Expedition Agartha

Could've been a genuine competitor to Dark and Darker but they just gave up on it. Granted it never had a steady or populated playerbase, but it had something to it. They stopped updating it and put maps behind paywalls. And for that, the game is dead.

This dead game is still pretty awesome. I'm writing this in 2026. I obtained this game maybe 2 years ago(?), played it for a while, bought the Merc DLC at a steep discount from a keystore so that I could unlock the ascendant class with the 1500 insight you get from it, then put it away for a while. Came back in Mar 2026, and it's still just as dead. Steam charts shows something like 3 players a day? But it's still fun and I still got into it again. The fact that there are no players is fine. The bots and monsters are interesting enough, and I have many stories of things going well, then suddenly turning a corner and running into a samurai warrior with his squad of like eight spearmen who all chased me down and stabbed me dead. Or when I was struggling to find the extract from the second (Undercroft) map and get out for the first time (after several failed attempts) and I thought I was in the clear when I was mauled by a sudden pack of corrupted zombies. I'm not saying that being mauled by a surprise pack of corrupted zombies is FUN, per say, but there is plenty to do with an almost nil player base. Just like in Tarkov style extraction games, there are plenty of npc merchants that give you quests of stuff to find in the world and bring back, or certain things to do, and it's been fun making my way through all of the quests. And I haven't even scratched the surface of the DLC maps yet. I recall trying another island when I played a year+ ago, only to find that it started us in the late afternoon, and we were killed by corrupted zombies before long. The others I haven't even tried. You can do a lot with just the first map, the Lost Island--getting to know the layout, where the loot is, and fighting a large variety of bots and monsters that also fight each other and create many somewhat unique situations. Build a healthy sum of gold and a stash of crafting materials and consumables and gear. Level up your character. The starter classes have their pros and cons, but if you unlock the Ascended (either with the DLC insight or by building enough insight on your own), you can make your own class from scratch and choose your skills and abilities however you want. Pretty handy if you want to be a swordsman that can also throw a lightning ball, if you don't want to be the mystic-type and suck at combat. Then when you think you've got the island map down, and the bots aren't a big deal, and you want to do harder stuff, find better loot, and do later quests, head to the Undercroft and get your butt kicked by crossbowmen and fully-armored mercs and paladins while you try in vain to navigate the maze of ruined bridges so you can get to the center--while avoiding the golem arenas in your way--and find the damned orange smoke before the zombies come out... And lose your stuff when you die. Buy more expensive backpacks and put on some 'trash' armor and try it again. This game has practically no community anymore, because it was always small, and YouTube videos are mostly outdated and the reddit won't even let you post on it. So you're 70% on your own with figuring out quests. There are no maps on the internet. You've got to figure it all out like back in the 80's and 90's. And the game can be brutal at times. But just like a good extraction game, it hurts to lose your stuff, and feels good to extract with a good haul. They have a pretty winning formula with this game. It's very stimulating. Why did they abandon this game? Idk. It's really too bad. BUT ... the servers are still up. And you can play with friends, which is also great. And some aspects of the game are unpolished, the UI is weird and takes getting used to, and a bug/crash can really screw you over once in a while. But yeah, I recommend this game.