crazypl0x: Answer: Yes.

ZoanVatsa: This duo, trio, adventure mode talk is just a deception so that we forget they did not bring new maps and stuff. Im fed up with these visions.

thelorr: I’ve been more of a doomer than usual lately — not my preferred mindset — but it’s because this is the most frustrated I’ve felt with the game. I try to stay grateful, and I truly am. But for two years, we were sold on solos and duos — the formats I (and many others) genuinely enjoy. Honestly, it’s hard not to feel a bit resentful. At this point, it feels like the damage is done, which makes the removal of these modes especially frustrating. I’ll try to stick with it, but I just don’t consistently enjoy trios. One possible compromise at least for the current state of the game: keep GC as solo and Frost as duo, with a clear disclaimer that the game is balanced around trios. Maybe solo Warlord runs won’t be viable — but that’s still better than removing solos and duos entirely. Queues will still be massively reduced that way too.

Having the choice between solo, duos, and trios is a treat. How are you supposed to sell the game as trios-only? Imagine you and your best friend Tom want to try it out — but Steam says it’s trios only? Or a father who’s done with work and wants to get a few solos in before the days over? It’s just not a massively appealing idea to keep it trios

PaulAndersonENG: The best thing that can happen for this game is they announce SDF is not in charge of the direction of this game in ANY way and the next patch will be a reset to much earlier patch with all the bug fixes and QOL updates included, then start a new path towards what this game can be.

Furious_Zen: I say this very seriously at this point, and not wanting to cause anyone distress:

SDF is profoundly incompetent as a leader and director. I still believe in his ability to make a combat system, but anything else has been hit and miss and best, and at best, and stunningly idiotic at worst. This game's only hope is if SDF feels pressured to stand down from the role because both external and internal social pressure. And a better leader gets full control.

And yes, I literally bought the game for duo and solo. If it's removed, there's no ifs or buts, I leave.

Damian_CS2: I don't understand what the problem was with rotation between the maps every few minutes, how we got to this inflated queues is insane to me. There needs to be fewer but removing solo/duo is throwing the baby out with the bathwater

katoclash7965: I can't believe I wasted 2 years of my life to be burned to the ground by SDF.

Chewbert: I’ve uninstalled and don’t plan to go back. Game is boring and stale, they balance for the vocal minority of hyper competitive sweats, but then go back on every tweak because it’s unpopular and player numbers drop, only to shift gears again and gut the whole system because sdf is making the game for himself rather than the tens of thousands of players who log on

Sparkykawa: Honestly without adding any new super abilities for solos to fight trios all they have to do is remove nameplates again outside of arena and solos will have a chance again.

SolomonDandD: I'm surprised they've removed solos/duos. I do wonder how many people have quit the game because they don't like the direction the game is going, versus how much of the player base is aging and they aren't actively getting in new players fast enough.

I quit because I have kids now and I can't play games like a Dark and Darker to a level I would find competitive, and I don't like losing every time I play. In some nature - I think there are a lot of people who may have gotten sick of the player base slowly getting better and better as they just do not want to commit the time as well. This is a common problem with games like these, and Dark and Darker doesn't have the great equalizer that Tarkov has with a simple head/eyes shot.

wanderingwind9601: I have 0 faith in SDF’s leadership making a fun game for exactly 1 reason. SDF wants a fast time to kill, and that just means the game is going to be another shooter with a fantasy coat of paint.

Dark and Darker should have a very high time to kill, fights should be an actual back and forth, nobody should be dying in 2 hits.

And as long as there are classes that can delete your entire health bar in 1 or 2 attacks, the game is just not going to be fun

Vulgun: The thing about SDF and his vision is that he has consistently focused on prioritizing the things that, as a game developer for a game in this genre, should be the last things you want to prioritize doing.

He has made his team focus on "balance" (or the lack thereof), continuous map and module updates that have taken away from the charm of the game for the sake of balance, Arena Mode (which itself has its significant share of issues and contributed to the poor gameplay experience), Classes (which never need or needed to be added without any good reason; these things just bogged down the game with more imbalance and highlighted outdated class design overall) and superfluous, unnecessary additions or reversions that don't actually give any meaningful change to the game.

What he should have focused on instead were:

-The addition of weapons, armors, treasures and loot first and foremost. (We still haven't gotten the promised Wand items yet.)

-The addition of new perks and skills for the existing classes of the game.

-The addition of new maps and vendors.

-The addition of all promised features rather than going back on them for one reason or another; some features would be trivial to implement (see Quiver and Wands), but never see the light of day.

