Backlog Review | Darkest Dungeon
Darkest Dungeon is an addicting and well crafted game but do you have the gusto to brave it’s dark and morose challenges?!
Curiosity, Interest, and Obsession
Like me, I’m sure many gamers out there find playing video games to be relaxing. It’s a great way to unwind after a long day at work or when you just want to zone out and forget about that pile of dishes you still have to wash. Many games will cater to this, sooth you into a lull and make you forget all your responsibilities with their whimsy. You have your Mario’s of the world for cheerful and colorful fun or maybe those blockbuster-ish games like Uncharted, for that rich and intriguing adventure. All giving you that warm and fuzzy feeling while you snuggle on the couch with an oversized and over buttered bucket of freshly popped popcorn. You know, a feel good experience that you can discuss over dinner.
But then there are some games the throw “relaxation” and ““joy”” (that’s right, I double quoted that) right out the window! These games will make you second guess your ability to make good decisions and punish you for making the slightest mistake. Or maybe, just maybe, it’ll punish you for no other reason than “just because”.
That my friends, is exactly what Darkest Dungeon wants to do to you and it’ll do it while it stares at you with its beady bloodshot eyes. It wants to summon the arcane demons of ages long past and forgotten, to fight you every inch of the way! And you won’t fight back, you’ll keep coming back for more and you’ll love it despite what your instincts tell you.
Mecca of Madness
Darkest Dungeon, developed by Red Hook Studios, begins with you inheriting an “opulent and imperial” estate from one of your late ancestors. This grand and wonderful relative of yours thought it would be a stellar idea to tempt fate by playing around with ancient and eldritch magics in his spare time. Lucky for him, he was also able to find a portal deep within the catacombs beneath his manor that opened a door to a demonic and grotesque dimension. That just so happened to let loose death and despair. You know, sunshine, lollipops and flesh devouring monstrosities.
Double lucky for you, this little house of horrors is now your responsibility and you need to do something about it! So you recruit “willing” treasure hunters, mercenaries and other friendly ne'er do wells to explore the mind bending labyrinth of the darkest of dungeons and its surrounding grounds. Their goal? To bring back treasures and trinkets, spiral into insanity and of course get paid for an honest days work. Oh and save the day... I guess.
An eternity of futile struggle
That pretty much sums up the gameplay of Darkest Dungeon as well! You’ll find yourself recruiting a variety of characters with their own unique hero classes and abilities, to explore the various “dungeons” in the game. From the righteous Crusader who focuses on swift and powerful melee attacks (with a hint of holy magic) to the cursed and abhorrent Abomination who can transform into a beast that feasts upon the undead legions you’ll undoubtedly encounter. And as a turn-based dungeon crawling RPG, you’ll also be able to upgrade their equipment, find accessories to apply buffs (and debuffs) to your stats and learn new skills/abilities.
With it’s 15 classes (17 with the DLC) there is an addicting layer of strategy in the gameplay. It forces you to think about what classes work best together and which can handle the current situation you’re about to thrust them into. On top of it all, these characters can suffer from afflictions, mental breakdowns and diseases that can affect their performance during a mission. These status effects can all be remedied when returning to the town, but if you don’t think twice before you send a weak, insane or otherwise low level character into the latest and greatest death gauntlet, you can lose them forever!
That my dear readers is where the stress of playing the game passively leaks from your screen and absorbs into your soul through osmosis. And I can sum it up in one short and concise sentence. This game is hard. Like calculus hard!
Keeping these characters alive is thrilling and a task in futility. You need to come to terms that you will lose some of your characters and the fact that permadeath is a prominent feature, it makes all of your decisions that much more important. Therein lies one of my gripes with Darkest Dungeon though. Because it is an RPG with a hefty dose of chance, many of your deaths feel unfair. And losing a character that you’ve spend most of the game leveling up is devastating. You can of course mitigate this somewhat by always having a healer on your team or leaning hard into characters that use support magic, but that’s not always effective and you can’t always guarantee that they won’t be the first to die. I swear enemies are drawn to them like magnets!
Dark and Foreboding
One of my favorite things about Darkest Dungeon is its atmosphere. The game channels that Lovecraftian vibe superbly with intense and somber writing that earnestly portrays the narrator's paranoia and overall loss of sanity. The prodigious bassey sound effects when you land a hit on an enemy or just the booming low frequency undertones within the background music lends everything a very impactful and purposeful feel. It’s all very engrossing and very impressive.
The graphics as well are detailed and dark. You can see the despair in the characters faces and the monsters are all threateningly outlandish. Every inch of each new area replicates what you would imagine H.P. Lovecraft would conjure up in one of his short stories. So, basically nightmare fuel that will traumatize you until the end of days. And although everything in the game seems like it was once extravagant, it now feels decrepit and sinister. I’ll tell you one thing I wouldn’t touch half the things in those dungeons with a ten foot pole while wearing a hazmat suit.
The only thing I could really complain about would be character animations. It did feel a bit like you were controlling a bunch of marionettes on a shish kabob. It may not have taken away from the gameplay, but it did take a bit away from the immersion of the game. Not a huge problem mind you, but more fluid and hand drawn animations would have really tied it all together.
Opulent and Imperial
Darkest Dungeon is a dark, stressful and intense game that may not be for everyone, but sometimes the hardest challenges reap the greatest rewards. I really enjoyed my time with the game and it actually prompted me to dive into the fascinating H.P. Lovecraft stories it drew its inspiration from.
