Ah, Darkest Dungeon – a game which got me hooked up so easily and it was not even from me trying it out. A friend was playing it and I was spectating via Skype and after about 30 minutes of doing so I said “I gotta try that, it seems fun”. I know that Darkest Dungeon and fun are kind of ironic in the same sentence, given the setting and nature of the game but oh well, it can still be fun.
The game opens with some pretty nifty text after the beginning cutscene and one particular sentence of it can describe the core of Darkest Dungeon and the way it will torture you. Allow me to quote: “Darkest Dungeon is about making the most out of a bad situation”. And this is actually entirely true. The game itself, upon start throws you in a bad spot and it expects from its players to deal with the more badness it throws at them. But don’t get me wrong, this is exactly why I loved this game – because no matter what, it provides challenge and that never stops. Darkest Dungeon is like a lite version of Dark Souls, because I really do think that this game is more forgiving than Dark Souls. However that doesn’t mean it’s not able to keep people on their toes, oh yes, I remember on a few occasions where everything was going fine and one battle later my party was in critical condition and I was panicking about what I should do – suicide or run away? Madness! But I love it!
Darkest Dungeon (I’m going to call it DD for short from now on) relies on a pretty simple and straightforward story – you end up in a small dark town, named Hamlet, as you were the heir to some guy living there in the big mansion, but things aren’t so pink and fluffy and you return to set straight his doings. Apparently he’s a greedy little effer, because on his way to seeking fame and fortune, he unleashed evil grotesque creatures from the dungeons he was exploring (and soon the same that we have to explore). That, however, is not as easy as it sounds, because now we have 4 types of dungeons ahead of us to explore and plenty of maleficent creatures to slay (or for them to slay us for that matter). Anyhow, there is no main character here, he is rather off screen and so to speak the player himself is the main character, managing the brave adventurers, who have come to tackle the dungeons and also maintain little ol’ Hamlet. That is definitely no small feat, because the challenge begins from the tutorial itself (I myself never managed to, but a friend of mine died on the tutorial once). The thing that I like about DD’s story telling is that it happens indirectly. There are no set cutscenes or story sections, the game just reveals to us the horrible deeds of our ancestor, as it goes along. For example after every dungeon he might say a thing or two and on every boss battle he tells us how he crossed paths with the given creature. Anyways the story ends when the player faces the darkest dungeon of them all, which is called with the same name as the game. I personally liked the ending and it’s a nifty way of making the game endless. That’s right, even though it does have an ending, it is presented in such a way that the player can basically keep on playing … forever! I won’t however spoil anything, so the players can see for themselves.
DD is a turn-based dungeon crawler RPG, in which the player manages a roster of heroes, which they recruited to explore the dark dungeons beneath the manor. The player can expand how many heroes he/she recruits, however, when venturing into a dungeon, the party is of 4. Let’s talk a bit about the four available dungeons and the process of exploring them.
As I said, we have 4 dungeons available to us, which unlock steadily at the beginning of the game:
- Ruins – this is actually the first dungeon, which the game lets you explore and the previous seat of our ancestor’s power. Now, however, just ruined corridors, controlled by necromancers and undead minions.
- Cove – the second dungeon to be explored, a location once used for unspeakable deliveries by our ancestor, now a nightmare reigned by what I like to call the fish people.
- Weald – a forest and the only way into Hamlet, now diseased by plague and a horrific type of fungi, which inhabits the woods.
- Warrens – an ancient system of tunnels, build for whoever knows what ungodly reason. Now it’s a rotten cesspit, giving home to the beast-like swine creatures.
The player embarks on a journey into a dungeon by first choosing where to go and which 4 heroes to take into the party. The dungeons are divided by 2 factors:
Difficulty – here we have the Apprentice (green) dungeons, which correspond to hero levels 1 and 2; followed by Veteran dungeons (orange), for heroes level 3 and 4; and finally Champion (red) dungeons, for heroes above level 4. The higher the difficulty the better the rewards, but also the deadlier the risks.
Length – dungeons can also be short, medium or long. Again, the longer the dungeon the more difficult it is, however, medium dungeons provide the party with the ability to camp once, while long ones – twice.
Camping is a nice little bonus, which the game provides you in order to help you out during dungeons. On every medium and long dungeon the player gets firewood in their inventory, usable only in rooms. When a camp is set the player can first choose how much food to distribute among the party. If not given any the party will take damage and increase stress. Then 2 food gives nothing, 4 increases health and finally 8 increases health and reduces stress. After this the player is given 12 skill points, for the heroes’ camping skills. Each character has unique camping skills, while there are 3 general, that each companion has. Camping also replenishes the torch to 100% but there is also a chance of nighttime ambush, which happens immediately after camping ends (if it is to happen, that is).
