Darkest Dungeon 2 early access set for 2021 with new teaser trailer

As far as indie roguelike games go, few are as well known or beloved as Darkest Dungeon. The game was first released in early access in 2015 and has been continually updated with DLC in the time since then, and last year, developer Red Hook Studios announced that it's working on a sequel. That announcement happened in February 2019 – which seems like a lifetime ago given everything that's happened in 2020 – and ever since then, Red Hook has been silent about what's going on with Darkest Dungeon 2.

That all changed today, with the release of a new teaser and the announcement that Red Hook is targeting a 2021 early access release for Darkest Dungeon 2. We don't have a more specific release date beyond that, but Darkest Dungeon fans will likely be happy knowing that the game is at least on the horizon.

One thing those fans might not be happy with is the fact that Darkest Dungeon 2 appears to be an Epic Games Store exclusive. In addition to the Epic Games Store branding at the end of today's teaser trailer, Red Hook's announcement on its website prompts users to wishlist the game on the EGS. There's no listing for Darkest Dungeon 2 on Steam at the moment, so it seems that this will indeed be an exclusive to the Epic Games Store.

Epic Games has been making some waves with PC gamers ever since it launched its store, as it has been signing exclusivity deals with a number of developers to try to get users to start using EGS in addition to Steam. While that has been a somewhat effective strategy for Epic Games, it's definitely caused some controversy among the PC gaming masses, who otherwise aren't used to exclusives in the same way console gamers might be.

In any case, today's teaser and the accompanying blog post confirm that Darkest Dungeon 2 will offer "stylized 3D" graphics instead of the purely 2D graphics we saw in the first game. We're also promised "a refined combat system and a whole new metagame," but other details are slim at the moment. We'll let you know when more is shared, so stay tuned.