Darkest Dungeon II

 PC
User Score
5.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 101 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 42 out of 101
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 101
  3. Negative: 39 out of 101

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  1. Lufia
    Jul 7, 2023
    0
    One of the worst games with so many annoying mechanics in 2023. By far to overpriced and has nothing to do with Darkest Dungeon 1. Had to refund that .......
  2. CB1331
    Aug 18, 2023
    4
    In time, you will know the tragic extent of this games failings.
    4/10, maybe next time listen to your fans and remove the trash mechanics you shoehorned into this game.
  3. erwinn44
    Aug 13, 2023
    0
    nothing more, except neverending grind... after 181 hours i still can't end the story.
  4. DrGreen784
    Aug 29, 2023
    3
    The first game was great and a lot of fun. The second just feels worse. I will never know why they decided to completely throw away what people liked about the first game. The relationship or affinity system is terrible. It makes your heroes feel like whiny children. The stress system made sense. This is just annoying. It makes you feel like a babysitter, and there is still no Musketeer.The first game was great and a lot of fun. The second just feels worse. I will never know why they decided to completely throw away what people liked about the first game. The relationship or affinity system is terrible. It makes your heroes feel like whiny children. The stress system made sense. This is just annoying. It makes you feel like a babysitter, and there is still no Musketeer. Shieldbreaker Houndmaster, Crusader Abomination, and Antiquarian Arbalest, and maybe they will add them in the future. If so, I might return to the game and see if it improves.… Expand
  5. SomeDude9909
    May 11, 2023
    2
    Darkest Dungeon II is a misnomer. The game does not have any dungeons, and it isn't a real sequel to the first Darkest Dungeon.

    Darkest Roads, as it should be called, is a pathetic attempt at a roguelike that uses similar aesthetics and gameplay mechanics from the first Darkest Dungeon game. They cut out all of the town building, character building, and trinket accumulating aspects of    Darkest Dungeon II is a misnomer. The game does not have any dungeons, and it isn't a real sequel to the first Darkest Dungeon.

    Darkest Roads, as it should be called, is a pathetic attempt at a roguelike that uses similar aesthetics and gameplay mechanics from the first Darkest Dungeon game. They cut out all of the town building, character building, and trinket accumulating aspects of the first game. They added a carriage that is horrible to control and a relationship system that either makes your team hate each other internally for no reason or literally turns your characters gay for each other whether you want them to or not. They simplified the stats with tokens which keeps an element of RNG but makes it now much less interesting and nuanced than before. They cut out the ancestor's dark tales of macabre investigations into the occult. They refused to add Crusader as a character and also cut out a number of other favorites from Darkest Dungeon while just adding one new character to the roster.

