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Roguelike RPG Darkest Dungeon 2 Steam release date arrives in May

Dark turn-based RPG Darkest Dungeon II will launch its 1.0 version on Steam and Epic in May, and a free demo is available in the Steam Next Fest starting today.

Darkest Dungeon 2 Steam release date: A party of four well-armed adventurers

Time to pack your bags for a road trip to hell. Darkest Dungeon 2, the turn-based RPG game about the psychological tolls that facing unspeakable horrors can have on a group of adventurers, will be leaving early access and launching on both Steam and the Epic Games Store, with its 1.0 release date set for May 8. Starting today, there’s also a free demo of Darkest Dungeon 2 to try out in the Steam Next Fest.

Like its predecessor, Darkest Dungeon 2 is about assembling a team of adventurers and sending them out on extremely upsetting adventures. This time, however, the format has shifted: your party sets out in a horse-drawn carriage on what developer Red Hook Studios calls a “road trip of the damned.”

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Your task is nothing than less averting the apocalypse, and so the characters in your party are under quite a bit of job-related stress. As their stress levels rise, they’ll either snap under the pressure or discover hidden strength within, and as they travel, their relationships with each other can either strengthen or fray.

The free demo allows you to check out two of Darkest Dungeon 2’s environs: there’s the urban Sprawl, and the Foetor, which is set in the haunted farmland of the countryside. You won’t be able to save progression between runs in the demo, but in the full version, each run will grant rewards you can carry forward in subsequent expeditions.

Narrated by the always-gravelly Wayne June, Darkest Dungeon 2 is grim and Lovecraftian – it’s a bit like a weird fiction ghost story crossed with Fire Emblem.

Check out some more of the best horror games on PC if you’re in the mood for something scary, and if surviving (or preventing) the apocalypse is your thing, then some of the best apocalypse games might also be up your derelict and deserted street.