![]() This focus on variety and randomness helps DD conceptually, but it leads to its biggest (and perhaps only) problem: the difficulty doesn’t always work. So survival, as much as victory, becomes a motive in combat, meaning that there’s significantly more going on in each fight than just “hit the nearest enemy as hard as you can.” And crucially, the game is built so that you cannot fully maintain the party - healing magic just isn’t powerful enough to keep everyone going in predictable fashion. ![]() That is, you’re maintaining your party over the course of several battles, not just one. These choices are relatively transparent for more casual players, but all of the math is out there for the more intense min-maxers to fiddle with.ĭarkest Dungeon also steps back from contemporary RPG orthodoxy and centers the core element of challenge on the dungeon crawl, instead of an individual battle. But others change the calculations: a Jester dances back and forth along the lines, while Bounty Hunters and Arbalests can mark enemies for bigger damage. Some types are straightforward RPG types: a Crusader is a front-line fighter, a Vestal is a back-line healer. ![]() The classes are an interesting mix of unconventional ideas with classic forms, as befits the game’s setting and style. Each of the game’s dozen-plus classes is significantly different, and their skills can alter even those calculations. Two-dimensional tactical combat in 'Darkest Dungeon'īut every mission turns into a series of interconnected choices. It’s probably most similar to XCOM, although DD’s tactics take place on a two-dimensional plane. You control a group of adventurers who venture through five different randomized dungeons, then develop a town to support them between dungeon crawls. In addition to its singular style, Darkest Dungeon is also a deep, rewarding tactical role-playing game. “Their formation is broken! Maintain this offensive.” And Darkest Dungeon is certainly not that. I was initially put off by the dark visual style and the simplicity of the animation, but in full context, Darkest Dungeon’s aesthetic works at multiple levels, unlike just about any game that’s not a straightforward story-based indie game about feelings. It would be excessive if the rest of the game wasn’t built to support this style, but the Lovecraftian gothic fantasy of Darkest Dungeon goes all-in on its themes. It’s a deliberately overwhelming performance by voice actor Wayne June, reminiscent of Logan Cunningham’s control over indie fave Bastion a few years back. Check out this over-the-top example of a phrase that can come up when you run into a trap: The narrator dominates the initial presentation of DD, his sonorous voice and flowery verbiage detailing the game’s occurrences at every point. The first thing you’ll notice loading in Darkest Dungeon is its narrator, solemnly intoning the occult-induced fall of an aristocratic family. That specialness comes from three distinct components: its presentation and style, its role-playing depth, and the meta-game that incorporates both. Darkest Dungeon was released this week on PC, with a PS4/Vita release expected in the first half of this year.ĭarkest Dungeon is at its core a brutal tactical role-playing game - a sort of dark fantasy XCOM - but that’s an insufficient description of exactly what makes this game so special. The latter category best suits Red Hook’s Darkest Dungeon, a game that sure as hell isn’t perfect, but a game that deserves all the attention it can possibly handle for all the things that it does right.
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