    I hate it and wish they had made a genuine sequel instead of this abomination. Stay clear of this waste of time and play Darkest Dungeon instead.    … Expand
  6. cruccolo
    May 19, 2023
    3
    Very RNG-based and repetitive gameplay. Since the first cutscene, it is clear that the plot has lost depth and it is just a pile of monsters and gothic places; forget the lovecraftian-esque atmosphere of the previous episode, and welcome to an american halloween movie/anime. I am very disappointed that the developers of the first Darkest Dungeon managed to get so wrong in the design ofVery RNG-based and repetitive gameplay. Since the first cutscene, it is clear that the plot has lost depth and it is just a pile of monsters and gothic places; forget the lovecraftian-esque atmosphere of the previous episode, and welcome to an american halloween movie/anime. I am very disappointed that the developers of the first Darkest Dungeon managed to get so wrong in the design of this second game. At least the graphics have improved.… Expand
  7. kyleb2112
    May 15, 2023
    3
    As a new player I was prepared for the punishing, rogue-like game play, I was NOT prepared for being punished for not knowing all its systems in advance. Not knowing what's clickable on the interface is a universal theme in this game. Buttons are not distinguished in any way. The most obviously clickable icons are your characters, but clicking them DOES NOTHING. You have to press C toAs a new player I was prepared for the punishing, rogue-like game play, I was NOT prepared for being punished for not knowing all its systems in advance. Not knowing what's clickable on the interface is a universal theme in this game. Buttons are not distinguished in any way. The most obviously clickable icons are your characters, but clicking them DOES NOTHING. You have to press C to get the expected character sheets. After 40 hours I found the buttons to cure diseases in the "Field Hospital" ONLY because a Utuber clicked them. . They're part of the background. Even in the tutorial videos those "buttons" are invisible and the guy had to just know they're there.
    I found out too late that spending candles on items in the game's start menu is NOT unlocking those items forever but simply buying them for one-time use. This is specifically THE AREA where you make all your PERMANENT upgrades. There's an insane list of icons the game expects you to memorize. It gives you a chart with only a few of them explained on it and the ones that aren't will destroy your game. They aren't even google-friendly to search for because the terms are too abstract. All the game's perks and buffs associated with the trinkets are written in cryptic, abrreviated code next to their icons that were obviously written by a programmer. There are like all kinds "If/Then" statements and algebraic clauses you have to recognize. This feels like a game where the devs went way down the rabbit hole of their own systems and lost touch with normal players.    … Expand
  8. shynorah
    May 30, 2023
    2
    2/10 is my sincere rating for this second game of Darkest Dungeon which has nothing to do with the first.
    I'm not a hater at all, the game is just absolutely bad. And everyone should realize that.
    The first Darkest Dungeon is excellent on many levels. But I'm not going to dwell here on this game that everyone knows and which is worth 9/10. I will focus here on Darkest Dungeon "2"    2/10 is my sincere rating for this second game of Darkest Dungeon which has nothing to do with the first.
    I'm not a hater at all, the game is just absolutely bad. And everyone should realize that.

    The first Darkest Dungeon is excellent on many levels. But I'm not going to dwell here on this game that everyone knows and which is worth 9/10.

    I will focus here on Darkest Dungeon "2" which missed everything compared to its elder.
    They focused on the graphics and... That's it really.
    It's just a very poor roguelike, where as the runs progress we improve our characters, the diligence, etc.

    Even during runs for the choice of paths, you sometimes have to choose between the story of a character or a positive point of interest for example. (So ​​make the choice between unlocking a spell for the next runs or making a choice for the current run).

    So even for a roguelike this game remains catastrophic compared to a Slay The Spire for example where the unlocking of cards was done in a softer way. Here it's FARM candles my friend and level up)

    Positive :
    - Fight animations

    Negative points :
    - Bad Game Design
    - The UI to is so really really really bad
    - Brainless Die-and-Retry
    - No atmosphere
    - Press Forward Button simulator and dash into the bushes (Literally zero fun)
    - And many others things

