Dark and Darker is out in early access, and it’s free-to-play

Brutal, unforgiving fantasy FPS dungeon adventure Dark and Darker is now available in early access again, and best of all, it’s staying free to play.

Dark and Darker‘s release date was announced during the Summer Games Fest on June 7. For those foolish or brave enough to enter the devastating delves of an ancient citadel, you can begin your journey in early access today, June 7.

Dark and Darker‘s return comes 14 months after the devs were accused of stealing assets from Nexon, the publisher behind The First Descendent and MapleStory. Nexon’s claims—which have now been resolved in IRONMACE’s favour through a long, grueling legal battle—led to the title being removed on Steam.

Now that it’s back, the punishing game is free to play. It’s unclear if it will keep this very accessible price point or become a paid game when it officially launches version 1.0. Given IRONMACE’s early statement on Steam in the FAQ section, it sounds like the indie developers will be exploring a change in pricing during and after early access.

Even though it’s in early access, you can access most of the core mechanics and gameplay loops. Thankfully, the servers are scalable to ensure that thousands of people can play without being locked out, which is nice considering that this game will be quite popular given its shadow launch and that it’s free to play.

From the official Dark and Darker Steam page, we know the early access period will last 12 to 24 months, which is quite some time for a title to be in early access. However, this gives the devs time to work on features the team plans on implementing when the game fully launches, such as more character classes, weapons, skills, spells, monsters, bosses, quests, merchants, crafting, and community and social features.

If you’d like to test your courage, wits, and strengths in Dark and Darker, it’s only available on PC via Steam, Epic Store, and the official Blacksmith launcher.