Had he gotten them to focus on these four things primarily, the game would probably not be in such a dire state that it had been in. What players obviously want more than anything is content, and depriving them of it or simply drip-feeding them is completely unsustainable for a game like Dark and Darker.

And with the way SDF is going with the game--should he remove enchantments and whatnot--then what I have listed he should have focused on before NEED to be priorities going forward unless he wants his game and his studio to go under. Right now, players who have tested the changes on the test server have said that the looting and getting gear is just straight up boring, and I can imagine it is without enchantments. So what should SDF do in order to alleviate this?

Simple, he needs to start adding more items that players can find, with different base effects than normal, and treasures that players can find that have a new and unique way of interacting with them (like combinable treasures). It's a solution that helps solve the problem of dungeons no longer being exciting adventures.

Most of Dark and Darker's current problems could easily be solved with a change in priorities. It's as simple as that, but it's up to SDF to figure that out.

chrisbrick: SDF has lost his damn mind IMO he NEEDS glasses cuz his vision is shyt

LiterallyNoneOfThisMatters: SDF turned into Nikita... "You'll get the game that I want you to play, if you don't like it you're a fake fan and we don't need you, we already have your money."

BigSkilletGaming: Why doesn't anyone ever talk about the root causes of the decline???? Sure, many give examples of the issues but no one has tried to identify a root cause. To me, the glaring and probably biggest root cause of our problems is the constant major gear changes at the start of a wipe. Every single wipe they have started with big gear changes when compared to the previous wipe.

When gear changes occur, they affect each class differently, some way more than others. This is why the first 4-6 weeks of every wipe has been spent rebalancing the game based on the new gear sets. Do you see how this can become a vicious cycle? Five wipes in a row they've done this.

This is why we've seen skills like the barbarian's axe spec changed 3-4 times back and forth. And there are many others like smite, judgment, hide, double jump, etc.

They will be in a constant state of rebalancing because they never just land on a standard gear setting and be done with it. I thought the gear at the end of the last wipe was in a decent spot. No clue why they would make major adjustments.

All this to say, people stop playing because of the constant flip-flopping on balancing, gear, class changes that aggravate players to no end. Making the newest class the most broken compared to the others (think every new class since bard).

After almost of 2yrs of early access and they still haven't nailed down gear. Until they do and stop changing every wipe, the game will continue to lose 10-15% of the players each wipe. Just a slow bleed. I'm almost at 4,200hrs and I'm slowing down my play a lot because of the above. One can only take so much.

RandomNerd.: It’s just annoying af when the balance is changed basically weekly

RonaldMcDonald-o5z: If SDF can't fix blocking, nd couldn't hire someone who could in 2 years this game is cooked trash. Failure of leadership or failure of gamedev skills, does not matter which. The man sucks.

randy42000: This game's fall from grace has been heartbreaking! We've all seen the quality of this game go from diablo 2 to diablo 4.

SNUSNU4U: Pulling PvE 3-4 months after selling people on it, needs to be investigated by consumer protection agencies as a bait-and-switch.

Th1sUsernameIsNotTaken: Remember when SDF said they weren't going to focus on balance changes (FOR THE MOST PART) because ultimately they were fine with having every class be broken in some regard, and wanted to focus on pumping out content over balancing?

We need to go back to that SDF lol.

OleHams: SDF has for sure gone down a bad path, but I always think back to when the game first went live. They added a new patch with new content EVERY week, and people complained then, just as much as they do now. People would lose their shit over EVERY change, I can understand why SDFs mindset has gotten fucked up when his player base is nothing but shitbags.

wrathisme4693: No:

anthonydavolio8814: divinity original sin has a perk called lone wolf which doubles your stats but reduces party size by 1. Would be an interesting way to balance

jokester5130: I wish someone could make a game combining DnD with Rust.

DirkTheDaringDnD: Answer: yes. In all seriousness though, I BET you that if Ironmace were to release an announcement stating SDF’s departure/stepping down from lead dev position, that alone would rally THOUSANDS of people back to the game. The playerbase is sick and tired of the devs making game breaking changes, flip flopping the balance on a whim and making our hard earned items worthless. SDF needs to go, he’s become too emotionally attached to the project and is willing to destroy the game for the sake of making a game “he wants” not what his playerbase wants.

aloufin: you were the first streamer to introduce me to this incredible story... and one of the last to show me the way out LOL.... what a wild ride.. the rise/fall of this game will go down in history. I'm sure there is some indie studio that is replicating the core player controller feel right now (really the only thing that kept it standing apart from the competition)... I think in 2026 we will defintely have a great replacement in our hands

xPetyr: Good thing Arc Raiders is close

Jun 03 2025

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