    Buy the first Darkest Dungeon with its DLCs and you'll already have plenty to do. As for this one: Trash.
    I don't even see how they could improve this game with update, the game is off the mark    … Expand
  9. DukeBalek
    May 23, 2023
    4
    the game is bad designed, you pass your time searching for altars to unlock your abilities.. very boring. it's always the same mobs, the same strats, everything feels like a bland copy than the first game without all that was so unique, like the city, the asylum, the permadeath etc .. now its just a die and retry loop without feeling of completion. You need too many altars to unlock everythe game is bad designed, you pass your time searching for altars to unlock your abilities.. very boring. it's always the same mobs, the same strats, everything feels like a bland copy than the first game without all that was so unique, like the city, the asylum, the permadeath etc .. now its just a die and retry loop without feeling of completion. You need too many altars to unlock every skill, and the runs are too long... 2 hours to get wiped by the boss is a joke, moreover besides the bosses its not even hard, just boring..nah they tried something new but it is far from a finish game, too much is lacking, for me it is a failure, i have played 25 hours but i cant go on, i have uninstalled it with a tear on my chick, i liked so much the first DD… Expand
  10. Lobo1973
    May 14, 2023
    0
    I loved Darkest Dungeon and waited for the 2 for years.
    This new one is a delusion: from one side I appreciate the creative idea of the travel, but fails in term of gameplay: confusing, repetive, not satisfying (new run, new hero, same monsters, loosing trinkets).
    In one word: boring. And disintalled. What a pity
  11. Ratingss
    May 13, 2023
    0
    No ultrawide, no controller support, turn based combat as bad as some mobile game, everything is black so it must be imersive right?
  12. VendonJura
    May 12, 2023
    0
    The game has been released on Epic Game Store 1st in about 2021. We got it on Steam just now and they increased the price by almost a double. Many people where complaining about this till they started to delete peoples comments and gave them a warning for telling the trueth. They deleted comments of people which was written in a normal manner. They also bought allot of Thumbs up by givingThe game has been released on Epic Game Store 1st in about 2021. We got it on Steam just now and they increased the price by almost a double. Many people where complaining about this till they started to delete peoples comments and gave them a warning for telling the trueth. They deleted comments of people which was written in a normal manner. They also bought allot of Thumbs up by giving free copies to Streamer. The game itself worths max 20€. So muting and deleting + punishing people for telling their opinions and they even ban people for doing it. Steam, defends such devs ofcourse.

    Especially the driving feels so bad, it's just unreal. My nephew tried out the game and refundet it after 20 minutes.    … Expand
  13. ostadbozorg
    May 16, 2023
    1
    first game was a masterpiece, darkest dungeon 2 is a sh**piece ,they shot in their foot with second one and change the whole aspect, poor decision
  14. BezrukovVA
    Jun 7, 2023
    3
    The only good thing in this game is visual.

    Combat system is awful and absolutely dishonest to player. Death-door mechanic for monsters adds next layer of random that can nullify your party after two hour duration run in one battle. Stun is removed from player but left for monsters. Players can heal only if their HP is lower then 33%, but monster can heal always. Very "honest" and    The only good thing in this game is visual.

    Combat system is awful and absolutely dishonest to player.
    Death-door mechanic for monsters adds next layer of random that can nullify your party after two hour duration run in one battle. Stun is removed from player but left for monsters. Players can heal only if their HP is lower then 33%, but monster can heal always. Very "honest" and "balanced" gameplay, yeah.
    Some monsters have additional action event without display of it in the action bar (drummers).
    Developers sad that they added tokens to game to lower random in fights but in fact this game now has much more random then previous part.

    Honestly, this game has the most frustrating gameplay I have ever play.    … Expand
  15. Bantarific
    May 15, 2023
    2
    Basically, imagine if in Darkest Dungeon 1, they forced you to do each dungeon in a specific order, and every time it was almost the exact same enemies and have to rely on significantly more RNG than before since it's now a Slay the Spire-esque roguelike where you lose everything if you die and there's no retreat. The graphics are quite literally the only thing they managed to improve.
  16. RaiTheNoblesse
    May 10, 2023
    3
    Vambrace Cold Soul is still the better Darkest Dungeon 2 game..., story, character etc.-wise
  17. Iyunzusto
    May 18, 2023
    2
    This game is SO disappointing because it could have been great. The new format is fine with me, I like the transition to roguelite format, as the first darkest dungeon was such a long slog. I never bothered to finish it.

    BUT.. you just can't make a roguelite game with hours upon hours of NOTHING in the form of the stagecoach sections, set piece animations, and pointless stops. Roguelikes    This game is SO disappointing because it could have been great. The new format is fine with me, I like the transition to roguelite format, as the first darkest dungeon was such a long slog. I never bothered to finish it.

    BUT.. you just can't make a roguelite game with hours upon hours of NOTHING in the form of the stagecoach sections, set piece animations, and pointless stops.

    Roguelikes will be played over and over so they must be snappy, lean, responsive, spammable, addicting, momentum-driving, lose-yourself-in-the-gameplay-grind, flow state bliss! Not slow, trudging, boring, tedious, eyerolling, watch tapping, quagmire loving mental molasses.

