izigame.me

In one hand, Darkest Dungeon 2 is a grand challenge for those willing to face it, with a very polished combat system. Artistically speaking, it's also stunning leap for a studio with humble beginnings like Red Hook because, My God, DD2 is gorgeous... but in the other hand, it's also a game plagued by too many Whys. Why so many questionable decisions? Why not listen to your playerbase?
Darkest Dungeon 2 is not beginner friendly. DD1 was a somewhat harsher game than the average RPG because of the amount of mechanics and management one had to learn to avoid punishment. It was a game that scared you with permanent character deaths and partial loss of progress, but there was fairness in its learning curve, so turns out it wasn't that scary. You fight, you win, sometimes you lose some progress, but you have a sense of moving forward.
Moving forward in DD2, however, is much different. Because right at the bat the core gameplay loop of DD2 is a roguelite with unlockables that comes in all forms and aspects, items, trinkets. skill kits, characters, paths, buffs, so it's not only a matter of learning, it's a matter of taking hours and constanly losing until you unlock essentials to win a run. It's not skill based like Hades either, because in that game you could compensate being weaker as long as you were skilled in controls and reading enemy attacks.
Repetition and extreme RNG are the major reasons why some many dislike DD2. You can and will lose a 3 hour run in DD2 just with a single ambush that may give you no chance of counterplay because the battle system aggressively favors speed and its impact in managing tokens. Acquiring and removing those for yours and the enemy party is everything, watch some DD2 streamers and you'll notice that it's a very common trend to just abandon a run if you lose a single hero. A single death turns a run into a slog, an uphill battle that can be nearly impossible to win, in some cases you are better of just to start from scratch due to the amount of time this will add to reach the next inn to get a hero replacement.
The worst part of all this is how unrewarding winning a run can be and trying to be inventive with your team compositions is frustrating because all bosses got gimmicks that you are either 100% ready for, or you will die and start everything from scratch.. Running an optimized team for all chapters is your best option and there are no incentives to use some awkward paths or comps, because there's no unlockables for this. The plague doctor was and still is the best hero of the game with the alchemist path to a point that ever since launch the ENTIRE game changed except for her --- and why? Because she's the developers favorite.
Du dun du dun du dun --- We’re all trapped in a maze of relationships, life goes on with or without you ~~~ Oh wait, a sec. This ain't Persona, so the hero relationships you have to deal with aren't organic in any way, just make them drink whiskey. Those often make no sense and the game will rubberband if you got too many positive relationships. Nonsensical RNG will punish you with them refusing to fight battles, even if they are fresh out of the inn with zero stress and all because your heroes get along with each other.
It's hard to write this review without talking about its development. One thing batlantly clear is that the developers paid no heed to criticism at the very start (something that changed recently) and instead chose to be stubborn, but at the same time chose to chase trends. DD2 was clearly developed in a Discord surrounded by veteran players, to a point that Steam, Reddit and other places were never relevant.
Slay the Spire was a game that I had never played until past year after 300 hours of DD2. So imagine my shock when I finaly gave it a try on mobile and I was baffled. Some constantly praise Red Hook for its "bold view" and willingness to take Darkest Dungeon to "whole a new direction", but said direction was Slay The Spire. That's it?
This is an important point, because elements that worked in Slay The Spire were taken directly to DD2 without a proper consideration and feel very stiff. Management mechanics that gave you more wiggle room to win a run in DD1 were completely striped off. You have a party full of stressed heroes and a bucketload of laudanum and other restoratives, but you can't have any hero using those in the carriage, only in battle. How about allowing a single use in exchange for torchlight? No? Okay.
Slay the Spire is a fast paced game. Darkest Dungeon 2 isn't; it's a game obsessed with presentation. You are going to stay hours driving the carriage and you are gonna like it. The mods to speed up battles and walking in DD1 were the most popular ones for a reason, but Red Hook doesn't want any of that, despite of this being a toggable developer option present in the game EVER SINCE ITS EARLY ACCESS.
You want to start a new run? No way, that's too DAMN easy, son. We only accept true gamers here. You need to first drive the carriage to the altar of hope, which is the half-assed hamlet this game got. Then you drive to the confession house to pick a chapter. Then you drive to the hero selection screen. Then you drive to the valley, but first you need to listen to a non-skippable monologue by the narrator that you might have heard a dozen of times already. Then you fight once in the valley. Then you reach the inn. THEN you finally begin your run. Oh, you want to change any of this? Redo everything. You've got the time, son.
Here's a novel idea, Mr. Developers: How about having the game start with a SINGLE location. One where you choose your characters, chapter, initial buffs and everything else? Would that be hard or would that destroy your grand concept of presentation and driving the damn carriage? Because I've got a name for all of this: BLOAT.
The lore and story are also a huge letdown, perhaps my greatest disappointment. Everything in DD1 happened and is canon, alright? --- But there was This Dude. Who do I mean? I mean This Dude. You had no idea, but This Dude was there and after DD1 he decided to ruin everything so DD2 could happen and that's it. That's the entire story and it's all fault of This Dude and This Dude is You.
I can't help but make a mention Black Reliquary here. While many of the changes of that mod are questionable, its developers did managed to not only present an entire new setting with cultural differences, brand new lore, enemy factions, it also got a narrator that is quite a treat with his personality and is fully fledged character. Meanwhile, DD2 got Wayne June back --- and the guy is great. But character-wise, the Academic is so lacking that can't even be considerated his own character like the Ancestor was, he's just Wayne June being Wayne June.
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With all of that said, the new kingdoms update brings back many aspects that makes it closer to DD1, giving you more freedom and meaningful choices than the base Confessions mode. All I can say is that DD2 would probably be at a much better place if at launch Kingdoms were the base upon everything else was built.