Dark and Darker Playtest 4 Will Happen in February 2023
/
[Update 2/6/2023]: The 4th Dark and Darker Playtest will be available soon and will last from February 6 until February 13.
The game will be open for downloads in these times:
US West (Oregon) - February 6, 2023 4:00 AM
US East (Virginia) - February 6, 2023 7:00 AM
SA Brazil (Sao Paulo) - February 6, 2023 9:00 AM
EU Central (Frankfurt) - February 6, 2023 1:00PM
SEA (Singapore) - February 6, 2023 8:00 PM
East Asia (Seoul) - February 6, 2023 9:00 PM
Oceania (Sydney) - February 6, 2023 11:00 PM
The third playtest for Dark and Darker has sadly concluded, but developer Ironmace have already announced that there will be another playtest next year in February 2023, during Steam’s upcoming Nextfest event happening from February 6 - 13.
Dark and Darker Playtest #4 at Nextfest
There’s currently no details on what to expect in February or how long Playtest #4 will be, as it’s not clear if the playtest will only be available during Nextfest, but based on previous Playtests, an extension could happen. We’ll update this page as soon as Ironmace provides more information, such as when the servers go live in each region.
Ironmace also announced that the third playtest made Dark and Darker reach over 1 million testers, providing a series of data to further contribute to the development of the high-risk dungeon crawler.
Dark and Darker is making waves as the game was able to reach over fifty thousand concurrent players during its third playtest session. The reception of the game still in development is mostly positive as it’s a nice spin of high-risk gameplay where everything you bring in a match could be lost if you get killed by PvE encounters or actual players in the same game.
The new high is likely due to the addition of a high-rollers mode during Playtest #3, where players will need to spend gold to enter these lobbies. Those participating in High-rollers will get to compete in the game’s first implementation of a leaderboard feature, where you can see the top players in either player kills, treasure gathering, or escapes.
The amount of interest in the game shows a lot of promise for Dark and Darker, a game that currently has no skill tree system, a quest system, or even a more fleshed out progression system. On paper, it would feel bare, but the lack of features isn’t holding it back one bit as the gameplay experience found within a match is enough to get players to keep playing and wanting more.
Nextfest is a Steam event that’s all about celebrating upcoming titles by putting a spotlight on the latest demos of games coming soon to the platform. This will be the 6th NextFest event and will also feature developer livestreams if you wish to learn more about the games featured in the event.
Stellar Blade’s potential was clear, but as its ambitions expanded into something greater, it lost focus. As soon as Stellar Blade tries to bring everything together, it merges into a single figure that looks deformed and uneven. The quality is unquestionable but it wasn’t the final product I was slowly building in my head as I went through the game’s first half.