    There is a decent game underneath all this garbage but it's simply not worth your time to access. The worst thing about it is that it would have been so easy for them to remove the padding and make a snappy roguelike, after YEARS of playtesting, but clearly someone on the production team is too attached to the stagecoach as a concept, and wouldn't let it go. Then group think set in and it was accepted despite them having a deep seeded concern at how slow and boring it is. Don't fight the urge.. just get rid of the stupid thing. The sink loss fallacy... They don't want to get rid of all the work put in and yet it would vastly improve the game.

    They even have a slay the spire styke encounter map just sitting there - that's your encounter system right there! Just use it!    … Expand
  18. lucame
    May 16, 2023
    4
    I want Houndmaster back!
    He's not in because the dog messes with the relationship mechanics but that was legal only in Canada so they removed it... However they added a relationship mechanic, depending on your individual parties affinity towards one another, for the next region they may gain things a positive or negative relationship to each other in pairs.
    For the duration of the    I want Houndmaster back!
    He's not in because the dog messes with the relationship mechanics but that was legal only in Canada so they removed it... However they added a relationship mechanic, depending on your individual parties affinity towards one another, for the next region they may gain things a positive or negative relationship to each other in pairs.
    For the duration of the region, their banter changes to fit the new title and if positive; one random skill each buffs the other character in the pair each time it is used in combat.
    No Crusader because of Deus Vult!    … Expand
  19. norbxxxv3
    Jun 4, 2023
    4
    You have managed to create a game that is frustrating and downright annoying. One of the major issues is the lack of progression. It's disheartening to invest hours into a run only to have it abruptly end because one character randomly falls ill. While the concept of starting over isn't necessarily bad, it becomes meaningless when character development offers such meager benefits. TheYou have managed to create a game that is frustrating and downright annoying. One of the major issues is the lack of progression. It's disheartening to invest hours into a run only to have it abruptly end because one character randomly falls ill. While the concept of starting over isn't necessarily bad, it becomes meaningless when character development offers such meager benefits. The repetition of dungeons, especially by the third act, feels monotonous. It begs the question, is this normal? In the first darkest dungeon, there was the freedom to choose, but now that choice is gone, replaced by the same repetitive gameplay. Who designed it this way?

    The minimal progression system resembles that of a mobile game, where negative emotions are used to exploit addictive tendencies, but here it falls flat. I'm not sure what you were trying to achieve, but I must admit the graphics, music, and narrator are great. However, the overall experience feels shallow because the accompanying frustration outweighs everything else. A game should be difficult and challenging, but it should also provide a sense of progress, which is sorely lacking here.

    Moreover, the fact that each expedition begins and ends in the exact same way, with annoying abyss enemies, is incredibly tiresome. Why aren't there multiple endings for expeditions? Why does it always conclude in the same manner? I find it hard to believe that you didn't have the resources or expertise for a more developed and analyzed game. It seems like you chose the cheaper route, following the trend of mobile games, meybe dd2 can be easily ported to phones. It's a shame to see such potential go to waste.

    pc/mobile durkest dungeon 2 progress be like : "after a 45-minute run u got 5 candles...because after 7 years of development we couldn't make a long game, so well we have to maliciously lengthen the gameplay like in mobile gotcha games"    … Expand
  20. eryel
    Jun 9, 2023
    1
    The game itself would be worth a 7 or 8 if it wasn't part of the darkest dungeon licence. Unfortunately, it's supposed to be the sequel to darkest except that it's lost the essence of what made it darkest dungeon. It's a good rogue lite (even if it doesn't shine in terms of mechanics, content or originality) but a bad darkest dungeon.

    Oh and I was going to forget: no support for wide    The game itself would be worth a 7 or 8 if it wasn't part of the darkest dungeon licence. Unfortunately, it's supposed to be the sequel to darkest except that it's lost the essence of what made it darkest dungeon. It's a good rogue lite (even if it doesn't shine in terms of mechanics, content or originality) but a bad darkest dungeon.

