Dark and Darker

I'll be honest, I had never heard of this game prior to Liz bringing it up recently. She explained it as "escape from tarkov in fantasy", so I had a decent idea of what I was getting into from watching people play EfT and wishing I had a computer that could run it.

I'll start with what I don't particularly care for in the game, namely how unfinished many of the classes feel to play. In fairness the game is in early access and everything is subject to change, especially class balance. Druid is miles stronger than Cleric is, it's not even a competition. This is coming from a lifelong cleric player in every game that gives me the option. Maces may scale better over time than panther claws but by the time that matters (accounting for how much faster you are in panther form) you're probably good enough at the game to start running dungeons with a birthday suit for armour and a pool toy for a weapon. I could not hate the matchmaking more. If you have more than one less-than-terrible item you get put in a queue with everyone with 1000+ hours in the game.

All that being said, while I've never been a fan of games where I'm as squishy as a doritos taco shell 30 seconds after you get it from the window (read: already a fine paste), I actually rather like the level of skill the game demands from you. The time limit is reasonable, every combat is potentially your last, and meeting another player is almost guaranteed death, for Liz and I at least. The combos are basic but servicable, though it would be nice to have more to memorise for combat. The game would really benefit from the Mount and Blade school of directional combat swings. Druid is FUN, having an ent to draw aggro while my wizard girlfriend melts an enemy or I beat him to death with my claws is very useful, and the healing spells are good for survivability for the two of us nerds who are admittedly pretty trash at the game.

The game is free, well the demo version is. Which isn't the worst model. Early on I highly suggest bouncing between classes and finding something you like. The martial classes aren't bad, Wizard is fun, and my thoughts on Druid are clear. Not bad for download space either. I don't do scores but that's a "play it, see if you like it" from me.