Experience (Mostly) Full Featured Hell in Darkest Dungeon

Darkest Dungeon, one of Kickstarter’s latest darlings and a model for the Early Access game, has finally been released.  That means gamers can finally “Go to Hell.” I assume the developers are referring to the games full release, and not something more nefarious.

The bad news, if you can call it that, is that a few features will have to wait until post-launch to be integrated in the game. Random events in town, and the Merchant character class will have to wait for a free update sometime after the release of the game. The developers are promising a long list of other features and updates long after release as well.

To wrap up the update, there are a few bits of news about backer rewards, such as art books and in-game journals.

Since it launched on Steam Early Access, Darkest Dungeon met with immediate praise for its completeness, and the fact that it was pretty great. However, as months went by, fans starting protesting the changes being made, saying the game was becoming too easy or too hard. In recent months, that fervor seems to have died down, and shouldn’t be a problem for the full release.

This is an interesting problem crowdfunded and Early Access games have. The developers want to listen to their backers and earlier buyers and implement the features they want. However, those fans don’t always understand all the mechanics of the game, and putting in the wrong changes, even seemingly tiny ones, can easily break a game.

We’ll know for sure whether or not the changes brought on by Early Access and the backers helped or hurt the game, but I have a good feeling about this.