Dark and Darker: we aint talking bout stout.

Games
1

Didn’t see a thread about this, so decided to start a discussion.

They have a free beta(?) going on now Dark and Darker on Steam which lasts for this week i think (23rd?).

What is it? Well, it’s kinda like your if your 2E DnD campaign got mixed in with a battle royale. It bills itself as a PvPvE, set in a very typical(and traditional) DnD dungeon. And the surprising thing is…it’s not that bad.

You pick a character from the big 6 (Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue, Ranger, Wizard, Cleric), and up to 2 friends can join your group in a 16 player royale. It’s not the last person standing that wins - you’re all searching for portals to evac your loot out (or transport you deeper - which i have not yet done). The monsters are largely undead, with some other things like mimics thrown in there. There’s traps and secret passages, and shrines and other stuff I haven’t figured out yet.

There’s no targeting, friendly fire is on, and characters are solid so player collision is a thing. You level up based on damage/healing done, though the skills/talents are still a little rough (talents just show as ‘coming soon’ right now and skills are pretty threadbare, giving you one skill every 5 levels.

Still, the environment is pretty compelling, if a little unforgiving. I think it’s got some work to do (i’d like to see maps a little larger, and a little more distance between starting areas), but i’ve been enjoying it. My rogue just got herself out on a solo (there doesn’t appear to be party-sized matchmaking as of yet, and I dont know if they are planning for it), by basically being a sneaky little rogue - following in the wake of a 3 man party who never knew i was behind them. I suspect something bad happened to them when they went right, so i went left and eventually found a portal out.

Not sure what their roadmap looks like, but i think it’s worth checking out if any of what i wrote above appeals to you.

And yes, it’s a horrible name. It really, really, is.

2

can you rebind keys yet?

3

lol - i was just about to say yes, and thought i’d test it and it seems like no you cant (or if you can i can’t figure out how). You can rebind them no problem, so i rebound the crouch (ctrl), but i couldn’t find a way to just unbind it, so i bound it to the same as the alternate, both mapped to C. It’s…inelegant.

4

Something like this is what I want to make the jump into VR. I wish it was VR.

5

Something like this, but not battle royale, has been on my wish list for a long while. A traditional-type DnD, with real stakes, where you are all wandering about a dungeon trying to cash out. The more I play, the more I really enjoy it - i’ve only gotten out twice now though, so I’m not sure how well the economy works yet (the stuff i’ve gotten out I haven’t ‘spent’ yet, so i can’t say if it gives me enough of an edge to improve my odds of getting out next time…)

6

You can get a lot of the better gear from the deeper dungeons. it can be difficult to survive there without spending any money on gear and supplies esp. its pretty fun!!

7

ya, at this point, i’m mainly trying to level and figure out the maps and how to play. When you go down though, are you still playing against other players, or is it mainly pve?

8

Now it is mainly other players. Monsters are pretty easy to kill but you have to go slow, make sure you have bandages, and always aim for the head. Other players, not sure what to suggest, run away if they look geared (like, they don’t look like the starter build lol) and if your not playing in a group, don’t fight groups. Once you get a bit of gold you can buy a much stronger weapon from a trader and lower the monster time to kill by like 50%. then it gets real fun because now your risking all that gold lol

9

I’ve been playing it with my buddies and it has definitely delivered more ass whoopings in a shorter amount of time than anything else we’ve played.

It leads to a lot of funny situations, but once that novelty wears off, I’m not sure I like what’s underneath.

It’s Tarkov, but you’re fighting with sticks inside a broom closet.

I hate that my options are so limited. There’s so much crap I have to react to that I never really get to feel smart or balance the risks the way I do in Tarkov.

10

It’s too dark. With FF on, I’m constantly whacking my team mates because I can’t tell if they are behind or in front of something that I’m trying to damage. You can’t see them, all you see is their name floating in the air.

The blocking is also very bad, where people can’t move at all and with all the tight areas, this is very problematic.

The whole concept of “get in, get as much as you can get and get out” I’ve only got to experience twice in 15+ runs.

Not sure how you’re supposed to play - use the gear you’ve gotten and potentially lose everything, or sell everything and wait till you have enough $$ to buy really good gear and then lose everything?

Either way, you lose everything unless you’re good, which I just am not.

