After being overshadowed in the news by the whole Microsoft Activision buyout, Dark and Darker devs have had a bit of time to get their act together, sort of.
The game has finally launched on to Early Access, but not through Steam. The team have built their own launcher called Blacksmith and teamed up with another indie platform, Chaf Games. You can choose to purchase the game either via the Dark and Darker website or through the Chaf Games storefront. The standard edition will run you back around $35, while the Enhanced edition, which includes future early access to patches and the skeleton class, will cost you $50.
This doesn’t mean the court case has ended, though, and we can’t be sure what’ll happen to the game once the court case does come to a conclusion, but the game is available for purchase, and people are playing it as we speak.
In an announcement on Discord, the Ironmace team pointed out that the game is still a work in progress, and they know that bugs will definitely appear. I mean, that is essentially the point of Early Access, so no harm done there.
They also pointed out that they have now added an in-game store where players can make cosmetic and class purchases. It is worth noting that all classes can be unlocked by playing the game and acquiring enough in-game currency through that method, but those who want to play a specific change straight away can grab it in-store. Ironmace has been upfront about the store and is open to feedback from the community on any changes that need to be made. The purpose of the store is to support the team so that the game can improve.
Dark and Darker is a co-op mediaeval extraction looter that takes players through the deepest dungeons in search of better treasure to take on even deeper dungeons and more menacing minions in the hopes of even better treasure than the last.