Darkest Dungeon II's free Kingdoms DLC adds a separate mode for players to be tortured in. While much of the core experience remains the same, managing a kingdom under siege and balancing party dynamics blends series' best parts.
When initially diving into my fragile kingdom in Darkest Dungeon II‘s newest Kingdoms DLC, I was overwhelmed. Despite understanding the most basic core of Red Hook Studios’ turn-based RPG rife with arduous combat and dire stakes, I felt overwhelmed.
At that point I had yet to play Darkest Dungeon II, the sequel to a series with an incredible following and reception. While Kingdoms–a free DLC that is also a separate mode from the “Confessions” campaign of the main game–had its own tooltips and guided me along with its codex, I was mildly lost. Who were these heroes? What were their abilities? Why do I keep dying so much?
As if instilled with newfound resolve, I decided to course correct. I booted up Darkest Dungeon II and started up “Confessions” for the first time. I wanted to do this right. And, likely, experience things like most Darkest Dungeon players would. A couple weeks later and I had gone through a significant portion of Darkest Dungeon II, immortalizing the game with a review on Digital Chumps where it had sorely been passed by when it released over two years ago.
This is not to imply that Kingdoms is absolutely unapproachable for newcomers. But I feel like a deeper knowledge of the base game is important in extracting the maximum amount of enjoyment from the DLC. And considering players have to own the base game to experience it, Kingdoms is obviously meant for those who have some knowledge and appreciation for Darkest Dungeon II.
Rather than belabor what makes Darkest Dungeon II such an exceptionally tense and enjoyable game–you can check out my review for that–I feel like its important to focus on what Kingdoms does different, while maintaining the core of the base game.
Where “Confessions” is a roguelike, laced with meta-progression and a narrative, Kingdoms is focused on one instance. At the onset, players select a “kingdom” that they wish to prevent from being overrun by the evil forces of chaos. Each kingdom has a specific layout of roads, locations, and inns.
Kingdoms‘ point is to survive. The terms of that survival is gauged by a number of days that players have to prevent inns from being destroyed. Depending on the kingdom layout that players choose and the difficulty they select, the stakes will be significantly higher. More inns mean more points to defend and on higher difficulties, players can risk less inns falling and “escalation” events happen faster with a limited amount of days.
Inns are the focal point of Kingdoms as they are not only the anchor for victory but the fuel for Darkest Dungeon II‘s heroes. Scattered around each inn, heroes are resting. When the mode starts, players have the normal party of four heroes starting at a set location. But in typical Darkest Dungeon fashion, as battles take their toll, heroes’ stress and interpersonal relationships will fluctuate. Keeping stress at a minimum is essential for battles to have a higher degree of success and when heroes hate each other, the negative buffs stack up.
Kingdoms smartly gives players the option of picking up new heroes at an inn and leave unruly ones there. After a number of days, tensions will cool and those heroes can also heal up and ease their stress meter. It’s a clever mechanic because it doesn’t restrict the player to a core four members like the base game. While heroes can certainly die in battle, inns act as strategic placements where players can run around their kingdom to refresh the party, hopefully keeping a battle-viable mix of heroes.
When surviving battles and encountering radiant events across the map, players are rewarded currency that can be used to purchase items and upgrade the inns. Much like inns in the base game, players can invest in mastery to upgrade hero skills. But each inn also has its own upgrade trees with branching paths. Upgrading these paths means that heroes will heal better when resting at that specific inn, the stagecoach can be upgraded and repaired, defenses can be improved, and new items can be bought.
Because upgrades aren’t shared between inns, players have to be keenly aware of how much they spread resources and investments. Do you dump everything in one inn to have a kind of home base? Or are essential upgrades spread throughout the kingdom a safer bet?
The danger in leaving an inn unoccupied by a hero and lacking in upgrades means that when enemy forces lay siege upon an inn, tension raises. Players have a limited amount of time to get the stagecoach to that inn before a battle ensues. If the main party doesn’t make it, any hero at the inn will engage in the fight. But to make the odds fair, a volunteer militia can fill in the other three slots. As long as the inn is upgraded enough, a signal flare can be used by a hero to summon the militia to aid in battle. But the inn also needs to be upgraded enough for these militia members to be truly effective in combat.
Another throughline of Kingdoms are quests that players must complete throughout the journey. Failure of a quest often means failing the mode. Quests are dictated through items players must equip, usually on the stagecoach. But rather than a line on the HUD, players must investigate the item to receive a kind of hint as to the next step for completion. These often include hitting a certain path instance like a Watchtower, or fighting enemies. Quest steps can take a number of days to unfold and understand but it’s a fun way to further bring players into the world.
As days progress in Kingdoms, players will hit a threshold where the Escalation rises. Once this happens, enemies are buffed similar to how they are in the base game when the light begins to dim. Once Escalation hits, there is a definite sense of challenge being introduced as players have hopefully strengthened inns and heroes enough to contend with the extended challenge.
Where Kingdoms might frustrate veteran players is the true lack of a definitive “point” to all the action. Where “Confessions” featured a narrative and permanent progression between runs, death or victory in Kingdoms is merely just that. A lack of true fanfare is mostly okay but Kingdoms definitively is simply another way to enjoy Darkest Dungeon II and some of the elements from the first game. But for many, that is enough.
The stress and thrill of Darkest Dungeon II is scraping through every victory in hopes of being lucky enough to get stronger. Kingdoms offers a similar thrill but boils it down into a singular instance that can last a few minutes or a few hours. The primary element of the mode is the Kingdom management, asking players to find a way to juggle the flow of threats while constantly improving heroes and inns. This also includes managing time where traveling by stagecoach and doing other actions ticks away days. Can the party reach an inn in time? You could potentially try underground roads to expedite the journey but ambushes can occur in those depths. Individual heroes can be sent from one inn to another without penalty but again, the risk is an inn with less defenses.
At launch, Kingdoms features the Beastmen faction. Unsurprisingly Red Hook Studios nails the art design of its enemies and characters. As time goes on, two more “modules” will be added to Kingdoms mode, providing new enemy factions to fight and potentially more content. At the same time Kingdoms launched, the paid DLC “Inhuman Bondage” debuted. This DLC features the Abomination hero, items specific to the Abomination, and a new era. For the Abomination to be included in Kingdoms, players must first unlock his path in “Confessions”.
Darkest Dungeon II: Kingdoms is a tense, deadly, and viable extension of the base game’s formula. Red Hook Studios found a way to differentiate the mode’s pace from the base game, turning kingdom and party management into a siege of survival. For veterans of the series, this is a new way to test their skills and ability to overcome impossible odds.
