Darkest Dungeon 2 Review

ign.com:

With the whole world dissolving into an apocalyptic, primordial abyss, your band of misfits sets out into a nightmarish land to save everything by destroying corrupted pieces of reality beneath an ancient mountain. They'll probably fail, taken down by ambush, infighting, bad luck – but maybe, just maybe, fortune favors them and they destroy some unspeakable horror… and then gear up for the next run. That's the routine in Darkest Dungeon 2, where I was never sure if I'd journey from desperate despair to delicious delight, or from frolicking fun to futile frustration, every time I booted it up. Enjoying it for the dozens of hours it demands to complete takes the spirit of a gambler, someone always willing to hold out hope that the dice will fall the way they want – and that the next run will be better than the last.

Building on the turn-based combat of Darkest Dungeon, Red Hook Studios has made a brave decision: Darkest Dungeon 2 is simply not the same kind of game. Instead of an epic-length, ongoing campaign where your party embarks from a central base and returns with loot to improve it if they survive, here you make shorter stagecoach gauntlet runs towards the looming mountain, getting slightly stronger each time. It's a tough tradeoff, and though I miss the sense of place that Darkest Dungeon’s town creates, this sequel has less potential for major setbacks from party wipes that feel like pure, sadistic punishment. Win or lose you earn candles, currency that unlocks permanent bonuses and upgrades to your traveling coach, new hero types, stat buffs, and items for the random drops to pull from, so no run is really wasted.

What's still there from Darkest Dungeon? It's all very stylishly presented. Creepy characters,