Darksburg Is A Promising Zombie Co-Op Game With Some Issues

Needs a bit more meat on its bones.

Darksburg game

Recently released into Steam Early Access, Darksburg is a 4-player zombie co-op game with a unique setting and plenty of promise. It’s also, however, in need of a few changes to get it where it needs to be.

Developed by Shiro Games, Darksburg immediately stands out thanks to its art style. Coming across like a more twisted version of Fortnite: Save the World blended with a Victorian gothic hook, it definitely catches the eye. All four of the Survivors you can play as are wonderfully designed, even if their overall character archetypes are somewhat inevitably derivative of the game’s inspirations. Diablo is the most obvious comparison to make for Darksburg, it seeing you coming up against hordes of beasties from a top-down perspective in gameplay that can mostly be played passively while still being engaging.

The characters range from a werewolf who can soften enemy attacks with a shield to a young archer and her squirrel companion, who can be sent out in battle to scratch zombies to death. They all have their weaknesses and strengths, exemplified by the bulkier Survivors being more durable while also considerably slower, while the inverse applies for the more nimble characters.

Darksburg
Darksburg

Skills are utilised on a cooldown with some being far more useful than others, but they tend to follow the same pattern. Each Survivor has an evasive maneuver assigned to Q, a support/suppressing move governed by W, and a crowd control/mass damage attack that can be utilised via E. After certain conditions are met, players can also depend upon a “super” move with R that causes huge damage.

Supplies are limited in Darksburg, so there’s always cause for concern when you find yourself isolated from the rest of the group — even the otherwise weak zombies can cause issues for you if they become a mob. Downed teammates can be revived a set amount of times before death, at which point players must resurrect them at a toilet. The caveat is that their overall HP is cut down considerably with only Heaving Salve getting them back to full health. It’s quite often the case that your squad will be the walking wounded by the end of a level, their health bars absolutely devastated by how harsh the game can sometimes be.

Co-op is where you will spend the brunt of your time in Darksburg as you make your way through infested streets with hordes regularly being chucked your way, as well as “Revenants”, who, for my money, can be supremely cheesy. These advanced units of the dead can hook you from afar and pull you in, appear out of nowhere and get you all choked up in a strange circle of darkness, or rampage your way before goring you.

Darksburg
Darksburg

The added challenge of contending with these bigger, badder beasts is welcome for the sake of variety, but they can’t help but feel utterly cheap at some points thanks to how narrow your field of vision is. They tend to arrive totally out of left field, even if your character announces their in-game arrival. If you’re down to a couple of players, getting hooked and dragged away by a Revenant almost always results in death as it’s inescapable — more than a little annoying if you’ve been battering the undead across the course of a level and get yoinked out of it at the last minute.

Though it can offer some mindless fun, there just isn’t quite enough content available in the co-op mode at this time of writing. With just a few levels that you will be repeating over and over and not a tonne of variation in how each plays out, Darksburg doesn’t really incentivise long-term play, not helped by how slender unlocks are. Players can unlock three perks to aid them in battle, and there’s really not much else to work towards. Its aesthetic and general “hero” appeal should lend itself well to deep customisation, though those things just aren’t there quite yet.

Darksburg
Darksburg

Darksburg does have other modes, though they are really underplayed compared to the main meat of the game: the PVE. Versus Survival allows eight players to go up against each other, four as Survivors and another five as the Revenants, though I’ve been unable to find a full lobby so far as most attention is being paid to the co-op by the community. There’s also a horde mode by the name of Last Stand which seems to fare a little better, though it doesn’t offer much to freshen up a mode we’ve been seeing regularly for years now. It’s fun, but that’s just because horde mode is fun in almost every game.

Though I have a fair few issues with Darksburg, I have enjoyed what time I’ve spent with it. Working in sync with other players to repel the hordes is always fun and often intense when the screen really starts to fill up, and Shiro Games are really onto something with the game’s overall aesthetic. It just needs a bit more meat on its bones before it truly stands out amongst all the other zombie co-op games on Steam.

Steam Early Access key provided by PR. Did you enjoy our quick look at Darksburg? Here’s some more zombie goodness for you to tuck into:
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