An ominous trailer just surfaced on Twitter narrated by Wayne June featuring a cast of familiar characters and a Roman numeral ‘II’ slowly coming into view. This is our first look at Darkest Dungeon II, the sequel to the perilous turn-based, dungeon-crawling roguelike.
The trailer did not reveal much information about what to expect in the upcoming game as far as gameplay goes, but we did see a snowy mountain known as The Howling End, as the primary focal point—possibly hinting that the new game would be more of a journey, as opposed to just simply dungeon-crawling. We also got a short look at some returning character classes including Grave Robber, Hellion, Highwayman, Leper, Man-at-Arms and Plague Doctor indicating that at least these six would be returning in the next installment.
In an exclusive interview with PC Gamer, developers Tyler Sigman and Chris Bourassa of Red Hook Studios sat down to answer some questions about the upcoming game. When asked about how the combat would differ in Darkest Dungeon II, they replied, “our combat system is making a return, but we’re giving it a significant tune-up—mechanically, and in terms of presentation. Most significantly, however, we are working with a completely different metagame structure.” It will be interesting to see how much they deviate from the original formula of recruiting party members, leveling them up, overcoming sickness and other obstacles and whether or not the game would still feature permadeath mechanics.
When asked about the potential setting of the upcoming game they were very cagey, offering only the following statement, “in Darkest Dungeon 2, we’re giving players a glimpse of the supernatural apocalypse twisting and distorting the world beyond the estate…and that’s all we’re going to say about that for now.” There were already a variety of different enemies to encounter in the first game, and it sounds like they may be going well beyond the grave this time around.
As with the first game, Darkest Dungeon II will be opting for an Early Access approach when it launches. The developers have openly embraced this distribution model, and feel that it gives fans the ability to help shape the final decisions for the game. As of this time, there is no mention of the release date, or when we can expect to get hands-on with the upcoming game. With GDC and PAX East both happening at the end of next month, there is a good chance we hear more about the game then.