Darkest Dungeon

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Summary

The game is a side-scrolling gothic role-playing game with a turn-based combat system. The player explores dungeons with a four-hero team. While players can only explore with four heroes, they will be able to recruit and manage around a dozen heroes from the local tavern or caravan. The heroes are recruited from 15 different classes each class with its own unique skills and abilities.

Combat occurs in narrow passages which means the party's order is important in respect to the heroes' class and the player's strategy. As an example, a crusader is a good front unit having both high attack and defense values while the plague doctor might be better further behind throwing plague bombs to spread disease and confusion.

Instead of leveling, heroes have "resolve" which will increase as they adventure. Fighting and events will test the hero's resolve and they might develop afflictions if they fail their resolve. This can turn out both positively and negatively creating different set of afflictions for every hero.

While exploring the dungeons, the light of the heroes torch becomes dimmer, which means the dungeons gets more dangerous but yields better loot as well. The heroes have to camp to replenish the torch in the dungeons. Red Hook refers to this as tactical camping because players have to distribute rations among their heroes, protect the camp from ambushes, and reduce the stress levels of the heroes, all costing actions points


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Darkest Dungeon Reviews & Ratings

50
Review by drlowdon [user]
May 1, 2022

Having inherited an estate from an ancestor, the player soon discovers that the dungeons and catacombs beneath are filled with all manor orHaving inherited an estate from an ancestor, the player soon discovers that the dungeons and catacombs beneath are filled with all manor or monsters and evil creatures. To defeat them they must put together a team of adventurers and take up arms.Before setting off on each mission players select up to four heroes from the ‘hub-town’ (in which you can also upgrade characters etc) to take into the procedurally generated dungeons. Whilst it’s not technically a rouge-like, character death is permanent, and making the right choices in the turn-based combat in order to keep your characters alive and sane enough to continue quickly becomes very tricky.Unfortunately, despite a host of interesting ideas, I just never found the gameplay all that engaging. There is an incredibly steep learning curve to overcome with all sorts of facts and figures that will mean nothing to new players. If you do manage to push through there is a decent amount of depth to be found, but even then it never offered the same level of flexibility as something like Slay the Spire. This game clearly has a devout following, but personally I think they’re are more interesting alternatives.

100
Review by abrus [user]
November 30, 2021

I love this game! It has a really atmospheric grim and 'gritty' feel thanks to the lovely hand-drawn graphics, creepy music and gruffI love this game! It has a really atmospheric grim and 'gritty' feel thanks to the lovely hand-drawn graphics, creepy music and gruff narration throughout. I love the fact you can play it in short bursts and every time you set out on a quest you chose what you feel like doing from 8 or 9 alternatives that vary in difficulty and length. There are lots of customisation options and so many combinations to experiment with when setting up your party (I think there are 14 different character types to recruit and all play quite differently). The game has some really cool mechanics (item and torch management, stress recovery management between quests) but the combat and exploration itself is not too complex. The key to success is in making small, incremental gains each quest - earn a bit more money than you spent, level up a couple of characters a bit, make optimal use of that new item you just found... I am 25 hours in now, but I'm still encountering new monster types and quest types and there is still much more I want to accomplish and experiment with. Initially this game seemed really brutal and unforgiving, but the learning curve is pretty fast and there is a glossary in the options and pop-up explanations of everything in-game. If you persist and learn from your failings you might have an awesome time with this like I did! This is easily one of my favourite games this year - I love spending time questing through this game-world and managing my party (and I am certainly not a 'hard core' RPG player).

80
Review by KeenGamer
August 12, 2020

There is a good reason that Darkest Dungeon won a ton of awards and sold over 2 million copies - in portraying the dark underbelly of fantasy adventuring it touched on subjects rarely addressed in games before it. Its amazing sound, comic-like graphics, and intense, perpetual Ironman difficulty create a title that was addictive to those wanting Lovecraftian horror with a side of near Dark Souls difficulty. If you have never experienced it before, now is a great time to make its acquaintance, to be prepared for the release of Darkest Dungeon 2. And, if you were a previous visitor, make sure you take another look to experience the new DLC that has been added since your departure. Hours of broken peripherals and rage quits await.

100
Review by Nevermber [user]
November 21, 2019

Here everything is decided by luck.Yes, of course, this is a difficult game where you need to think before each important decision,Here everything is decided by luck.Yes, of course, this is a difficult game where you need to think before each important decision, because it can become irreversible and fatal, you need to rock the city and heroes, you need to carefully select the heroes in the squad, giving them the necessary artifacts, but all the player’s efforts are leveled when the occultist heals the party three times in a row for 1 health, although it could have been for 15.Here luck rules the score, and the player can only reconcile and suffer.Great game.

80
Review by Cubed3
April 12, 2018

Despite gameplay better suited for a mouse and keyboard, Darkest Dungeon transitions rather well from PC to Switch. The controls were always going to be convoluted when adapted to a controller, but it doesn't take too long to adjust, and the core gameplay loop is strong enough where overlooking that initial awkwardness is more than doable. Darkest Dungeon is by no means for everyone, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth the stress.

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Game Information
Release Date February 3, 2015
Publisher BlitWorks, Red Hook Studios
Total Rating 83%
Content Rated T (Teen)
Game Modes Single player
Player Perspectives Side view
Genres Role-playing (RPG), Strategy, Turn-based strategy (TBS), Adventure, Indie
Themes Fantasy, Horror, Historical
Platforms Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac, iOS, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch