Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 - The Dead King's Secret

Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 makes an unusual structural choice for a sequel: rather than simply continuing after the first game's ending, it runs its own story concurrently with it, following a priestess of the Order of the Flame through the same mountain's caverns at the same time the original's dwarf protagonist was making his own way through. Reviewers consistently describe this as the game's most interesting addition, deepening rather than merely extending a story they already knew. It's a small structural risk for a solo developer to take on a sequel, and the review sample suggests it paid off.

The same puzzle craft, genuinely maintained

The core loop — navigate a room, learn how its specific hazard or creature behaves, and use that knowledge to proceed — is unchanged from the first game, and reviewers are largely relieved rather than disappointed by that consistency. One reviewer, having tracked their own hint usage closely, reports finishing with "100% achievement" in 5.4 hours having needed only a single optional hint, calling the puzzle design "astonishingly consistent in quality given ~200 puzzle rooms across both games." Another puts it more simply: "it is essentially more of the same, but that is a good thing." The built-in hint system draws specific, repeated praise for striking the right balance — present when needed, but not so aggressive that it undermines the satisfaction of solving a room independently.

Music that keeps coming up unprompted

An unusually large share of the review sample singles out the soundtrack specifically, rather than folding it into general praise for presentation. "The music is absolutely stunning," one reviewer writes; another simply notes "the melody's stuck in my mind too," months after finishing the game. For a small, solo-developed puzzle game, having its score become a specific, recurring talking point across independent reviews is a genuine mark of quality rather than an afterthought, and it's consistent with how the original Dreadrock was received as well.

A real bug, and a real, dated fix

The most substantive technical complaint in the sample concerns a softlock tied to the game's automatic checkpoint system, capable of trapping a player in one or two specific rooms with no way to progress. One reviewer describes it directly: "the auto-checkpoints can cause a softlock in one or two rooms," while noting the workaround — loading back to any earlier checkpoint rather than only the most recent one — was "fortunately" available even if "not obvious." This review can confirm the developer treated this as a priority: the Steam partner-events feed shows a patch titled plainly "Softlocks Patch," dated 8 January 2025, roughly a month after the 5 December 2024 launch. That's a fast, specific, and appropriately named response to a reported bug, and it's the kind of dated confirmation that lets a buyer weigh whether an issue described in an older review still applies to the current build.

A minority view worth naming honestly

Not every review treats the sequel as an unqualified success. One detailed critique argues the game reads closer to "a DLC" than a full sequel, pointing to puzzle solutions that lean on "singular and similar" patterns rather than meaningfully new creative approaches, and calling the story "always bland" without further elaboration. This is a minority position against a much larger chorus of enthusiastic comparisons to the original, but it's worth reporting plainly rather than smoothing over — a buyer who found the first game's puzzles occasionally repetitive may find the same complaint applies here, even if most reviewers experienced fresh variety instead.

Value depends on how you're buying it

Pricing draws a modest but real split. At NZD 21.99 standalone, most reviewers treat the roughly five-to-six-hour runtime as appropriately scoped for a tightly-designed puzzle game, with several explicitly calling it worth the price. A smaller number push back harder — one reviewer calls it "totally not worth 15 dollars even with the rebate," comparing it unfavourably to mobile puzzle game pricing. Notably, several reviewers mention buying the first and second games together in a bundle for a lower combined price, which reads as the most commonly recommended way to actually purchase the series based on how often it comes up unprompted in the sample.

What the achievement curve says about pacing

Steam's own achievement data offers a useful, independent check on how the game's difficulty and length actually play out across its audience. The curve is notably gentle from start to finish: an early caverns milestone sits at 82.9% completion, and even a late-game achievement tied to reaching one of the game's endings still sits at 43.1%. That's a far shallower drop-off than most puzzle or dungeon-crawler games show, and it lines up precisely with reviewer reports of a well-paced, mostly-linear five-to-six-hour experience that the large majority of buyers who start actually finish, rather than one where a punishing midgame difficulty spike thins out the audience early. For a puzzle game specifically, that's a meaningful signal: the hint system and puzzle design are doing their job of keeping players moving forward rather than stuck and frustrated partway through.

Final verdict

Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 delivers exactly what fans of the first game were hoping for: the same generous, well-tuned puzzle design, an even more interesting story structure that rewards knowing the original, and a soundtrack good enough to be a specific selling point on its own. A real, reported softlock bug is a legitimate concern for anyone reading older negative reviews, but this review can confirm the developer treated it seriously and shipped a dedicated fix within about a month of launch — exactly the kind of responsive small-studio support this lane doesn't always find. Play the first game first if you haven't, then come here for a short, beautifully scored continuation that earns its place alongside the original rather than merely riding on its name.