    Oh and I was going to forget: no support for wide screen in 2023 whereas it was the case for darkest 1... that, I did not expect and it's a good big ****
    No sense of attachment to the characters so no sense of loss when everyone dies

    Very little sense of progression between runs, as you don't get to keep your trinkets and you always leave with a bunch of rubbish. And overall very little sense of progression or power gain between runs.

    No sense of attachment to the hamlet and no strategic aspect that requires you to focus on certain resources. Everything has been replaced by candles, and the 'hamlet' has no soul... it's just there for you to earn bonuses and so on, but you have no interaction with it.

    Riding in a cart... it's a pain in the arse and, even if it had to be done, it would have been even better to do it just like slay the spire without having to go all the way in a cart...

    The battles themselves were more strategic, but less so overall. You can no longer compose a team according to the biome or to kill a specific boss, so some very strong compositions in one biome become almost useless in another... you can compose with the path choices, but that's it.

    Fewer classes than in Darkest 1. This will probably come later, but right now the roster is far too small... add to that the difficulty of balancing classes and the fact that some classes are almost essential, and you end up with a lack of freedom in team composition...

    The loss of the feeling of 'stress' during a run... you know that feeling of stress when you're walking down a corridor wondering if you're going to get trapped, attacked, ... when your guys are almost dead? The fear of opening the door too many times during a run and having your whole team die (even though you'd finished the dungeon but stayed to pick up a few loots) The interaction with the different elements of the scenery that gave buffs or malus?

    I could go on and on but I'll stop here. Well, all that stuff, you make a big ball of it and throw it in a bin because it's disappeared from darkest dungeon 2. I really like the animations and the new graphics, the new combat mechanics, ... but that's about it. What's more, the relationship system is currently pretty poorly done and is often more distracting than anything else, even if the basic idea was good (the system during the beta could have used some polishing rather than making this relationship-based skill system). Finally, a rogue mechanic 'cheat sheet

    In summary, if you're looking for a rogue lite, get it. If you're looking for the darkest dungeon sequel, don't get your hopes up. My rating does not really represent the quality of the game (as I mentioned, the game itself is worth 7 or 8/10) BUT this rating expresses all my disappointment with this Darkest dungeon 2 that I was waiting for with great enthusiasm. hope (and fear for playing all of Early Access). I had +/- 1000h of game on darkest 1 (with extensions, circus, class mod, ...) but I already gave up on 2.    … Expand
  21. ersonic
    May 9, 2023
    0
    Very bad game. OST 1/10. gameplay 0/10. history 3/10. its a 50 years old game. need release in 1990-1980

Awards & Rankings

85
#85 Best PC Game of 2023
30
#30 Most Discussed PC Game of 2023

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 55 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 46 out of 55
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 55
  3. Negative: 0 out of 55
  1. Movies Games and Tech
    Apr 11, 2024
    88
    Darkest Dungeon II is a dark turn-based roguelite game characterized by its extreme difficulty, grotesque aesthetics and cruel but enjoyable battles. If you are someone who always loved a great challenge, enjoyed that retro comic style in the 80s or simply have been a soul-like fan, DDII is indubiously going to satisfy your appetite.
    Read full review
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 22, 2024
    60
    It brings a lot of new mechanics and interesting innovations. For fans of the roguelike genre I would definitely not hesitate to recommend the game. It will probably not be a problem to spend quite a few hours in it. However, the problem will arise if you want to compare the second part with the first one. This would probably be met with less enthusiastic ovations. [Issue#329]
  3. Games.cz
    Aug 21, 2023
    80
    Darkest Dungeon 2 is so different from its predecessor. A true roguelike with only one significant problem: The creators should learn how to explain things better. It’s also rather long for the content it provides. But the combat is great, the graphics beautiful, the narrator splendid.
    Read full review
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