Let me talk about supplies now, since I began explaining about camping. After the player chooses a dungeon and the party, they are taken to the caretaker’s shop in order to purchase provisions for the upcoming trip. Available supplies are the following: food, torches, shovels, antivenom, bandages, medicinal herbs, holy water and skeleton keys.
Food is used to restore a small amount of health when consumed. Also the party can become hungry during the dungeon and the player must feed them a total of 4 food (1 for each member). If not they will lose health and gain stress. If the player has less than 4 food in the inventory, they cannot feed the party and must choose the starving option.
Torches are used to light the path in dungeons. There is a light meter at the top of the screen in every dungeon and the lighter it is, the better. Light levels give different bonuses. For example if the torch is above 76 light level then the player gets a chance of surprising the enemy and an increased scouting chance. However, the lower the light the more critical chance and better loot the player gets, despite the negative effects.
Antivenom, bandages, medicinal herbs and holy water are provisions which clear status effects, such as bleed and blight, or remove debuffs and diseases.
Shovel is used to remove obstacles along the way. If the player does not have a shovel they can choose to clear the path by hand. This option, however, decreases health and increases stress.
Skeleton keys are used on treasure chests. They basically remove the negative chance from treasures and boost their content.
Besides buying them from the caretaker, provisions can be randomly found during dungeon runs. I personally never had a problem with provisions (beside one time where I ran out of shovels and one of my heroes died from a heart attack caused by an obstacle).
Speaking of treasure chests, time to cover the curios in the game. Curios are objects, which the player encounters during journeys in the dungeons. They are randomly generated and it’s based on pure luck what will be encountered when. There are, however, some curios, which are specific for certain dungeons, for example the altar of light is specific to the ruins, pile of bones for warrens, ancient coffin for weald, etc. Each curio has a chance of giving positive buffs or items, negative quirks or diseases, status effects, etc or simply for nothing to happen (so many times did I hit the “It’s trapped” effect on a chest that I was jumping with joy on the nothing happened). However, most of them can be cleansed with certain items in order to remove the chance of negative effects. Also there are special quest curios, which the player must interact with for certain quests objectives.
Finally we have the darkest dungeon of them all – the darkest dungeon! A place I was scared to venture for a while, simply because I didn’t know what to expect and I didn’t want my best heroes to die, so I wanted to be super prepared. To be honest I was always on my toes, because I was literally expecting to die at any moment and I was oh so hard praying to the god of luck to be on my side. I took my best heroes and off we went. A lot of tension (the interior of the dungeon was quite well designed, giving that chilling creepy feel), a lot of sweat, a lot of hard decisions but there we were, I bested the game’s best with only one loss (oh my poor vestal why did you have to take her, she was a good healer!)
Moving on to our roster of heroes and the town, which they inhabit for the time being (or the rest of their short lives) Hamlet.
Hamlet is the town, in which the game takes place, quite a grim little place but I liked it, because it was really well drawn to fit the atmosphere. Hamlet, however, is not entirely cosmetic it has certain functions, performed by the different buildings in the town, which I will list now:
- Blacksmith – this building serves the purpose of upgrading the heroes’ weapons and armor, which contributes to their damage output and survivability.
- Guild – the place where companions’ skills can be upgraded and trained.
- Abbey and Tavern – these are the two main stress relief buildings, where heroes may go meditate, pray, flagellate, drink, gamble or enjoy a night of pleasure.
- Sanitarium – here the player can cure heroes from diseases or quirks.
- Survivalist – the place where heroes train camping skills.
- Graveyard – this is pretty much self-explanatory; every hero, who gives their life for the quest is buried here (in game records kept).
Ancestor’s Memoirs – here we keep track of what we do in game and what objectives we complete. Objectives are usually defeating bosses and leveling heroes, while the records are of everything happening, ranging from upgrades, party, going into dungeons, what happens to people left in buildings, etc.
Nomad’s Wagon – sells trinkets. These are objects, providing positive buffs and negative debuffs to players which are obtained either from here or as rewards in dungeons. Trinkets can also be sold for additional gold. They range a variety of rarities, with the rarest one probably the chance of finding a four-leafed clover in a huge plain of clovers. However, when we do get one, they are so worth it.
Stage Coach – the place where we recruit heroes. Depending on progress, after each dungeon the heroes available for hire changes. From here we can also expand our roster capacity.
