Darkest Dungeon is a 2d turn-based dungeon crawler, created by Red Hook Studios.

Upon starting the game you are greeted with the news that a dear estranged relative of yours has been up to some pretty bad stuff and essentially leaves you to clean up his mess. The mess in question being the multitude of ghouls, horrors and other assorted ne’er-do-wells that now inhabit the family manor and the hamlet that surrounds it. This is the premise of Darkest Dungeon and it works as well as any other to start our adventure.

The bulk of the game revolves around leading a group of four characters through an assortment of randomly generated dungeons and doing battle with the creatures that inhabit them. Characters traverse the dungeons in single file, their position in the line dictating which abilities are able to be used and the enemies on which they are able to use them. For instance some characters will do better on the front line while others will thrive at the back of the group. Setting up your group is key to a successful endeavour. This is where the games hub comes into play.

The Hamlet is a small group of shops and buildings that acts as the games main hub. From here you are able to make use of a wide variety of amenities as you decide which heroes to send out on their next adventure and with what supplies to pack. New heroes are able to be recruited from the stage coach, armour and weapons upgraded at the blacksmith, diseases and quirks cured at the sanatorium as well as many other services being available for the right price. This includes spending money to reduce the effect of one of the games main mechanics - Stress.

Stress is an in-game measurement of a particular hero's mental state, a counter that goes from 0 to 200. If the hero's stress reaches 100 they will gain an affliction or have a chance to become virtuous. While a virtuous hero will only benefit your team with buffs and stress reduction. An afflicted hero has the complete opposite effect, increasing the stress of those around them and sometimes actively putting themselves in danger or ignoring your command completely. If your stress becomes too high, your hero is at risk of a heart attack which may kill them outright. This may be compounded by the games quirk system, where in certain situations a hero will develop a positive or negative quirk that will affect how they act, or how you must treat them. These can range from increased stress gain to a compulsive need to examine every item you come across and many more.

When it comes to presentation, Darkest Dungeon gets full points. The gothic 2d art style oozes personality without being overly busy or confusing and a good use of depth of field stops the game from feeling flat. The interface is incredibly well designed and remains simple, despite the amount of information housed within. There are a few changes I would make to make viewing information a little easier but overall the interface does what it sets out to do very well. The graphic style of Darkest Dungeon conveys the mood of the game perfectly and only strengthens its theme, ESPECIALY when paired with the terrific audio design and the phenomenal voice acting of the narrator.

The Audio design in this game is on another level when stacked up against its peers. as the light fades so too does the music’s simple nature, giving way to an erratic tune that becomes more maddening the more you venture forth, the weighty sounds of attacks as your group goes toe to toe with all manner of horrors, and of course the absolutely shiver inducing tones of the loquacious narrator as he pontificates about his "Venerable house" and the "arcades of antiquity".

All of these elements come together to make Darkest Dungeon and absolutely unforgettable experience. the feeling of felling an enemy with a perfect strategy leaves you in awe of yourself as a brilliant tactician while other times becoming absolutely downtrodden as you lose the hero you've been cultivating for so very long. Darkest Dungeon is a game about making the best out of what you are given and sometimes when life gives you lemons, well I hope you like lemons.

Overall my Experience with Darkest Dungeon has been incredibly satisfying, having put 40 hours into the game I can see that I am in fact not even close to finishing, nor do I feel the fatigue that I usually would after playing most any other game for such a long period of time. When I first saw it in early access I was itching to play it, but decided to hold off and wait until the developers were confident enough to say that it was a finished product, and I am so glad that I did.



If you are a fan of X-Com, or don’t mind a bit of punishment to get true satisfaction out of your gaming experience then I don't have any problem telling you that

Darkest Dungeon is a MUST PLAY.



If you enjoyed this review consider leaving a thumbs up, or if you have some constructive feedback to leave, feel free to comment.