The darkness returns in Massive Darkness 2!

Massive Darkness 2 is the ambitious follow up to the original CMON dungeon crawl. This time around they've really pushed the boat out to focus on some really neat gameplay mechanics with their class system and shadow mechanics and also really upped their game with some of the most well crafted miniatures I've seen from a CMON game, let's get into it!

The Darkness has returned and it's up to a new team of Lightbringers to drive back the darkness in a fight against various esoteric monstrosities, but don't worry you don't need to have played the original to be able to play this game!

This is a fully co-operative game where the players are working together to complete quests against enemies who are controlled by the game, this means you don't need one person to control all the enemies and you can focus on team work to defeat the evil that lurks within. 

Each player will control a character who has their own specific gameplay mechanics, which adds a tonne of replayability to this game right from the offset. The Barbarian uses damage they receive to pull off brutal feats of strength and speed, the Wizard has their own Amulet wheel loaded with spells which rotate each time one is used, the ranger plays a game of push your luck by drawing arrow cards and trying to get a total of 7 arrows (the best result) or under, the paladin blesses zones on the board, the rogue draws tokens from their own bag and the shaman channels the elements for different effects.

That's a lot of options and on your turn you will be deciding which of these abilities to use to resolve the current state of the board.

Gameplay couldn't be more simple, each character has a turn moving around the board, opening doors, fighting monsters and then the enemies all attack/move, you'll then level up your heroes if you're able to, before you move the darkness meter forward which could spawn new monsters and treasures.

The Shadows are your friend too as each map tile has sections that are dimmer which are classed as "in shadow" and lighter sections which are classed as "in light". When you attack in a location that is "in shadow" you get to roll the shadow dice which allows you to score more hits or even activate your classes special ability.

The monsters are all a varied bunch, the first game drew on classic fantasy monster types, this time you've got some really weird and wonderful options like fire elementals and satyrs who all have their own specific abilities. When you spawn a monster you'll also be giving their leader a specific item which will help them attack your heroes, however if a hero lands the finishing blow on the enemy, they get to keep that weapon for themselves.

The vast array of loot options for your heroes is staggering, with a slew of treasure cards ranging from common to epic. There's also sets of equipment that if you manage to claim will power up your hero even more.

The miniatures are amazing! Not only do the basic monsters and heroes look great, but the bosses and roaming monsters are exceptionally detailed and really creative sculpts. The Angel boss for instance has a goose or something above their head and there's some kind of big tentacled evil monstrosity in there too for all you Cthulhu fans.

The game can be played solo, but works best when you've got two to three people at the table who are each working on their own specific class mechanics and working out who needs to activate and when so you can achieve your goals as each time you take out villains you'll be gaining XP to level yourself up, but the monsters will level up with you, so you need to really work as a team!

All in all this is fantastic value for such a deep and beautiful game. If you're looking for a modern dungeon crawler with no need for a person controlling the monster or app integration, this is a must.