**2,500+ hours — I love this game, and that's the problem.**
I've been playing Dark and Darker since the open beta, and I've put around 2,500 hours into it. There's a genuinely great game underneath all the problems. The gameplay loop is addictive. Dungeon crawling, looting, extracting, gearing up, and going back in is incredibly satisfying when everything works.
I wouldn't have anywhere near 2,500 hours if I didn't enjoy the game.
That said, I have a *lot* of negatives.
The game is still incredibly broken in ways that feel like they should have been addressed a long time ago. Bugs, balancing issues, questionable design decisions, and problems that have been around for far too long can make the game incredibly frustrating. At this point, some of these issues have existed for so long that it's hard to understand why they haven't been fixed.
The community is also one of the most toxic communities I've encountered. Obviously not every player is like this, but the overall experience can be pretty miserable, especially for newer players. The game already has a steep learning curve, and the community often does absolutely nothing to make that easier.
And then there's the monetization.
Around 2–3 seasons ago, it felt like the game started pumping out cosmetics at a completely different rate. I don't have a problem with cosmetic items existing. If people want to spend money on skins, emotes, or other optional cosmetics, that's fine.
But **$75 for a cosmetic? Seriously?**
At some point, the prices become ridiculous. We're talking about the price of an entire new game—or more—for something that is purely cosmetic. I understand that developers need to make money, but seeing cosmetics reach prices like $75 is absolutely insane to me, especially when the game still has so many underlying issues that need attention.
That's probably what frustrates me the most about Dark and Darker. It feels like there's this incredible game here that I genuinely love playing, but I'm constantly asking myself why certain things are getting so much attention while longstanding problems remain.
And that's what makes this review difficult.
Despite all of that, I still keep coming back.
There's something about Dark and Darker that other games haven't managed to replicate. When the game is working properly and you have a good run, the feeling is fantastic. The core gameplay loop is genuinely fun, and I still enjoy playing it after thousands of hours.
I just wish the developers would take the problems seriously and actually fix the issues that have been around for way too long. I don't want to hate this game. I want it to be as good as I know it can be.
**2,500 hours later, I'm still playing because I love the game underneath all the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. But after this many hours, it's getting really hard to ignore the problems.**
