How to Play Dark and Darker on Mac: The Fullest Guide

Dark and Darker is the latest trendy title that suddenly appears seemingly out of nowhere and tops the Steam charts. But this one actually got us excited because we’ve been following its progress while it was still in Early Access and now that it got officially released, we decided to have a go at it on our Macs.

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Needless to say, we did face some challenges, but we were ultimately able to get it running, and now we want to tell you all about how you can do that too.

What Type of Game is Dark and Darker?

Dark and Darker is an interesting title that feels like a mashup of many other games with not many original ideas. However, it’s the way it combines its many elements that turn it into a unique experience that feels both familiar and fresh.

It’s a dungeon-crawling PvPvE title, where you and your buddies fight your way through animated skeletons and demons and loot the depths of dark catacombs while also competing against other human players. And while all of this is happening, the playable space on the map begins to shrink, just like in a battle royale. This forces you to come closer to your enemies and engage in heated skirmishes. On top of everything, there’s an advanced game economy, which incentivizes you to take more risks for greater rewards while exploring the dungeons in each match.

The game currently has pretty mixed or even negative reviews on Steam, but that’s not due to its gameplay. It’s because some people aren’t happy with its monetization practices which, to be fair, aren’t all that egregious compared to many other free-to-play titles at the moment. Yes, you can progress faster if you pay real-life money, but you can also play the game without spending a single penny, and still have a great time.

How to Download and Install Dark and Darker On a Mac

Dark and Darker is not on Mac (what a surprise), so you’ll need to resort to workarounds to download, install, and run it on your Apple machine. There are currently two methods to do that – CrossOver and Bootcamp – and we’ll tell you all about them in the next lines.

The game just got out of Early Access so we believe more methods will become available in the foreseeable future. We are hopeful that the title will soon be added to one or more cloud gaming services. At that point, you won’t even need to download and install Dark and Darker locally because you’ll be able to directly stream it over the Internet.

Needless to say, if any new methods become available, we’ll update this post duly.

Mac Requirements for Playing Dark and Darker

Games with no macOS versions, like Dark and Darker, don’t have official requirements for Mac. This makes it a bit more difficult to tell if a given Apple computer has the hardware to support them.

Just by looking at the Windows requirements for the game, we can say that it’s a moderately demanding title. This means you’ll need at least a mid-end Mac to run it with acceptable performance using either of the mentioned workarounds. Your Mac must have at least 16 gigs of RAM/Unified memory and a decently powerful GPU with no less than 4 GB of VRAM.

Most Intel-based Macs don’t cover these requirements mainly because of their weaker GPUs. The only types of Intel Macs that have configurations with decently powerful GPUs are iMacs and Mac Pros, so if you have one of those, you may be able to run Dark and Darker.

As for Apple Silicon machines, that majority of MacBook Pros should be able to run this game, especially if they have more than 16 GB of unified memory.

How To Play Dark and Darker On Mac

Now it’s time to tell you the specifics of how to actually play this game on your Mac computer. As we said, CrossOver and Bootcamp are the only options here. Both will let you run the Windows version of the game but the way they do it is different and that makes them suitable for different types of Macs.

We generally recommend using CrossOver only on Apple Silicon chips, because, in our experience, this method doesn’t work as well on Intel machines. Besides, if you own an Intel Mac, the Bootcamp method will almost certainly provide you with better performance no matter what game you choose to play.

Using CrossOver Emulation to Play Dark and Darker

CrossOver is available for both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs and its emulation works by translating the game’s code into something your macOS can run. It’s actually a very powerful program and one of the best methods to run Windows games on Mac machines.

But because the translation process slows things down a bit, it’s best if your Mac exceeds the game’s minimum requirements rather than just meeting them. Here is how you are supposed to use this program to play Dark and Darker:

1. Download it from its official site and install it on your Mac.
2. Open CrossOver and create a new Bottle from the Bottle menu at the top (set it to Windows 10 compatibility).
   
3. Turn on D3DMetal and MSync in the newly-created bottle and then install Steam in it.
4. Log in to Steam, search for Dark and Darker, and install it.
   

After the installation completes, you should be able to start the game from within the Steam client that’s installed in CrossOver.

Note: It’s important that you have macOS Sonoma installed on your Mac in order for this method to work.

Playing Dark and Darker With Bootcamp (Intel Macs Only)

Bootcamp is the other option we want to tell you about. It lets you play Dark and Darker on Intel Macs (unavailable for Apple Silicon) by enabling you to install Windows in a separate partition.

This basically turns half of your Mac into a Windows PC, which means there’s no translation or emulation going on when running Windows software. Because of this, we recommend this solution if you are using an Intel Mac.

1. You must first download a Windows 10 installation file from this page.
2. Then go to Applications > Utilities and open Bootcamp.
   
