Grab three of your buddies, pick a class, kill some skeletons, grab some loot, and make a grand escape. It seems simple enough, but now add in 15 other players, enemies abound, and an ever-closing death ring, and you’ll have Dark and Darker.
From developer and publisher IRONMACE, the PvPvE title Dark and Darker pits 16 players against each other to grab the most loot and try to escape with their lives. Reminiscent of Fortnite or PUBG with a constantly closing “safe” area, each player (or team if you’re with friends) starts at a random spot on the edge of the dungeon and must search for the magical blue stone to activate the portal to escape. These stones can only spawn within the closing ring, so the longer you survive, the better your chance of seeing one.
There were six available classes for the alpha, each with their own unique fighting style. I decided to go with the Fighter class for my time in the game. The two friends I played with chose the Cleric (gotta love those heals) and the Rogue classes. Encountering the various classes inside the dungeon showed how much effort IRONMACE has put into making each class feel different.
Once the game started, I noticed perhaps my biggest issue with the game. The pacing was just too sluggish. This ranged from swinging a sword, opening a door, or even looting a body. Everything just felt slow. Perhaps this was done on purpose to give the player’s actions more “weight,” but it wore my patience after some time, and I think it’s something that could definitely be looked at in the future.
Looting takes on a familiar form, as players of Diablo or Path of Exile should feel right at home in the same slot system that those games use. Everything you kill can be looted, and along with the plentiful amount of chests the game throws at you, new items were never in short supply. Finding that blue sword or green armor piece always felt good, but without an equip compare feature, it took a little bit too long to figure out what was better. As great as it felt finding better loot, it felt equally disappointing to learn that any loot you have, whether you found it in a chest during a run or bought it from a merchant after, was lost upon death. This made the death penalty too harsh for an already difficult game.
Speaking of buying items with gold, the merchant system was one that unfortunately made my head spin. As soon as you open the tab, you are greeted with 12 different merchants, all buying & selling different items. Having to go through each merchant to see what they were selling or if they would buy my junk took far too long and seemed overly complicated.
There was some progression outside of equipment, but the main leveling system, known as “training,” was still listed as coming soon. Judging by what I could see, the system looks like a promising way to reward your time by growing levels and unlocking new abilities that carry over between your matches.
The difficulty of the game was something that also came as a surprise to me. The alpha made the strange decision only to allow you to play on the “hard” setting. This meant that even simple spiders and bats were dangerous, and I was frustrated after losing a match to something so weak. I was also caught off guard when I discovered the friendly fire was enabled, as navigating the tight corridors with my teammates was made that much more challenging.
Dark and Darker brings a lot of fresh and interesting ideas to the table. Although I left the alpha playtest with minor complaints, I am still excited to see how the game will shape up over the rest of the year. Did you get a chance to try out Dark and Darker? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below!
