What the heck is with this cart thing?

[Frostfeather]

I thought this was a turn-based dungeon crawler type game.

So why is there a cart you drive? How significant is that part of the game? What's the TL;DR on what the cart is even for in a turn-based dungeon crawler?

[JStorm]

Lol if you're not trolling you're in for some bad news. Darkest dungeon 2 isn't a dungeon crawler and more of a road trip simulator.

That "cart" IS the game friend

[Ashtrails]

the tl;dr is, it is a random encounter table with a flavorful background passing by.

If you played Iron Oath, you might as well ask why you can traverse the overworld or dungeon map there instead of just going from combat to combat.

Otherwise it provides opportunity cost, events, choices, party buffs and the like.
It's insignificant in so far that you press forward, choose a junction FTL style and then do combat or event choices.

Like it's a medium to literally transport the things mentioned above, it crawls you through the 'dungeon', it ain't that deep : D

[Black Hammer]

Basically, they wanted to make FTL instead of a sequel to Darkest Dungeon, but wanted to keep the name and aesthetic because "Another FTL Clone" didn't have the same marketability.

[Frostfeather]

Not sure what FTL is, but I think I'll keep this one off my wishlist.

[RADN3CTAR]

Originally posted by night4:

Not sure what FTL is, but I think I'll keep this one off my wishlist.

I believe they are referring to the game Faster Than Light.

[Gal Kraft]

FTL is a great game. I think the point being made is that they didn't want DD to try to be like something else. I don't see the comparison personally but do add FTL to your wishlist.

EDIT: oh navigation-wise it has more if an FTL point to point instead of DD1 with backtrack capability.

[clarkeveritas]

Look into dd1, this sold itself as a game heavy on rogue-like stuff. That said- dd1 is not a “normal” dungeon crawler….. it’s like your party is on a sinking ship and many of the mechanics are you trying to stay afloat without your guys going insane. It’s hard, it can take a LONG to beat
but i thought it was a fun challenge. A lot of dd1 people didn’t like dd2 and the other way around I wouldn’t really judge them the same.
Oh and dd1 is on sale for like 2 or 3 bucks all the time, which is a pretty wild hour/dollar ratio.

[Frostfeather]

I did see FTL on Steam but thought people must have been referring to something else since I don't see how a 13 year old sci-fi spaceship simulation game compares to this cart stuff.

At any rate, I tried the first Darkest Dungeon and didn't care for it. Didn't *hate* it either, so I was hoping the sequel would improve it enough to enjoy. But cart driving isn't something that would improve it for me.

[Ashtrails]

Just out of curiosity, how is the cart different to you than any other kind of traversal to facilitate ingame events?

It's not like you have to actually control it and stay on track Mario Kart Style

The FTL comparison just emerges from the same style of 'choose junction at a crossroads - stick to your decision since the only way is forward' and FTL became a shorthand for that over the years ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[clarkeveritas]

A lot of bringing up ftl is just because how the basic game loop is different from dd1 and dd2. And I mean they did push the roguelike parts pretty hard as a selling point- so a roguelike you ride around on something while doing little missions…. it’s not shocking it would come up as often as I’ve seen it.

[🟦💀🟦]

The "cart" was used so you don't have one estate with a ♥♥♥♥ ton of clutter in it. This makes the game feel more like a country you're exploring with different regions.

[Mango Tree]

Buy the first one, thank me later.

[Everything is computer]

Did you really buy the game without doing any kind of research yourself?

[The Face]

Originally posted by Mango Tree:

Buy the first one, thank me later.

Nostalgia types sure are grating.

[Frostfeather]

Originally posted by Ashtrails:

Just out of curiosity, how is the cart different to you than any other kind of traversal to facilitate ingame events?

It represents a significant investment of time/resources/advertisement that could have been spent elsewhere. And suggests that the sequel did not improve upon the first game in ways that I would have liked.

You can downplay it all you want, but it's only one negative factor among many here... just the most baffling one. The store page mentions it early in the description and makes it sound important, then does not explain anything about it at all. The creators themselves seem as conflicted/confused about its importance as the "community" is.

For what it's worth, many reviews describe the cart as "awful downtime between meaningful decisions" or "the awful cart on rails" which I suspect sums it up: travel simply isn't interesting, carriage or not. I play games like this to fight.

Originally posted by DVDV:

Did you really buy the game without doing any kind of research yourself?

If you mean me, you can see that I don't own the game.