Dark and Darker is a multiplayer dark fantasy video game developed by South Korean studio Ironmace. The game was released into early access on August 7, 2023.
Gameplay
Dark and Darker is a first-person hybrid between a dungeon crawler and a role-playing game with a dark medieval fantasy setting. The game blends elements from role-playing systems such as Dungeons & Dragons, roguelikes, and multiplayer video games such as DayZ, and has been described as belonging to the “extraction” subgenre of battle royales.
Players can select one of ten character classes (fighter, barbarian, rogue, ranger, wizard, cleric, bard, warlock, druid, and sorcerer). The game features PvPvE (player versus player versus environment) gameplay, where players engage in combat against monsters to obtain valuable items while remaining vigilant against potential threats from other players. The environment gradually becomes more dangerous, eventually killing all remaining players who have not escaped the playable area. Surviving a match allows players to extract loot for use in future matches. If the player is killed, they lose all of their possessions and equipment. If the player successfully navigates through the dungeon and survives, they can store their acquired loot in a designated storage area for future use or potential sale. The game allows players to exchange items amongst themselves using in-game currency or other valuable items.
Several updates during the early access phase of the game have introduced new features, including a marketplace for selling/buying in-game items, gear-based matchmaking to balance PvP interactions, a religion system that grants in-dungeon bonuses, and multiclassing.
Release
A demo of Dark and Darker was first released in February 2023 as an alpha playtest during Steam Next Fest. Developer Ironmace expected the game to release into early access in April or May, with a full launch in Q4. However, that release was delayed on May 9 due to a legal dispute with Nexon.
The game was released into early access on August 7, 2023 through Chaf Games and Ironmace’s own website. Later that month, the developer announced the game would be coming to mobile devices through a deal with PUBG Mobile-maker Krafton.
On January 4, 2024, the Game Rating and Administration Committee rated Dark and Darker as 19+ rating. In March 2024, Ironmace announced that Dark and Darker would release on the Epic Game Store.
In June 2024, the game added free-to-play accounts, though players can upgrade to a paid account to unlock more features and exclusive items. Steam users have criticized this free to play option, calling it a demo.
In December 2024, the game allowed “Legendary Status” to be purchased via a DLC, instead of by the game’s in game currency known as Redstone Shards.
Mobile version
A mobile version of the game, developed by the Korean game publisher KRAFTON, is scheduled for early access release in Canada and the US on February 4, 2025.
Legal issues
On February 16, 2023, it was reported the South Korean video game company Nexon alleged that Dark and Darker had similarities to an ongoing development of a game that was tentatively titled as P3 internally. It alleged that P3 assets were leaked onto an external server by developer Ju-Hyun Choi (also known as SDF on The Dark and Darker Discord), project team leader for P3 and the latter suggested to their teammates to quit Nexon and work on a game similar to P3. Choi was fired in August 2021, and was part of half of the 20-member P3 project team who would subsequently join Ironmace. Ironmace was founded in October 2021 by Terence Park Seung-ha (also known as Terence on the Dark and Darker Discord), who was also a member of the P3 project team. Since the disbandment of the P3 development team, the core of the development work was reworked into another tentatively titled game, P7. Ironmace denied the allegations, stating that the game genre could not be copyrighted and the game was created from ground up using Unreal Engine assets and handmade code.
On March 8, 2023, the police raided Ironmace’s office in Seongnam, in search of evidence over the allegations. On March 24, 2023, Nexon issued a cease and desist notice to Ironmace to pause development of Dark and Darker in relation to the allegations. On March 26, 2023, the game was delisted from the Steam online game store after Nexon filed a DMCA notice.
However, on April 14, 2023, Ironmace announced its fifth public playtest of the game, with the game and subsequent patches distributed through BitTorrent links instead of Steam. On the same day, Nexon filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Ironmace in the United States, in response to which Ironmace claimed that the issue lies between Nexon and just one Ironmace employee and it should be settled in South Korea.
On April 20, 2023, Ironmace requested Steam to reinstate Dark and Darker back on its store, claiming that the copyright infringement claims by Nexon were “meritless”.
On August 17, 2023, the American court case was dismissed.
As of June 7, 2024, the game is back on Steam again as free-to-play.
