Darkest Dungeon is a game I didn't expect at all to enjoy. A few years back, if you asked me what kind of games I disliked the most, turn based games in general would definetly be in the top 5. I just couldn't fathom that a game that didn't require quick reflexes all the time and was less focused on mechanical skill could be fun. To me, slow = bad 99% of the time.

But then I actually gave this thing a shot and now, I'M HOOKED. DD is one of those games that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bombards you with ♥♥♥♥ and just says: "here's the good stuff, figure it out"
There is a lot of information to take in. Every character has individual skills, stats, and quirks which can and will change, constantly. Those quirks can impact how a character plays in both positive and negative ways, giving them slight buffs like more accuracy or health or straight up not allowing them to visit certain buildings at your base or making them more vulnerable to disease. And all of that information can feel pretty overwhelming, but when you actually take the time to learn how everything works and what you can do with each character (and eventually filtering out the less useful stuff), things start getting more simple and it is, surprisingly, pretty exciting.

But what is, really, Darkest Dungeon? Unlike what many would lead you to believe, it actually isn't a roguelike. Darkest Dungeon is like if you were playing a tabletop RPG with your friends where everyone has a character with skills and stats and quirks, but instead of having everyone control a specific character, you control everyone. That and you can also have a much bigger party than usual, but can only take so many of your characters for a mission. The game consits of many missions that are given to you where each has a different objective, will give specific rewards and has more or less leveled enemies depending on the difficulty. Your goal is to keep playing those missions and slaying each of the areas' main bosses until you can reach the darkest depths of the land and conquer whatever lies down there.
Of course, like an RPG, if a character dies, they're gone, no bringing them back. That's the game's biggest trait and honestly one of the best things about it.

To play, you'll need to put the ol' brain to work. Every fight consist of your guys against the enemies, and every mission consists of a big area where you'll have many different fights. Sometimes the objective is to kill everything, sometimes it's to explore most of the area, what matters is, to win, you gotta think. Assess what you have and how it can react with what the enemies have and make the best decision. Do it enough times and you take those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ down. Every character has different skills and specialize in different things. The Vestal is a support that uses light to heal and expose enemies, the Leper is a big all-or-nothing damage dealer with high damage but low accuracy, the Arbalest is a hybrid class with range attacks and healing skills that works best when positioned at the back lines. The trick is to make all of those capabilities work together, and when they do, DAMN does it feel good.

One thing I love about the game is how much care and customization you can have with each of your characters. They might be just PNGs on screen, but play this for a few hours and you'll get ATTACHED to these little fellas. The game knows how much you can love your characters, and it expects you to. Each character will require special care if you want them to persevere, and that's just the consequences of constant battle. As you play the game, your characters will grow. They'll learn new things and get better at what they do, but they might also get bad habits whether it be because of the barely survivable living conditions of the era or because of the demonic beasts living at their doorstep, and those bad habits will hurt in the long run. So the game gives you the opportunity to treat them. Are they showing bad behaviour that will affect their combat? Treat whatever problem they have and make them normal again! Did some random eldritch horror spit toxic ♥♥♥♥ at them? Cure whatever disease it is they got from that thing! Are they under too much stress? Send them off to drink, gamble, or simply meditate at the local church. Otherwise, get ready to deal with a very unstable and inefficient lil' guy. You can also upgrade their armor and weaponry, teach them new skills or enhance the ones they already have. Give them new things to do while they rest inbetween battles during a long mission so they can more easily dispell the ever-looming discomfort that is just having to exist in this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ place. Your characters are your champions, your heroes, your people. Help them and they will help you do whatever you want. That's Darkest Dungeon.

It's also worth mentioning how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ charismatic this game feels. The artstyle is absolutely fantastic, with everything here feeling brutal and dark even while the light shines brightest. Sound design is also very important for any game, and it is all so well done here. Every skill used, every blow struck, every enemy's death noises are perfect. You can feel the ground shaking when the Leper puts his giant sword down, you can feel everyone being more at ease when your Vestal heals your entire team, all of those things are accomplished with amazing work from the sound design team. And finally, the voice acting is the icing on the cake. The narrator is supposed to be the guy that started all this, a rich monarch that gave it all away for a peek at the dark and mysterious, and his mistakes are the sole reason why we're even here. And the actor does an amazing job, the delivery of his lines while you're in combat just adds more weight to everything. Got a critical hit? Excitment fills the air! The enemy got a crit instead? Fear, stress, and a sense of urgency is instantly stabbed into your brain (and your characters', literally). Everything falls into place for an experience that is like no other.

Darkest Dungeon is a game where you'll need to think. Make new strategies, consider your enemies and their weaknesses, your allies and their strengths. Yes, you will get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ by random ♥♥♥♥. Yes, you might feel like your world is ending when a boss takes half of your team's health in a single swing, and you can BET you'll be thinking about that fight for DAYS, but not that many games will make you feel this attached to a bunch of mute pixels on a screen. That's how great this thing is.

This is a game where every choice matters. When you start a battle, there are infinite possibilities to what might happen and it's your job to find the best one, even if the game throws the worst ♥♥♥♥ possible at you, with smart enough thinking and creative strategies you can get to the end. And that's the fun of the game: seeing your ideas work, the puzzle pieces falling into place like your enemies fall to your sword.

It's also worth noting how great the modding scene is for the game, the workshop is fully functional and you can find a lot of amazing mods there. From simple gameplay tweaks to straight up new classes with new skills, sprites and animations, you can download these with just a few clicks and enjoy new batches of content for free!

If you're worried about the games RNG factor, don't be. If you're like me and you're just looking for fun, the randomness will be your new dopamine fountain. From critical hits decimating enemies out of nowhere to getting impossible status checks, this ♥♥♥♥ feels awesome. This is a game that I'll be playing for a while and I urge anyone that finds it even slightly attractive to just give it a try. Darkest Dungeon is fun, it makes you think and rewards you for being creative and making smart decisions. It's filled with possibility, encourages creative play and with modded content coming out even to this day, it's bound to give you plenty of hours of fun.

You have to really like the grind in this game to push it all the way to the end. Otherwise you'll feel like me, spending dozens of hours on this game only to feel like you have made no progress at all. If you're kind of hesitant of the games difficulty then I would say either try this at a discount or give it a pass. DD has a great style and a top notch atmosphere but everything else gameplay wise really weighs it down.

5/10 probably?

I cannot and will not say this is a bad game, BUT the biggest thing that stands out to me is how much I feel like my time is being wasted. The tedium of average turn based combat is mitigated through some great and interesting mechanics, but other tedium arise from them.

I can't believe I am actually saying this because there are way way WAY too many games that are unnecessarily rouge-like, but I think I'd enjoy this game more if it were :') 6.5/10