From Korea with Love: a game for the ages

Once in a while, you get your hands on a game that hook you like no others. For me, Ultima Online, Everquest, Company of Heroes, Xcom, League of Legends and Escape from Tarkov were my top list. Soon, I might have to add a new one: Darker and Darker .

First reason: some things, unrelated to the game itself, really caught my attention:

1. The obvious DnD (Dungeons and Dragons) pun made me smile as this game is truly a Dungeon Crawler, DnD style, with a Hardcore twist.
2. The team is a mystery so far. Their name: Ironmace Studios; their location: probably Korea according to their About us section: “We are experts who have worked on many of the biggest hits in Korea.” Having worked myself for NCsoft for almost a decade, I am wondering if I know some of these guys ??
3. Their self-description is one of a kind. It’s not often that you see a studio with such a strong statement: “We are a merry band of veteran game developers disillusioned by the exploitative and greedy practices we once helped create…We’ve seen firsthand how corporate game companies sell their soul for the easy payday. We are disappointed to see them doubling down on more and more exploitative practices, becoming more like casinos instead of bringing joy to gamers.” I mean, shit, this is heavy! But also, I already absolutely love these guys.

Second reason: it’s all nice and sweet to have such a strong backbone but you need to back it up with a game players will care about. And oh boy, I think we have a winner here:

1. They just wrapped up their Alpha 3, which attracted more than 1 million players…for a playtest that lasted just few days.
2. Ironmace transparency when it comes to game data is unheard of (AFAIK) and you can look it up on their website with no restrictions. Everyone who works in video games understand the value these types of data have. Especially for competitors, but Ironmace does not seem to mind it and so once again…kudos to them!

1. As a big fan of Escape From Tarkov, I understand how people compare both of them due to their extreme unforgiving gameplay and their similar concept of Extraction, yet, there are so many differences between both:

• Dark and Darker is mixing Extraction with Battle Royale where on top of needing to find an exit, you also need to survive the deadly circle closing down on you
• EFT has a crazy crafting component where you can build your own weapon from scratch. It is a weapon building simulation coupled to a military sim. So far, DnD is far simpler since all you must worry about is gearing up with whatever you can depending on your Risk vs Reward appetite. After that, the Risk vs Reward concept is similar in both games: you can gear up with expensive armor and weapon and this will increase your chance of survival, or you can go in default gear and hope to scavenge items to fund your next adventure
• o??The Core loop is amazingly fun. And this is only Alpha 3. I mean, this game is more fun than a bunch of already released online games. You can tell by the Community feedback. Hell, I just could not stop playing over the weekend…

So, all in all, I just felt like writing something about Dark and Darker and Ironmace to let them know that I see them, like millions of other players will, I am sure. Of course, I am very intrigued about what their Business Model will be and in which direction their gameplay will develop but already, this game has grabbed me like very few games managed to and I cannot wait to return to Dark and Darker for their February play session. Feel free to join their Discord server if you want to know their latest updates.