When characters interact with each other at key events, they can gain or lose affinity, building positive relationships that give buffs in combat or negative relationships that actively harm the party’s combat ability. Instead of players splitting their attention between upgrading a base and constantly recruiting different party members, they can focus on managing a single party of characters and their relationships, which creates a more engaging and personal gameplay loop.ĭarkest Dungeon 2 also enforces its premise with a new affinity system.

The premise of four misfits trying to act like heroes is expanded on much more in this game than the last with the removal of the sim city management. It remains brutally difficult, with frail characters needing constant management to stay alive and sane. With this gameplay loop, the game itself becomes more rogue-lite in nature. Along the way, the player must manage the Flame, a representation of hope that depletes as they travel through the wasteland and prepare to defeat the final boss (or at least, the boss currently available). The player than travels through the apocalypse in a stagecoach, managing the stress, health and equipment of the party while battling bandits, cannibals, cultists and other nightmarish creatures. Instead, the player chooses four characters to travel with at the beginning of the game, and once chosen there is no changing characters, save for replacing one after death. While it is still a turn-based rogue-lite with a party of four, there is no home base to return to. The sequel differs from the original in a few key ways. The Darkest Dungeon 2 early access release invites players into a world that has already undergone the Lovecraftian apocalypse and demands that they make the journey to save it.

Darkest dungeon narrator voice lines