Unforgiving Fantasy Extraction Shooter Dark And Darker Has Its Steam Next Fest Playtest Extended

The first person, extraction-based dungeon crawler Dark and Darker has had its fourth playtest extended for three more days to make up for server down time and as a make-good for players who may have been unjustly banned.

Developer Ironmace announced the news on Steam, stating the playtest that went live on February 6 as part of Steam's Next Fest will now go on until February 16.

"Due to the earlier downtime with the trading post, matchmaking, and lost playtime for players that were falsely banned, we have decided to extend the playtest until Feb 16," Ironmace writes. "We also plan to use the time to address issues that are inconveniencing players and to continuously improve the game."

Dark and Darker takes a sword-and-sorcery setting inspired by Dungeons and Dragons--complete with classes, spells, and potions--and combines it with the elements of a PvP extraction shooter like Escape from Tarkov. Players can team up to battle monsters and gather treasure inside dangerous, trap-filled dungeons, all the while competing with other players for a limited number of escape portals. Those that die during a match lose all their equipped gear and items, but making it out alive allows players to sell their loot to earn gold that can then be spent to better prepare for the next adventure.

The game's mix of first-person fantasy RPG and high-stakes PvP combat has proven to be a potent combination. Darker and Darker's demo has been among the top 10 most-played games on Steam for most of the last week, having reached a peak concurrent player count of nearly 110,000 players. That currently puts it above heavy-hitters such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Destiny 2, though it is worth noting that the Dark and Darker demo is free to download, making the barrier to entry low.

Ironmace has not yet given a release date for Dark and Darker, but the game has had multiple playtests on Steam in the last year. The game is currently only playable on PC, but the developer in a tweet from October 2022 did state that it plans to bring the game to consoles once work on the PC version is done.