Darkest Dungeon Reviews

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    The in-game narrative that proclaims "over-confidence is an insidious killer" should not be taken light-heartedly. This one short sentence is the truest statement in the entire game.

    Darkest Dungeon is a rogue-like, turn-based combat RPG that is heavily inspired by the darkest depths of the Cthulhu Mythos and various other Lovecraft writings. The story, while rather vague at the beginning, sets you up for what the ultimate end goal will be; exploring the darkest dungeon of a decrepit manor that has been infested by monsters thanks to a dark ritual. You will be facing an onslaught of Eldritch horrors during every skirmish and adventure, to which if you are not prepared... you WILL die. As is the case with rogue-likes, when you die you stay dead.

    Now let me just get this next bit out of the way. I've seen dozens of people in both the Steam forums and the review section complaining and whining about how Darkest Dungeon is "too hard". Yes, this game is quite difficult and it is absolutely not for the casual gamer, or those who get frustrated quickly. That being said, there are also outs to every bad situation that you may face, but they come with a price. Over-exploring above and beyond meeting a quest goal is almost always certain death, and an under-provisioned party is almost always doomed. Do not go into this game expecting to clear it quickly, easily, or without losing party members.

    This leads me to the game play. There's a slight learning curve to the game itself, which is why I suggest a trial run prior to beginning a serious game file. At all times, you will have 4 members in your party, and throughout the game you will be able to expand and fill your roster. Your roster houses your party members that you can acquire after every quest, and believe me... the more roster members you have, the better off you are, but we'll get into why in a moment. When you begin a quest, you pick 4 members from your roster to participate and the rest will simply stay in town. There is a large variety of classes within the game, such as the Highwayman, Crusader, Man-at-Arms, Occultist, Grave Robber, Houndsman, and Jester. Each class has their preferred spot on the party list, strengths, weaknesses, skills, buffs, debuffs, and effects.

    So, why would you want a huge roster of characters to pick from? A huge part of Darkest Dungeon is the stress mechanic, which kind of acts like an insanity meter. Every time that you are in a dungeon, the members of the party get progressively more stressed out. If their stress meter gets high enough, the party member freaks out and will either gain a negative stress effect, or if you're lucky a positive one; the latter are, of course, rare. If their stress meter fills a second time, they'll have a heart attack and face potential death. Once you complete a quest and go back to town, the party members will be healed but their stress levels will remain the same, and so you must destress them by sending them to the tavern or church. No matter how long you wait in town, the members that you've sent to these places will only progress with destressing after you complete another quest, with another set of party members. It's basically a never ending cycle of quest/destress last party members/pick new ones/quest/etc.

    These game play mechanics are rather unique, and at times hard to master. Many things can cause your characters to become stressed out, and a good deal of Darkest Dungeon relies on RNG. Some dungeons may only cause minor stress, while others will have characters reeling in a matter of just a few rooms. The combat factors are also heavily RNG based, as there are many effects to take into account; bleed and blight effects are your DOTs (damage over time), which can be placed on an enemy with the right skill, or an enemy can place it on you. There are of course counters and cures to these like bandages and potions, but enemies can also inflict diseases on your characters; such as crooping cough and rabies, and all diseases have different negative effects like -20% damage or -20% HP. Diseases must be healed in town, only after you've completed your quest and if you have enough gold to do so. Otherwise, the inflicted character is stuck with it until you have enough funds.

    After each completed quest, the characters that you've had in your party gain Resolve XP. A character will max out at level 6 Resolve, and the higher this level is determines the next skills and upgrades that you will be able to buy for them. It will also determine which quests they are best suited for. As you can tell, I've mentioned that you need gold (and a lot of it) for just about everything you'll want to do in town. A huge factor that causes Darkest Dungeon to be as hard as it is, aside from RNG, is the fact that gold is NOT plentiful. If you get a bad dungeon, you'll come out with 3k gold at best, while a good dungeon will grant you about 7k. This may sound like a lot, but take this typical scenario:

    I've completed a short dungeon, 3 of my party members are stressed out and have a negative side effect. Let's say I got a good dungeon and I have 7k.
    I send the 3 party members to get destressed. That's about 4k, I now have 3k to do with what I wish.
    2 of my party members have diseases, so that's another 1.5k to cure them. I now have 1.5k.
    I will have to use the 1.5k to buy provisions like food, bandages, anti-venom, and torches for my next quest. So I am now unable to purchase any new skills, armor, or upgrades for my characters.

    Darkest Dungeon is a rough, vicious cycle game. You will constantly be scrimping and saving gold where and if you can. What is worse, more RNG elements come in when your characters are destressing. Sometimes they have such a grand time they just decide to throw away 1k+ on gambling or prayer donations. Sometimes these destressing programs do not work enough, and the character must go back a second time. The good thing is, upgrading places in town does not require gold; instead, it requires various artifacts that you will find while completing quests and exploring dungeons. The more you upgrade places such as the tavern, guild, and blacksmith, the cheaper it will be for you to destress your characters and upgrade their armor.

    Death is permanent. That is why this game is called a rogue-like. If you get a rough dungeon, your favorite and most long-term characters can die. With bad enough RNG, characters can die on extremely easy fights. However, the game does grant you a chance before death to redeem a character. If a character is taken down to 0 HP, they will then be "at death's door". They can even take hits while at this stage, but too many hits will cause them to die. If you can manage to heal a character while they're at death's door, and before they take too many hits, they will live. There is also a "flee" button in game, indicated by a white flag, that allows you to leave any given fight and abandon any quest/dungeon. Doing so will cause your characters to experience stress, but it may in turn save their lives. This is why I said that there is an out to any given bad situation, but yes... it does come with a price.

    While everything I've just stated might sound like I'm going negative on Darkest Dungeon, I'm not. It's just the reality of the game itself, and the game is a very harsh, grueling, negative title. That being said, it's extremely fun and addictive. Party and financial management are the biggest concerns that players will face, along with hefty doses of RNG. While regular battles are tough, boss fights are genuinely dreaded. The visuals are also absolutely amazing, the heavy-lined comic sketch inspired drawings are as fantastic as they are grim. The audio is just okay, this is a title that is better suited to your own personal playlist of tracks, as the in-game soundtrack is repetitive. I highly recommend Darkest Dungeon, but ONLY to the toughest of gamers.

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  • inDANigiblesinDANigibles27,030
    01 Jan 2017
    3 1 1
    I will start by saying this is my 2016 Game of the Year.

    I expand on that by saying Darkest Dungeon does what it sets out to do as well as anything I have played in recent memory. The atmosphere is delivered pitch perfect even if that pitch is one of gloom & doom. And that is entirely the point. Nothing about this game is pretty. Unless you find beauty in struggle, disappointment and often death.

    It would be unforgivable of me to fail to mention The Narrator. He is without peer. His execution of dialogue is so great I wish he could follow me around for a day just commenting on my mundane tasks... Every time I take and post a screenshot I always attached a related quote from the narrator. One of the rare times where someone's words are worth a thousand pictures.
    5.0
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