Part 3 (Apr 2025) · #4 of 14 in that tierWatch the moment (0:57:47)
Darkest Dungeon® II
- Developed by
- Red Hook Studios
- Published by
- Red Hook Studios
$39.99
Darkest Dungeon II is a roguelike road trip of the damned. Form a party, equip your stagecoach, and set off across the decaying landscape on a last gasp quest to avert the apocalypse. The greatest dangers you face, however, may come from within...
Consensus
C68.1/100
Steam players74.6% positiveMostly Positive27,064 reviews
Metacritic ↗81/100Users: 6.3/10
OpenCritic ↗81/100
VG Insights estimate ↗≈812K copies · ≈$22M gross
What creators say
Ranked Apr 2022 · #8 of 8 in that tierWatch the moment (0:21:37)
Ranked Jun 2023 · #9 of 13 in that tierListen to the episode
Scored 5/10 · tier derived from the score
Ranked Jun 2023 · #16 of 18 in that tierWatch the moment (0:47:25)
What players say
A turn-based gothic-horror roguelike from Red Hook Studios in which a party of flawed heroes rides a stagecoach across a ruined land in long, permadeath-driven expeditions to stop a cosmic apocalypse.
Critics received it well (Metacritic 81, OpenCritic 81, 'Strong' tier), praising the combat puzzle, art and atmosphere, while players are more split (Steam 'Mostly Positive', about 75% of roughly 27k reviews; Metacritic user score 6.3/10). Much of the player backlash comes from the shift from the first game's hamlet-and-roster management to a roguelike with long expeditions and meta-progression, which many series fans did not want. It launched in Early Access on Epic in October 2021, hit 1.0 on Steam in May 2023, and has since received major updates, including the free Kingdoms mode and the Inhuman Bondage DLC in January 2025, plus console releases. Some recent Steam reviews (Dec 2025) still argue it feels unpolished, with classes and systems still being reworked.
Players love
- Combat plays like a tactical puzzle: party composition, positioning and the token system reward planning and cut some of the first game's pure RNG
- Gothic/Lovecraftian art direction, improved 3D-style animation and atmosphere are praised as top tier
- Narrator (Wayne June) and atmosphere carry the dread and tone, though some players find the soundtrack and narration less memorable than the first game
- Hero backstories and the affinity/relationship system between party members add personality and strategic complexity
- Varied regions and hazards make each expedition feel distinct and tense
- Runs are more compartmentalised and experimental than the first game's endless roster grind, so some find it less of a slog
- High-stakes, white-knuckle difficulty feels cathartic and rewarding once it clicks
- Post-launch support has been substantial: new heroes, Kingdoms mode, balance reworks and console ports
- Fresh take on the DD formula: some players prefer it to a near-copy of DD1 and like its more synergy-focused party building and avoidance of DD1's snowballing party-wipe problem
Common complaints
- Too different from Darkest Dungeon 1 for many fans: no hamlet, no persistent loot, and characters reset after each run
- Poor onboarding: mechanics are opaque, tutorials thin, and success can depend on wiki knowledge
- Early runs lean heavily on RNG, with long 2-3 hour Confessions expeditions that can be lost to bad luck or a single mistake
- Meta-progression unlocks (stagecoach upgrades, candles for items, trinkets and inn items) are slow and feel like a prerequisite grind
- Some boss gimmicks feel like instant-fail encounters without prior knowledge, for example the Confession 5 mirror mechanic when the copy is stuck in an unreachable position
- Stuns need two hits, healing is conditional and on cooldown, and reliable damage/stress mitigation was removed, so incoming damage feels overwhelming and difficulty feels 'fake' or RNG-driven
- Random quirk replacement and the lack of a separate fixed character for re-specs annoy players
- Combat math and buffs feel inconsistent (e.g. a 50% damage-reduction buff cutting far less than half), undermining trust in planning
Can feel tedious
- Unlock grind: reviewers report roughly 20 hours to gather stagecoach upgrades, then many more hours for other unlocks, before later bosses feel viable
- Long runs of 2-3 hours with no checkpoints make failures costly
- Grinding candles and stagecoach upgrades to reach a viable power level for later bosses
- Slow stagecoach travel and repetitive battles, though the developers reduced battle counts from Early Access
- Constant reliance on outside guides because of unclear mechanics
What's unique
- Sequel that turns a dungeon-crawl roster game into a roguelike road trip with a stagecoach as a mobile base
- Mental-health stress/meltdown system where heroes can crack and turn on the party
- Affinity and relationship system between heroes that affects combat and story
- Two modes: long Confessions expeditions and the free Kingdoms campaign-style mode
- Token-based combat and positioning puzzle layered over the original's turn-based formula
- Lovecraftian tone with a narrator voice as a signature feature
Players want
- Better tutorials and in-game explanation of systems so the wiki is not required
- More shortcuts, checkpoints or ways to soften the loss of a failed 2-3 hour run
- Faster, less grindy meta-progression and unlock pacing
- Replace quirks in a predictable order (oldest first) rather than randomly
- Fix frustrating boss gimmicks, especially Confession 5 mirroring and unreachable copies
- Further polish and balance of classes and mechanics that are still being reworked
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Turn-Based TacticsDungeon CrawlerRogue-liteDark FantasyLovecraftianSingleplayerRogue-likePerma DeathTurn-BasedCRPG
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Tier list Part 3 (2025)
Darkest Dungeon 2 is the sequel to the gothic turn-based party roguelike, and it drops the hardcore persistent-roster mechanic in favor of a more traditional run-by-run structure with meta progression. He feels the game was unfairly judged against the first one, since the combat is still solid and the content is deep. The carriage-based travel is more minimalistic than dungeon crawling, and the UI and tutorial are clunky. He thinks that judged on its own it is a really good roguelike and gives it a very solid A tier.
Liked
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