Most buildings can be upgraded in different ways. Stress relief ones usually focus on more stress relief, cheaper treatments, etc, the functional ones (such as blacksmith and guild) allow the player to update heroes more and more, depending on their level in game. This is actually part of the strategy element in the game, because the player needs to be very careful in how to spend their gold, since not once have I been left with no gold for provisions. Buildings are upgraded with the 4 currencies available in game (beside gold): Portraits, Deeds, Busts and Crests. Each is acquired from a different dungeon and usually the Crests are the most common currency (I was also able to have triple the amount of crests in comparison to other heirlooms.
And now the inhabitants of Hamlet, the brave, courageous heroes, recruited to best dungeons and unravel the dark secrets, which they hide. Each hero is restricted only to a class, we can name them however we want (they start out with a randomized name) and choose a color palette from 4 for their clothing and hair, giving them a unique look.
First of all let’s mentions statistics. Heroes have a health bar, which varies depending on each hero. Maximum health can be increased by upgrading their armor or equipping them with a trinket, which gives a + Max HP bonus. When the HP bar reaches 0, the hero enters a state called “Death’s Door”. This means that with each damage taken at this point (either by direct hits or damage over time spells present on the hero, such as bleed or blight), they have a % chance of resisting death. The general chance is 67%, but this can be increased or decreased by trinkets. Death’s door also makes heroes suffer penalties, during and while recovering from it, until the rest of the dungeon. Entering death’s door state is limitless, meaning that as long as heroes are healed, they can enter death’s door over and over again when their health reaches 0 again.
Next we have the stress bar. As I have been mentioning things like stress and stress relief, heroes naturally get stressed when venturing the dungeons. Stress can be gained either by exploring with low amounts of light, some enemy spells generate stress, or heroes being critically hit. When stress reaches 100, the companion’s resolve will be tested and one of two things may happen: they either become afflicted (for example selfish, masochistic, paranoid, etc), perks, which generally cause them to skip turns, shift positions in the party or refuse to perform a certain action (some afflictions even cause more stress to the rest of the party); or they can become virtuous (vigorous, focused, powerful, etc), providing inspiration to party members, giving them buffs or heals depending on the perk gained. If the hero gains an affliction they continue to generate stress. When the stress bar reaches 200, the hero suffers death at the hands of a heart attack. If, however they gain a virtuous buff, their stress alongside that of party members, lowers slightly. As I mentioned stress can be relieved in Hamlet, by allowing heroes to visit the abbey and the tavern. Each activity relieves a different amount of stress, and sometimes interesting outcomes of these activities may occur (I just love when my heroes decide to donate gold or lose it at gambling, because, ah yes gold is so easy to accumulate here).
Each hero also has quirks. A total of 10 positive and negative quirks can be accumulated (5 of each) and they can pretty much vary in everything, affecting stats, allowing or not allowing heroes to perform certain activities (for example not being able to drink in town) or giving them certain behaviors (such as the necromania, where the hero is prone to investigating corpses on their own accord). Quirks can be cured in the sanitarium, however it will cost more the more severe the quirk is. Also if the hero has 5 negative quirks, for example, and they acquire a new one, an old one will be replaced, chosen on random.
Last, but not least, heroes can become diseased. There are various diseases caught either by negative curios or enemies, which can also be cured in the sanitarium. Diseases generally affect stats and as far as I’m aware there is no limit to how many diseases a hero can have (although I always cured mine and I haven’t had a hero with more than 2 diseases).
Now let’s look at the different classes in DD. Each hero has a class and in total there are 14:
- Hellion – she is a heavy-damage dealing warrior, with good tanking abilities. Usually at the front lines, she can dish out tons of damage and live to tell the tale. Personally my favorite class!
- Vestal – my second favorite, she is a hybrid class between damage and heals, but in terms of support, she is the most effective healer there is. This is why the vestal is essential to every party.
- Bounty Hunter – a very versatile class, who can be either on the front or at the back, also equipped with tons of crowd control, thus making him a great supporter as well.
- Leper – I personally believe that the leper is the best class there is, because not only is he a brutal damage dealer but can also withstand most battle wounds. His only downside is the lack of accuracy, hence why he misses often, but if boosted with enough accuracy trinkets, he can become a one-man-army.
- Abomination – the abomination is a hybrid class, being able to deal melee damage in the front lines while in beast form, and range damage from the back while in human form. I really like the concept behind this class, however I have one major problem with him: every time he shapeshifts into a beast, the party suffers stress increase and that pretty much makes them go crazy even faster. This is my main reason for avoiding to take him with me on longer dungeons or boss battles.
