This is a Rogue-like game with turn-based combat. You assemble a team of 4 characters and venture across a ruined, apocalyptic world in the futile hope of somehow saving humanity. Caveat: this game is a sequel to Darkest Dungeon, and superficially resembles the original, but it's a *totally different game*. In the original you manage a roster, equip your team for a mission, and then attempt to survive the mission. This game is structured more like Slay the Spire, with a branching path you must follow from node to node--no backtracking allowed. However, you can start over anytime you like and your characters miraculously come back to life. I played this game for 11 hours before giving up in disgust. THE GOOD: - The graphics and sound effects are *amazing*. They are perfectly thematic. - I like the little stories they developed for each character, which you experience as you unlock their abilities. They are creative and interesting. - It's apparently no longer possible to lose the campaign THE BAD: - They took everything good from original game and mixed it up into something bad. This game is ***not*** fun. - They've reduced the game from a 360 degree challenge of dungeon delving into a series of combat encounters. It got dull for me really quickly. - The "combo" feature in combat is overly difficult to pull off and vastly underpowered those rare times when you do manage it. - You start out miserably weak compared to the bosses and looking down the barrel of an endless slog to grind your way up to being able to beat them. - The relationship mechanic really ruins this game. - Quirks are usually negative and annoying, inflicted constantly, and very difficult to remove, making this another nice little bit of suffering for the player.
**THE GOOD:** - *Great* music that never feels like it's playing on loop and never gets old! - Pixel graphics that are very well done and with great attention to detail. - Each faction has its own songs and visual assets, giving them each a very unique *artistic* feel. - I liked how the campaigns were structured to give you the origin story of each faction. Each faction seems reasonable and sympathetic (even the undead!) when you're fighting *for* them--perhaps less so when fighting against them. - You can have the AI fight for you if you're tired of doing it. **THE BAD:** - The campaign scenarios are generally well-written and designed. However, several missions involve enemy wielders appearing out of nowhere with giant armies. I found this very frustrating, since I was often out-of-position and it feels quite unfair for armies to just *appear*. This effect can be especially difficult when you're facing multiple factions in a giant map. - Each faction works more-or-less exactly the same way. There is a bit of varation with the top-level troops, but it doesn't amount to much difference. The game could have offered more variety and replay value in this regard. - The spells are the same for each faction. I think the game would have been more interesting if each faction (or at least wielder) had their own magic specialty. **THE UGLY:** - The game crashed once but was otherwise stable. Since I set the game to auto-save every turn I didn't lose any play time. - I didn't encounter any bugs. - There were some minor usability issues in the strategic map. For example, there was a part in the very last mission where an obstruction could be removed if and only if you moved your wielder next to it. My wielder was trapped for a long time in there without me realizing I could *do* that. This was poor affordance.
