And because the requirement scales on a linear basis, the time sink become even bleaker, according to evilomerta: "With a 20% avg survival rate and the avg game lasting 12 minutes for last play test, that means it’ll take the avg player 1,800 games or 360 hours to unlock one class. And that’s just the average. For some it’ll be impossible."

The backlash has been strong enough that Ironmace is in fact giving thought to walking it back. Character classes currently remain available for purchase through the in-game store, but Ironmace CEO Terence Park recently recommended on the Dark and Darker Discord that players not spend money on them, and suggested that refunds will be offered to those who already have.

Nothing on that front has been confirmed at this point, but a separate developer confirmed with PC Gamer that the studio is "heavily considering" the change, and that a final decision and announcement is "not too far off." We'll let you know if and when it happens.

Dark and Darker will hold one more playtest in April

The subterranean extraction hack-and-slasher Dark and Darker was a huge hit during the latest Steam Next Fest—in fact, it was one of the biggest things on Steam. I didn't get to spend as much time with it as I wanted (I was distracted by the excellence of Weird West) and so I'm very happy that developer Ironmace will give me, and everyone else, another shot at it in April.

After thanking players for their help, Ironmace said the most recent playtest gave the studio "a lot of clues on how to proceed with development," but also raised "some important questions that need to be answered." As a result, it has decided to do another round of playtesting before a planned launch into early access. If you want to buy MMoexp Dark And Darker Gold please visit https://www.mmoexp.com/Dark-and-darker/Gold.html.