Highly recommend this game! It's everything you love about DROD and then then some! It's loaded with refreshing puzzles and challenges that vary wildly with some really awesome new innovations to the series.

If you are new to the DROD series:

If you enjoy puzzle games and tricky design then you're most likely going to really enjoy this game (orrrrr any other DROD game) DROD treats you like you are intelligent and makes you really think to overcome some of it's challenges while remaining fun and rarely tedious.

This game does include a nice interactive tutorial that teaches you the basics quickly and easily. So if this is your first drod game you could still learn it and enjoy it. However, the learning curve is a bit sharp here, so there's a good chance you may get stuck on puzzles more frequently than you would having played the previous games in the series as they condition you to look for solutions in some unique and rather tricky ways. Personally, I would recommend starting this series with
DROD: Gunthro's Epic Blunder first.

If you have played and enjoyed other DROD games before:

Then this game is a treat. It is loaded with smart, fun puzzles like any other DROD game and it treats you as though you're already an experienced Smitemaster.

There are some nice additions to this game, better production values but not too different from the previous ones. A lot of little things that are nice. Some better graphics and animations, some new music along with the classic thinking tunes.

The story and progression of Gunthro felt a little more enjoyable to me (traveling to other dungeons on a big traversable world vs the map/hub in this one) but the progress and hub is still great and very well done in this one too!! It also has some great humor (duh duh duuuuhhhhhh < dramatic music)

And of course where it really matters: the puzzles and level design in DROD:TSS certainly shines in that department!

The single best puzzle game of all time, although not a good DROD to start with.

So this is my favourite in the DROD series, but...

There are some sequels that you can get right into without having to play the previous games. This is not one of those sequels. Go buy DROD: Gunthro And The Epic Blunder, then buy it's three full-games-as-DLC, and only THEN get this one!



There's honestly no point in a comprehensive breakdown. This review is literally just "You'll know when to buy it".

[Note I bought this when it was originally released back in 2014 and have played for literally thousands of non-steam hours since then, as well as the few hundred on the steam version.]

DROD is the greatest puzzle game of all time, hands down. The game is entirely down to player skill and pretty much everything can be reasoned out in a way that is often enjoyable, mindbending, or a combination of the two. The main game has a quirky and fun storyline combined with hundreds of top notch puzzle rooms and what makes it even better is that there are thousands upon thousands of usermade puzzles available for free from Caravel Forum, which means that DROD is a game which doesn't stop giving. For first time DROD players I'd recommend picking up GatEB rather than TSS as this is slightly gentler difficulty wise.

12 Really Big Swords out of 10.

While TSS is not quite my favorite DROD game or a good entry point into the series, it is no doubt the best one as a pure puzzler and by all rights one of the biggest and best pure puzzle games ever made as well as a fantastic culmination to the series.

Disclaimer, I have completed every DROD released thus far.

One of the greatest puzzle games available on Steam. This game is long and challenging, which is great if you found other puzzle games like The Witness, Antichamber and TALOS Principle too short or too easy.

I solved all secrets and unlocked the masterwall after 115 hours of playtime.
Caravelgames was so nice to provide Steam keys so the logged playtime is wrong.

Ah, DROD, the Dark Souls of puzzle games, where knowledge is key, and Second Sky, the best way to end a long time series.

Second sky is a product of love and a big collaboration from the original developers with long time community members and level creators. This is shown in every facette. The world is filled with details and lore, every room has new puzzle concepts or advances the really long and epic story to it's ultimate conclusion. Expect twists and turns and great written dialogue on its way. Funny, philosophical, thought-provoking or just some good old character drama. It's all there and even if this game as a whole doesn't look like that, the Lore behind it is absolutely fascinating with its different types of societies and factions that work on very different ideologies. The "Empire of knowledge" is one of the more interesting "evil" factions I know of in a game.

The game itself is classic DROD gameplay with new mechanics and as a first time in the series, some dungeons will force you to go with another weapon than your sword. Every weapon has new rules, but they are easy to understand. For example, the baseball bat like weapon doesn't kill an enemy but you forcefully push the monster for 1 tile and it only goes splat if pushed against a wall. It's fun to play with this and other weapons. They feel very different and the dungeons are all built around the new possibilites of the weapons for even more creative puzzles.

Can I recommend Second Sky to new players? Ahh, no, you'll be overwhelmed, not in the good way, more in the math class room and you can't comprehend what's going on type of way. For DROD you have to train your brain and let it do some rewiring. The phenomena was discussed in The Witness a lot but also applies extensively to DROD.
With Second Sky it's like playing the Witness3, not a pleasant idea unless you want to feel like a big dumb pile of meat.

DROD has a very linear difficulty curve though and you'll be smoothed into the puzzle concepts with each entry.
Most veterans now say skip KDD though and play:
- Gunthro and the Epic Blunder
- Journey to Rooted Hold
- The City Beneath
- The Second Sky

Also as a good starting point you can check the unofficial wiki for elements and monsters here:
http://drod.wikia.com/wiki/Deadly_Rooms_Of_Death_Wiki
The lore section isn't really filled out though.

A masterpiece for puzzle lovers all around. I would not recommend buying this final entry as your first DROD game due to this game building up on the series in terms of difficulty and mechanics. As always make sure to utilize the Caravel Games forums to seek help (you will need it).

Fun fun game great story phenomenal puzzles and dedicated voice actors. i love this game!

DROD is an amazing puzzle game, and gets challenging very quickly. Starting with one of the earlier entries in the series is definitely recommended, or at the very least taking a detour through more gentle user levels when you hit a wall in the main story.

The Second Sky itself is pretty long (close to 100 hours to fully beat for me, and I was pretty experienced with the games), and it definitely feels like the culmination of the series. The gameplay might look like hack and slash, but there's a very large variety of puzzles hiding under the surface, and many, many different mechanics.

And don't get me started on some of the more fiendish user levels...