This is one I’ve been keeping an eye on for a while now, as it went through its Early Access phase. Officially released as of last week, now is the time to jump on board with Darkest Dungeon - a super stylish and super punishing Rogue-like dungeon crawler with a Lovecraftian theme (yes I know, I too am hoping 2016 is the year that we as a society are finally done with Cthulu, but bear with it at least one more time here).
Darkest Dungeon is not your average dungeon crawler. You’ll recruit a wide variety of character types to your stable of adventurers, and you WILL need to recruit a lot. This is not a game where you can power-level a small team of four and have them constantly running dungeons. While the physical health of your adventurers will replenish when they return to town, their mental wellbeing is a separate story.
The stress of adventuring quickly adds up, and it’s not just the monsters you have to worry about. You may come across a strange book or a foreboding altar during your journey, and there’s a chance these may have a positive lasting effect on your party. But more often than not, it will do the opposite and add to their mental fatigue. You’ll also need to bring enough torches to provide light, enough food to fend off hunger and other various supplies, but you simply can’t afford to cover all of your bases by bringing plenty of everything.
If too much stress accumulates on an adventurer, they’ll have a moment of “fight or flight” where their resolve is tested. They may have the strength to remain positive and focused, and gain a positive trait that allows them to boost the morale of the party. But again, more often this is not the case and they will start to break down. You will find they may start skipping turns in combat, motivated by self-preservation. They may also start loudly proclaiming the hopelessness of their situation, bringing down the morale of the rest of the party and adding to their stress levels. Ultimately if too much stress continues to build, adventurers can suffer a heart attack and die, regardless of their physical health. When things are looking bad, they can very quickly escalate to worse.
Assuming they survive, the town that serves as your base provides options for your party to mentally recover. There is a monastery for the god-fearing to pray and repent, and a tavern for the less religiously inclined to drink to forget. You may even send them off to the Sanitarium to try and cure them of their more permanent mental scars. While they attempt to unsee what they have seen, you’ll need to form a separate party to take part in further dungeon exploration. This essentially forms the baseline for the entire experience.
Darkest Dungeon is brought to life with a slick, hand-drawn gothic art style, and constant commentary from the narrator to remind you that things are exactly as messed up as they seem. This game very quickly forces you to come to terms with its punishing nature, so do not be surprised to see members of your roster dying off early on. In fact, expect it.
If you’re in the mood for a challenge, and you haven’t already sworn off Lovecraftian horror for good, then Darkest Dungeon is definitely worth checking out.