After adopting a free-to-play model that was initially poorly received by the community, the Dark and Darker devs have been expanding on it. First, they let F2P players bring better gear to runs, and now they’re allowing them into the game’s Marketplace, albeit under stricter conditions.
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Hotfix 53 saw numerous changes to Dark and Darker’s gameplay, such as enemy and quest balancing, bug fixes, and more. However, as with the previous hotfix, the main selling point here is the expansion of free-to-play options for players who wish to remain under this model. They can now access the game’s Marketplace, where regular players with “Legendary status” can buy and sell items to earn a few extra bucks. F2P users are only allowed to purchase gear to encourage an upgrade at some point. The developers justified this with what they saw as a “pay to win” problem that arose when F2P users with inferior gear found themselves clashing with fully armored Legendary status holders.
This marks the second major push to expand the free-to-play experience for new Dark and Darker players. The game made its big return to mainstream platforms including Steam, launching with a F2P model to give newcomers a chance to try the game and existing players the opportunity to migrate from their previous platform for free. However, the way the model was conceived has generated some controversy and negative reaction from the community, leading developer Ironmace to look for solutions to please both parties.
As it stands, non-paying Dark and Darker players can take loot and gear up to Legendary level, and also now have limited access to the Marketplace. Given that F2P players can now essentially enjoy the full package (though they’ll only be stuck on Normal mode), we may be seeing a shift in the game’s design philosophy towards appealing to a wider audience rather than just its existing audience.