- Crusader – he is one of the first 2 characters you get in game, a knight in shining armor: great damage dealer and support with heals and tanking capabilities.
- Grave Robber – she is a very agile character, usually preferring the back lines, however the player can choose to build her in such a way so that she can constantly shift her position in the party. On the downside she is like butter – one crit will probably bring her at death’s door.
- Jester – much like the grave robber, the jester is versatile, however his abilities have stricter requirements of positioning. He has lower damage but almost every ability applies bleed. Not very durable either.
- Occultist – a pure support class, mainly possessing debuff skills and a healing spell, which is very situational. It has a huge range of 0-* (* is a number that varies depending on what level the skill is, the lowest being 12). I use him as the second healer, when my vestal is resting in Hamlet, but he can dish out pretty nifty damage too.
- Plague Doctor – she has low damage, however she relies heavily on blighting the enemy. Blight deals more damage per round than bleed and when stacked is really deadly. She can also cure allies from bleed and blight.
- Hound Master – he is very versatile and can pretty much serve every role besides tank. His damage is not very high but always applies bleed. He can heal himself or guard allies.
- Arbalest – I am kind of disappointed with this class. She is supposed to be dealing tons of damage from the back lines, however the damage never really came no matter how I boosted her. This is probably the character I used the least in my playtrough.
- Man-at-Arms – I love this guy, for me he was the best tank ever. Not only can he withstand a lot of damage, protect himself and allies, but also he has a spell which puts the Riposte buff on him. With that buff every time he is attacked he will counter attack back. Dayum, the damage from those counters is real.
- Highwayman – He is the second character the player gets along with the crusader in the tutorial. A nice damage dealing class, being able to be either in the front line or the back line, as he has both melee abilities with his dagger and ranged ones with his gun.
Every character has basic statistics (beside the health and stress bar), which are: damage, accuracy, critical chance, protection, speed and dodge. Depending on the class, each hero prioritizes different statistics (for example tanky classes rely on more protection, while damage dealers such as the grave robber and jester rely on damage and critical). These statistics are affected by various things: quirks, diseases, debuffs and buffs.
Beside the stats, the heroes have 2 types of skills: combat abilities and camping skills. Of each type every hero has 7, however they start with 4 combat skills and 3 camping skills (randomized). They can learn the rest from the guild or the survivalist. At a time every character can have a total of 4 combat abilities equipped and 4 camping ones. The combat skills can be upgraded, while the camping cannot, but they still prove to be very useful. Every character has a completely unique skillset (both combat and camping ones), however there are 3 camping skills shared between all. When it comes to hero abilities they are strictly positional. This is why it’s very important how the player positions their party at the beginning of the dungeon, because each skill has a certain position the hero needs to be in order to use it (most have more than one). Certain enemy skills, ambushes or surprise attacks shift the party (a very unpleasant experience, when the healer is on the front line, serving as a human shield to the tank), but the player can shift them at any time out of battle.
Amazing dark-themed comic-like art, tension-involved gameplay, clean and simple story telling, creepy sounds and music – some of many features this game offers. The biggest challenge in DD is the strategy aspect of it, however. Since the player is thrown into a world of bad situations, they have to consider their every move – party management, skills, provisions, which dungeon to engage, can they handle a boss or not, to continue forward with the chance of death or withdraw safely in Hamlet, update priorities. This is actually one of the things I loved about DD and that is the fact that the game takes its time to punish the player for their decisions. A lot of games nowadays have no consequences based on our decision-making (even RPGs, which you don’t really give an eff about them, because of … well, reasons), but not here. Basically if you f*ck up, the game will f*ck you up (pardon for the expression) and I so did not want that, because I was so attached to most of my heroes. All in all DD is full of decision-making and literally one wrong move can cost you a life of a hero, however that doesn’t mean that it should be always proceeded with caution, because sometimes the most daring of risks give the greatest of rewards.
And here comes the most-awaited verdict! I would undoubtedly, without even considering twice, give this game a 9/10. Some minor things keep it from reaching the full 10, for example that it can get repetitive at times and even boring with continuous play, or when you pass the darkest dungeon then ggwp, that hero becomes useless and they’re like … well, eff you I bested the best so now I can slack (not that I can blame them though), but still Darkest Dungeon is a must buy for every person out there who likes strategy games or dungeon crawlers or just wants to try out something really challenging. It’s definitely worth it.
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