Game review
Darkest Dungeon II
7.5 / 10
- Developer
- Red Hook Studios
- Publisher
- Red Hook Studios
- Released
- 8 May 2023
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS
- Genre
- Roguelite Tactical RPG
- Monetisation
- One-time purchase at NZ$61.99, with optional paid DLC. No microtransactions in the base game.
- Players
- Single-player only
The short version
Darkest Dungeon II keeps the stress-and-sanity party management, the affliction system and the gothic-narrated dread that made the original beloved, and rebuilds almost everything else around it: a single stagecoach crew instead of a rotating stable of two dozen heroes, three relatively short road-trip runs instead of one long 40-hour campaign, and a Hades-style restart loop instead of persistent management between expeditions. Visually and tonally it's arguably the more accomplished game. Structurally, it's asking longtime fans to accept that the thing they loved has become a different genre.
Three years on, the review corpus shows this was never a launch-week overreaction. Negative reviews arrive at a steady rate every year since release, not a front-loaded spike that faded — a sign of a real, ongoing genre-identity split rather than old news. At the same time, players who accept it on its own terms, including some with over a thousand hours logged, call it a masterpiece in its own right.
Biggest strengths
- Visuals and presentation are a genuine step up from the original — several reviewers say it's the best-looking Darkest Dungeon has ever been
- Retains the series' signature stress, affliction and narration systems, which still work extremely well in the new structure
- A distinct, bold reinterpretation rather than a lazy sequel — reviewers who accept the new direction describe real tactical depth and long-term replayability, including one with over 1,100 hours logged
Biggest weaknesses
- The core structural change — a rotating stable of 20+ heroes and a 40-hour campaign replaced by a small stagecoach crew and short, roguelite-style runs — is the single most consistent complaint since day one, and it has not faded with time
- Negative reviews arrive at a steady rate every year since 2023 rather than clustering at launch, indicating an ongoing identity split rather than settled old news
- Progression is gated behind an unlock currency ("candles") that several reviewers say makes the early hours feel deliberately withheld compared to the original's more immediate structure
Who it's for: Roguelite fans first — this plays closer to Slay the Spire or Hades than to the original Darkest Dungeon's slow-burn campaign structure. Existing Darkest Dungeon fans should read the reviews from players who loved the first game before buying, since the split in reception maps almost exactly onto "wanted more of DD1" versus "was open to something different."
Our recommendation: If you've never played the original, judge this entirely on its own terms — it's a well-crafted, visually stunning roguelite with real tactical depth. If you're coming from Darkest Dungeon 1 specifically wanting more of that game, read a handful of the detailed negative reviews first; the switch to a run-based structure and a much smaller hero roster is a fundamental change, not a rebalance, and several of the most-upvoted reviews here exist specifically to warn DD1 fans before they buy.
7.5 / 10
Some sequels get criticised for playing it too safe. Darkest Dungeon II has the opposite problem, and three years of reviews confirm it wasn't a one-week reaction to a big change — it's a genuine, ongoing split about what this series is supposed to be.
The change, stated plainly
The original Darkest Dungeon was a management game wearing horror-adventure clothes: a rotating roster of two dozen-plus heroes, a persistent hamlet, and a 40-hour campaign where losing a party member was a real, permanent cost you planned around. Darkest Dungeon II keeps the DNA — stress meters, afflictions, a gravel-voiced narrator who treats your failures as inevitabilities — and rebuilds the structure around a single stagecoach crew making short, roguelite-style runs toward a mountain, restarting from scratch on death in the manner of Hades or Slay the Spire.
That's not a small tweak. It's a genre change wearing a familiar coat of paint, and the most-upvoted negative review in the game's history — nearly 2,000 votes, posted on launch day itself — names it directly: "a huge, 40+ hour campaign where you manage a stable of two dozen or more heroes" replaced by "a run-based" structure that plays nothing like what came before.
