Healing abilities typically can only be casted a few times during a battle before they're exhausted.

The ability to quickly win combats without suffering too much damage is now key, tossing out many of the old, more defensive strategies that flourished in Darkest Dungeon. Gone are levels, instead you spend Mastery to improve individual character skills at the inns between new world regions.

Combats along the road at blockades have time limits: You'll break through inevitably, but if you take more than five rounds to kill enemies you don't get loot or rewards, including precious new mastery points. There are plenty of new lessons to learn for success in Darkest Dungeon 2. They hate each other too much, and though I love how they look in action, they eventually lose their front line: In a burning city, Man-at-arms Barristan goes down under an onslaught of waxy, red-skinned monstrosities.Įnemies on the whole die harder than DD1, with many enemies triggering their own 'Death's Door' condition. None of that luster helps Grave Robber Audrey and her party on the first run, though.

Movements that looked jerky in the first game instead look cinematic, with dynamic lighting casting off models when pistol barrels flash or daggers clash. That's not to say there isn't plenty of beautiful 2D art, but the dynamism of the 3D models in combat removes all the stiffness from the animation. Red Hook has made the transition to 3D with aplomb, the thick-lined art style that defined the first game is beautiful, and the early modern flourishes of its setting are still a delight. You can't just give a character some time off to recuperate anymore.įor all that the world is broken, Darkest Dungeon 2's unique style is once again impeccable. There's something deeper going on, some deep tampering with space and time, though with only a dozen or so hours under my belt I've yet to dig very deeply into it. The world is coming unglued, the eldritch and cosmic enemy types only hinted at in the first game are winning, and their cult has grown powerful. Road trip ruinĭarkest Dungeon 2's structure of repeated runs isn't just a gimmick. Audrey eventually racked up so many hateful relationships that most turns were bad for her, leading to a spiral of new negative quirks-including a curious displacement in both space and time. When things are going badly it's not just a single character that suffers, it's the entire dynamic of your group. It's a whole new spiral of failure and misery for Darkest Dungeon. VIDEO: A 60-second summary of just how quickly things can go wrong.

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