11

That’s a feature. You can throw torches on the ground to light up enemies, and I believe the Wizard has some kind of flashlighty spell.

I guess my problem with it is that the light maps are so sporadic, and the corridors are so tight, that you never really use it in PVP.

If you could use it to set up ambushes and stuff, that would be fun, and add some extra dread and strategy to the thing, but right now it just makes killing monsters more annoying.

Definitely also intentional.

I’ve been wondering how much of this playtest is placeholder, but if it is final, then it is a game where you are getting zoned most of the time. It’s stick fights and getting cornered by monsters, inside a broom closet.

There’s a sewer area surrounded by a bunch of spawns that has a low bridge going across, and we found out that if we were under the bridge, it was so low that our characters couldn’t swing their weapons.

I thought that was pretty funny. You could probably hide in there from a player if they didn’t have a ranged weapon.

That does seem to be the game. I think you’re supposed to gather a 3-man team and snowball. But in order to snowball, you need that initial successful run, or a history of successful runs to fill your coffers.

Having separate stashes for each character makes that harder than it should be.

That’s a major issue for me. It has all the frustrations and imbalances of Tarkov, but it’s much harder to strategize and balance the odds, so there’s a lot more of the dying for a lot less of the joy.

I don’t think it needs the circle. That’s what kills you more than anything else. Instead of balancing your greed with your need to survive, you are constantly being pushed into something lethal.

12

Testing again this week, can’t wait!

13

Oh, there was a thread for this game!

Well, it’s starting to get more known

14

Ahh didn’t know there was a thread. I managed to get a couple of hours in the demo last week with a friend and it was pretty great! Played a bit of ranger and cleric and i liked both altho the ranger felt pretty weak fighting mosnters.

Will probably buy it whenever it releases (sounds like end of this year)

15

It looks pretty janky, in comparison with the last coop first person melee I have played, Darktide. Which in a way signals something: not everything is invented in videogames. Because if something this janky can blow up, it means the idea of playing a hard first person fabtast dungeon crawler is pretty good, good enough fo people to play it despite the jankiness.
Which means if a big company with budget would make a game like this, they could have a hit in their hands.

16

It is janky, and i think that lends it some charm. I do wish there was a little more to the combat, and I was really hoping for some more development going into this last play test, but i’m still really hyped on the game and it’ll be a day one purchase for me.

17

I would be really interested in this game if it was pure PvE, but I can’t deal with PvP stuff anymore.

18

I was trying to get into it, I really liked the look of the game, but couldn’t buy into the gameplay loop. It seemed kind of empty, I wanted more then just survive, get loot, pvp.

Cause if pvp is the endgame, then why not just play a barbarian that doesnt need equipment? I know theres a couple bosses. And leader boards.

I think Im missing the exploration, and quests. This game would be a fun mode to play inside of a larger dungeon delving game. Plus the combat, reminds me a lot of morrowind, swing swing swing. I know its slightly more complicated, with head shots, and directional blocking, but not by much.

19

Dark and Darker has been yanked from Steam due to a DMCA claim from Nexon.

@everyone . To all our fans, we have recently been served a cease and desist letter and DMCA takedown by Nexon regarding Dark and Darker based on distorted claims. We are currently working with our legal team to remedy this issue in the best manner possible. Due to the sensitive legal nature of this issue we must be careful with our statements so as to not jeopardize our position. We ask for your understanding as we work to get the game back up as quickly as possible. Please know that we will do all that is possible for our fans. Thanks!

20

they had a long response to this in their discord

the post goes on to say

They go on at length to describe the situation. Their claim is: the transfer to a private server was well known and acknowledged as a response to covid protocols. Ultimately the server was deleted and no information was used/transferred. He then left/was fired.

They then describe the DMCA takedown. Essentially, they’re saying almost all of the identical names are because the same assets were purchased. The remaining ones follow a recommended naming convention.

and the assets that appear identical

and finally close with:

I dunno. You tell me a guy and a third of his team jump ship to make the same game that was just cancelled, and I could see where Nexion is coming from. But from reading this it sounds like a whole lot of Nexion being pissy and not actually having any proof. I like the game a lot, and hope it gets made, but this doesn’t seem like a thing that will be resolved quickly.