Red Hook Studios has announced a massive new Darkest Dungeon 2 update for later this year, and it's bringing a whole new campaign mode with it.
The new Kingdoms mode will task you with finding and defeating "a monstrous threat before it overwhelms and destroys the Kingdom", and it'll combine Darkest Dungeon 2's traversal and combat with the "permanence and roster management" of the original.
As you journey across the Kingdom, you'll gather resources and upgrade both your heroes and a series of Inns across the Kingdom, which "can be improved via extensive upgrade trees", according to Red Hook.
The Kingdoms mode will also include three new enemy factions in the form of the Coven, the Beastmen, and the Crimson Courtiers. You'll be able to enjoy Kingdoms alongside the standard Confessions campaign mode.
Darkest Dungeon 2 director Chris Bourassa says the update will pack Red Hook's "flagship" game with "even more content and value" for players.
He goes on to say that Red Hook evaluates projects based on the potential they have to "elicit surprise, delight, and despair", and that the Kingdoms campaign "hits all three".
Darkest Dungeon 2 is the sequel to 2016's brutally punishing dungeon-crawler Darkest Dungeon. It originally launched in Early Access back in 2021 before getting a full release on PC last year.
The sequel makes a number of changes to its predecessor; heroes now explore the world using a stagecoach rather than delving into dungeons in different locations, and its heroes are fixed characters rather than being randomly-generated fighters.
Many things, however, remain similar between the two games, including turn-based combat that emphasizes positioning and team synergy, as well as many of the character classes and the relentlessly bleak tone.
You can grab Darkest Dungeon 2 right now on PC. If you're just starting out in the game, why not check out our guides to help you on your way?
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