Why this isn't old news
Here's what separates this from a normal launch controversy: negative reviews haven't tapered off. The 100 most-upvoted negative reviews split 36 from 2023, 22 from 2024, 25 from 2025 and 17 so far in 2026 — a steady rate across every year since release, not a front-loaded spike from disappointed day-one buyers that faded as the game found its audience. One reviewer with 1,183 hours logged writes about how good the game is once you accept its structure. Another, reviewing negatively in 2025 with 63 hours behind them, calls it "the most conflicted review I have ever written" precisely because the pacing and urgency that made the original so gripping don't survive the shift to a restart loop. This is a genre-identity question that's still being actively litigated by the playerbase, not a settled matter from launch week.
The most useful reviews in the sample, on both sides, aren't really arguing about quality — they're trying to warn the right audience toward or away from the game. One of the most-upvoted positive reviews opens with a direct note to Darkest Dungeon 1 players to read carefully before buying, because "this game is NOT" what they're expecting. That's a healthier way to read the Mostly Positive score than treating it as a single verdict: it's closer to two different audiences voting on two different questions.
What holds up regardless of which side you're on
Even the harshest reviews rarely attack the presentation. The stress and affliction systems that made the original's psychology mechanics distinctive translate well into the new structure, and several reviewers single out the visuals as the best the series has looked. The specific complaint that does recur regardless of overall verdict is the stagecoach driving segment between combat encounters — repeatedly called tedious padding with no option to skip or automate it, a rare point of actual consensus in an otherwise divided corpus.
A game still being built
Three years after launch, Darkest Dungeon II is still an actively developed live game rather than a finished product left to its history. Red Hook has shipped two paid narrative DLCs since 1.0 — The Binding Blade and Inhuman Bondage — with a third, The Fire's Edge, announced for 18 August 2026. Steam's news feed shows weekly community mod showcases running continuously through 2026, and a 3rd-anniversary post in May. That's a healthier ongoing relationship with its playerbase than the divided review score alone would suggest.
The achievement curve reflects the structural change directly. The single highest completion rate in the game — 92.3% — belongs to visiting the Inn, an early, structural milestone rather than a combat achievement, while the rarest achievements sit under half a percent, tied to specific late-game kingdom and combat conditions. That's consistent with a game whose early hours are widely sampled and whose true depth is reserved for a smaller committed group, the same shape the reviews themselves describe.
7.5 out of 10. Darkest Dungeon II is a genuinely accomplished, visually superb roguelite that happens to share a name and a psychological combat system with a very different kind of game. Judged on its own terms, it earns real praise from players willing to meet it there, including some of the highest-playtime reviewers in the sample. Judged as a direct sequel to the original's campaign structure, it remains a legitimate and ongoing disappointment for a meaningful share of that game's fans, three years and two DLC expansions later. Know which player you are before you buy.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Visuals and presentation are a genuine step up from the original — several reviewers say it's the best-looking Darkest Dungeon has ever been
- Retains the series' signature stress, affliction and narration systems, which still work extremely well in the new structure
- A distinct, bold reinterpretation rather than a lazy sequel — reviewers who accept the new direction describe real tactical depth and long-term replayability, including one with over 1,100 hours logged
- Active, ongoing post-launch support three years after release, including weekly community mod showcases and a third paid DLC announced for August 2026
- Strong voice acting and music continue to carry the series' gothic tone
Cons
- The core structural change — a rotating stable of 20+ heroes and a 40-hour campaign replaced by a small stagecoach crew and short, roguelite-style runs — is the single most consistent complaint since day one, and it has not faded with time
- Negative reviews arrive at a steady rate every year since 2023 rather than clustering at launch, indicating an ongoing identity split rather than settled old news
- Progression is gated behind an unlock currency ("candles") that several reviewers say makes the early hours feel deliberately withheld compared to the original's more immediate structure
- The stagecoach driving segment between combat encounters draws specific, repeated criticism as tedious padding with no way to skip or automate it
- Reviewers coming from the original consistently warn that this is a smaller, shorter experience per run, even if the total game has grown through paid DLC since launch
Screenshots
-
Darkest Dungeon® IIImage: Red Hook Studios via Steam -
Darkest Dungeon® IIImage: Red Hook Studios via Steam -
Darkest Dungeon® IIImage: Red Hook Studios via Steam -
How the review scores each part of the gameWanderer Editorial -
The short versionWanderer Editorial