As much as Darkest Dungeon was a very well received game, one of its most complained about issues is the sheer grind involved. With random numbers occasionally throwing a real spanner in the works and many, many dungeons to crawl just to get the gold, equipment and experience necessary to continue, a full run through to the end can take up to 80 hours in some cases. The game only has a 1.4 percent completion rate for a reason.
To try and make it so that more people can slog through to the end, the developers have now released an update which offers a new game mode, known as Radiant. This one makes it a little easier to train up starting heroes and this, the devs claim, should cut down playtime by around half.
"[Radiant mode] will have balance changes and rule tweaks aimed at bringing the completion time down to approximately 40 hours. Rest assured that even in this alternate campaign ruleset, we won’t be compromising on some of the core ideas that make DD what it is (e.g. permadeath, autosaving)," the studio wrote in a blog post (via PCG). "However, we will flex here and there on some things and generally structure it so that a reasonable investment of time and effort can see things through to the deepest parts of the Ancestor’s trail. This also paves the way for additional modability, via exposing more options."
For those who did soldier through the original game mode, there will be unique achievements and loot for them to unlock, but for those who just don't have the time to commit to a full 80 hours of gameplay, the new game mode made by just what they needed.
Have you guys delved into Darkest Dungeon? I enjoyed it a lot, but bowed out after 30+ hours as the grind just became too much for me.