That begs the question though, should you go out and try it? Well, Darkest Dungeon is certainly not for the faint-of-heart, but if your looking for a good challenge and long to explore damp dark dungeons, then absolutely yes!! You’ll be rewarded for your blood, sweat and tears. On the other hand, if your not a fan of losing your prized character and possible a controller or two then (shameless plug inbound) maybe just share this review instead. Wink wink nudge nudge
What are your thoughts on Darkest Dungeon? What is a game that drives you insane? Let me know in the comments below!
You can also find my first impression for this game on YouTube and DTube:
DTube
YouTube
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Original images and screenshots created by @PixelBites and The Backlog Odyssey
Top review! I originally had the game on PC, but I'm finding the Switch version to be a much better fit for gaming while travelling!
I always remove the corpses option, I find that too annoying. I also have not been playing with the Crimson Court add on, there is more than enough to juggle already, without adding another wrinkle to the mix!
Thanks! Playing on the Switch would be a great option for this game! I think the mission based gameplay would be perfect for its handheld mode. :)
I agree, the corpses were quite annoying, especially if you didn't have a character that could reach beyond the first two rows of enemies. I didn't know you could though them off though! I'll absolutely have to look into the next time I play haha
The Crimson Court DLC was quite fun as well, and probably the most grotesque! The addition of "Epic" dungeons that you could revisit was an interesting add. They were super long and the bosses at the end were probably some of the hardest in the game! The loot you got from them was quite powerful as well. Definitely recommend checking it out sometime.
Yes, the corpse setting is in the options, after there was a huge backlash about it's introduction. I removed it, as it doesn't really make much sense to me why corpses would be blocking your attacks?
Maybe I'll try Crimson Court on my next play through!
Your story makes me feel compelled to check out Darkest Dungeon. I can only imagine hoe you forget the world around you when playing it...
"...giving you that warm and fuzzy feeling while you snuggle on the couch with an oversized and over buttered bucket of freshly popped popcorn."
I love how you describe this feeling and strangely felt this game will be widely different...
It was a great experience and if you have the hardened nerves to brave its difficulty I highly recommend it! One of my favorite things is to find these unique and well crafted indie games and share it with all of you.
Haha yes, Darkest Dungeon does quite the opposite of giving you those warm and fuzzy feelings. :)
If you happen to play, you'll have to let me know what you think. :)
The style of the animations and characters is perfect! And no doubt with that darkness transports you to his own universe. I think that someday I will look for the game to cheer me up, it looks good to me, thank you for showing us this in the form of a magical review.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the review. ;)
Hi pixelbites,
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Awesome!! Thanks so much! :D
Wow you have in your blog a lot of knowledge about the gaming world .. A fan would really go crazy with this "in a good way". I have some friends outside Steemit who love your post, it is very complete and very well explained, A hug @pixelbites !
I'm glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the kind words!
Calculus hard isn't so hard, I guess (just kidding).
Its fascinating how one can get totally immersed in the gaming world and lose touch of reality for a while. Well, the gaming world is another reality of its own.
I love the story line of this game- the inheritance, playing with magic etc. is just captivating....But it seems like playing it is actually header than it may seem. I am definitely not "faint-hearted:, so maybe it could be for me.. Hahah!
You've been able to overcome those challenges?
You did a great job with this review, from the details to the photos. Just amazing!
Thanks! It's true, like calculus this game is more challenging than hard. Once you learn the systems and the ins and outs of the mechanics then it's much easier to be successful.
What I love about gaming and any other form of entertainment is with good design and story telling it can draw you into the worlds the creators build. What makes videos games unique though, is their ability to allow the user to interact with those worlds adding an extra layer of immersion!
Oh yes, that ability to interact with those worlds gives a deeper level of immersion into the game!
I love this game for the challenge, visuals, and content related to the Lovecraftian origins. This was recommended to me by a friend who was into the same stuff I'm into. But more than the gameplay was the symbolic lore behind it all. HP Lovecraft's mythos revolves aroudn protagonists having futile struggles with the cosmic horror.
Protagonists of the mythos would always have a hard time winning or have pyrrhic victories as a result of the encounter. Perhaps, that's one point Darkest Dungeon wanted to emphasize with the permadeath mechanic. Beyond the added challenge is the message that game will tell you it doesn't matter what struggle you would have with it, the horror will always be there and you will be the one to adjust.
I agree! There's nothing more satisfying and rewarding than overcoming the challenges of games like this.
I do love the atmosphere and the Lovecraftian vibes the developers were able to pull off. There's something deeply disturbing about it and that just makes it all the more fascinating!
I don't know about anybody else but i really want to play the game now. You have made it sound so appealing that i think they should add you to the marketing team. Those are some great quotes for the game cover.
Thank! I'm glad you enjoyed my review. :)
If you end up giving the game a try you'll have to let me know what you think!
Leave it with me and I'll come back to it. If I ever come across it the name will be such in my head anyway.
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STOPI love this review! Growing up, i loved playing games. I can get so absorbed that time flies and before you know it you have spent long hours playing an intriguing game. I try my best not to get drawn in because once you get attached, its hard to let go. If i want to pick up a game now, it would be darkest dungeon . I love the sense of danger and above all, the challenge of difficulty.
You did a good job with this @pixelbites. I think i would take time out to play this game. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Thank you! I'm glad I inspired you to try it out!!
It only happens once in a blue moon, but I love finding games that compel me to keep playing and wanting to know what deep and dark secrets I'll find around the next corner. :)