Dark and Darker is a game about escaping dungeons. And there’s a problem with that – or there should be. Dungeons are so common in fantasy games that it’s hard to pay too much attention to them. We’ve seen them all before, we know what they do. But when was the last time we really re-examined what being in one would actually be like? Dark and Darker does this, and it does it brilliantly well.
Technically it’s a PvPvE extraction game, which means you go into a dungeon with – and against – other people, as well as monsters, and you have to find a way out. If you die, you leave with nothing but the experience points you earned. If you take too long, you’ll be hurried and eventually killed by an earthquake, or by a deadly blizzard blowing in. The point is pressure. You know, even before you begin, you’re never going to be safe. You will need to move, but where?
It’s dark. So dark you won’t even see the chests next to you unless you light a torch. You won’t see platforms or the missing parts of platforms either. You won’t see traps on the floor or the piles of bones that form into skeletons when you’re nearby. In terms of setting, Dark and Darker lives up to its name. Light in the game, therefore, is valuable. But torches also mark you out to anyone nearby, and they occupy the sword arm you hold them with. They’re a risk.
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