop. This is where you can take a look at the impact of your encounters and choices during the trip. Usually, this results in the appearance of new character traits for your characters, good or bad, and the acquisition of skill points to use to upgrade the power of your skills. If this last option deserves a bit of reflection before being validated, character traits deserve your full attention even if they are not really editable. Why? Because as said above, they can drastically impact the gameplay. A kleptomaniac character, for example, will tend to have a nimble hand and pull objects at you as he sees fit, while a hero who has suddenly become phobic, may shell himself behind his comrades at the sight of a horror that he does not like, disorganizing your entire strategy in the process. There are dozens of traits like this, but not all are negative and some will be able to boost your stats or personal abilities.

The journey can be complicated, very even, and if death means a return to square one, the experience gained is immutable.. Not only will you learn to master the inner workings of the game little by little, but in addition, a level system will allow you to unlock new classes and other rewards for your future runs. In short, a well-oiled mechanism. Finally, apart from a lack of content due to its Early Access status (but we trust the devs), we will just rail on a French translation that is still incomplete. This also apologizes because of the Early Access, but still. In a software like Darkest Dungeon, it is sometimes difficult to assimilate all the information correctly without mastering the language of Shakespeare.