The added game mechanic called the Crimson Curse, is annoying at first. In addition to stress, you now have to manage your hamlet heroes' thirst for blood. If you are patient and pay attention to their pleas for blood, you will do fine. You'll know what I am talking about once you play the game. The mechanic is a fresh addition but, it kind of clashes with the mechanics already present.

I enjoyed playing and saw a lot of promise in the new hero class introduced. If you stew on it, there are some interesting strategies that you can employ while using the Flagellant hero. I only realized a few of them near the end of my play-through.

The story and the narration are top notch just like in the base game.

Having played the base game, I expected there to be some grind present but, not this much. It took me about 15-20 hours to beat 8-10 hours of content. There are three bosses that you have to beat in the newly added region known as the Courtyard. Before you do that, you have to collect invitations to the Courtyard from the other dungeons in the region. This is only possible once there is an acceptable level of Crimson Curse in the hamlet which resets each time you defeat a boss. On top of all that, the Courtyard dungeons are super long mazes in a similar vein to the final dungeon in the base game.

I'm going to recommend this DLC only for the people who absolutely love the Darkest Dungeon. Although this DLC has a great story, setting, and additional hero class, it has a lack of respect for the player's time. Pacing in games is very important to me. If a game/DLC has poor pacing it can really drag down the enjoyment of a game, even if the positives outweigh the negatives. Buy this DLC on a sale, and expect to grind your way to the finish. 7.5/10