3. Click the Select File button, navigate to the downloaded Windows file, and open it.
4. Give enough space to the Windows partition by dragging the dot to the left. 60-70 gigs should be enough for the Windows OS and the game’s installation.
5. Then click Install > Continue, and after your Mac restarts, follow the prompts to launch the installation.

After the installation finishes, all that’s left to do is to customize your Windows settings, then download Steam and use it to install Dark and Darker in your Windows partition.

Will the Game Become Available Through Cloud Gaming?

Dark and Darker is a fairly popular game and it’s also free-to-play, so we are almost certain that it will eventually become available on GeForce Now or Boosteroid. Very few popular free-to-play games aren’t currently playable through cloud gaming, so we have pretty high hopes that we’ll be able to stream this one sooner rather than later.

What Performance to Expect from Dark and Darker On Different Mac Models

So far, we’ve run two tests of the game – one with CrossOver on a 16GB M2 MacBook Pro and one with Bootcamp on a 32 GB Intel iMac from 2018.

On the M2 machine, we got around 60 FPS on average while running the game with Medium settings. Not ideal if you are a hardcore gamer, but definitely serviceable, so we had a pretty good time playing the game in this way.

The iMac gave us a similar performance. We once again used the medium settings preset and got around 50 FPS most of the time. Again, Intel-based Macs are limited by their subpar GPUs, whereas Apple Silicon chips are much better at handling graphically-intensive tasks. Still, the game was playable, so we can confirm that Bootcamp is a valid method for people with powerful enough Intel Macs.

Can You Play Dark and Darker On iOS

Dark and Darker is an entirely PC-based game, so it doesn’t have a mobile version. Maybe in the future, if the title becomes available through cloud gaming, it might be possible to stream it to an iPhone or an iPad, but until then, there’s no way to play it on any type of mobile device.

Can a Mac User Play Dark and Darker With Other Platforms

The game is currently only available for Windows and since that’s the version you’ll be running with either workaround, you should have no issue playing with PC users. In our tests, we were easily able to join multiplayer game sessions and have fun with people playing the game on Windows computers.

Bugs You Can Encounter and How To Manage Them

We weren’t able to find any noteworthy issues or bugs while playing the game with either method, but we should say that our tests weren’t extensive. We also searched the web for users reporting issues with the game, but so far it seems to run pretty smoothly. If we do come across any significant bugs and ways to fix them, we’ll make sure to add that information here.

The Best Dark and Darker Mac Settings for Performance

Unless you are playing the game on a high-end Mac, we recommend sticking with Low to Medium settings if performance is your priority. As we said, this isn’t a lightweight game, and it will push your Mac’s video-processing abilities to the max.

Choose a lower resolution, such as 1280×720, and disable any fancy visual effects such as advanced lighting and high-quality shadows. If you do this, you should get a noticeable increase in your average FPS, which is important in a fast-paced multiplayer PvP title such as this.

In case you want to enjoy higher-end visuals, you’ll need to be on an Apple Silicon Mac that has at least 24 GB of unified memory. Otherwise, your frame rate will probably drop too low during the more heated skirmishes, which is exactly the time when want to have as many frames per second as possible.

Mac Controls for Dark and Darker

There aren’t any specific controls changes you need to make in order to accommodate Dark and Darker for your Mac setup. The game’s default controls should work fine right out of the box. You can obviously make changes to the key bindings from the game’s settings if you have any specific preferences, but the default configuration should also be okay.

As of the time of writing, the game lacks controller support, so you’ll have to play it with keyboard and mouse. If you don’t have a mouse, we recommend getting one, because this game will be next to unplayable with your Mac’s Trackpad.

Games Like Dark and Darker for Mac

Dark and Darker draws inspiration from many gaming titles that have come before it, so it’s not surprising that there are a lot of games that feel very similar to it. That is not to say this game is unoriginal or derivative, but if you are looking for other titles that have a similar vibe and gameplay, there’s an abundance of them. Here are some of our favorite games similar to Dark and Darker:

• Diablo 4 – An RPG title with a dark atmosphere that heavily draws from classic Dungeons and Dragons tropes, not unlike Dark and Darker.
• For Honor – A PvP third-person multiplayer game two teams of players fight against one another as different classes of medieval warriors, like Viking berserker or European knights.
• Hunt: Showdown – Another PvPvE gameplay, where players must hunt down monstrous targets and at the same time compete against other players. It has a similar gameplay loop, but the combat system is different, with an emphasis on ranged weapons.

Dark and Darker isn’t anything particularly new and original, as evidenced by how many titles out there have similar elements, but what makes it fun and engaging is how well it combines these elements in a single title.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Still have questions about Dark and Darker on Mac? Check out this section where you might find the information you’ve been looking for: