Darkest Dungeon 2's free Kingdoms update "remixes" the first two games into a turn-based strategy game
There have been a lot of remakes that take provocative creative liberties with the original game of late. I've always felt like last year's Darkest Dungeon 2 was secretly one of them. Rather than simply building on the previous game's premise of a Hamlet's worth of upgradeable, derangeable heroes venturing into tabletop RPG-style labyrinths, it stripped away Darkest Dungeon's skin and moved its bones and organs around to create a gruelling roguelike. Well, developers Red Hook appear to have done it again with Darkest Dungeon 2's free Kingdoms mode, out later this year, which slices open Darkest Dungeon 2's hide and recomposes it into a turn-based strategy boardgame, where you defend a world map against encroaching eldritch creatures.