There are few games that have kept me so enthralled like Darkest Dungeon. I will play the game late into the night, and wake up the next morning wanting to do nothing but play Darkest Dungeon. Chroma Squad, Link between worlds are probably the only games that I can remember having the effect on me thus far. I have owned the game for 5 days and sunk 65 hours into it, and I have literally done no work over the past few days, except grinding and figuring out the deep lore and battle mechanics of this wonderful little thing. My obsession caused this great foulness.
I am writing this because I feel many reviewers of this game are missing the point about what kind of game Darkest Dungeon is. Launch up the game and the first line you see before the title screen reads "Darkest Dungeon is about making the most of a bad situation", and that's what the game is in a nutshell. The game hates you, the RNG is all fucked and the stats, hit rates and damage rolls you see on screen are probably all lies. But that is ok, because that is what Darkest Dungeon is supposed to be. You receive a letter from the Ancestor telling you to clear his hell-infested manor and collect the treasures and heirlooms that remain behind after he was killed by the villagers - and outside the game world, Red Hook Studios is the Ancestor, inviting you to "go to hell" (this is literally the thumbnail of the trailer). You know clearly what you are heading into, and yet in the face of hell you complain it is difficult and unfair? That is really quite strange considering you accepted the invitation from the bloodstained Red Hook and "now, like him, you are a part of this place".
The naming of the game is appropriate too. Some dungeons are dark, others are darker, and in the darkest of dungeons, weakness cannot be tolerated. And this is not only about the weakness of the players' skills - because things will go wrong no matter how well you plan your moves - it is also about the weakness of the heart. Stress is a meter on the heroes that do nothing until you reach a breaking point. What will you do when everything in the game starts going wrong? Will you also become like the characters hitting the 100 stress mark, and start hating on the game for being unfair? Or accept that you are battling the darkest of hellspawns and the evilest of abominations, and it is going to be unfair. Stay FOCUSED, be COURAGEOUS and become POWERFUL, then push on till the tasks' end. This is a game that trains the heart to be brave; and for me, also to accept loss and humiliation and understanding that nothing in the game nor in life will go as well as planned.
Coming out of the Darkest Dungeon, I think it has made me a better person. Strangely enough, I have not rage-quit the game simply because a favourite character dies, or a random crit change chains into a series of unfortunate events. "How quickly the tide turns", exclaims the snarky narrator when a terrible blow lands, and life is like that too isn't it? Life, too, is a game of chance. And my life had been pretty awesome up till this year. Graduating from university this year, I was intending to continue to grad school before everything started falling apart. My father was diagnosed with a disease incurable in the sanitarium and was forced to retire way earlier than he intended to, and suddenly I could not afford going to grad school and not take home any substantial income for the next few years. Job hunting has been excruciatingly hard in this bad economy and things do not seem to be getting any better. I cancelled a total of 4 plans for graduation trips, and while everyone is spending money on celebrations and travels, I spent $25 on this very special game that reminded me that to be alive is a terrible fate in itself. Danger lurks at every corner and things will always go wrong. And when disaster strikes, we try to make the best out of it. I got a game to escape the stress from the outside world, but in turn the game itself stressed me out so much more that made me more determined to make things right in my real life. The task ahead is terrible, and weakness of the heart cannot be tolerated. Rather than sulking and blaming fate to be unfair and cursing the gods who have inflicted this suffering unto my life, I'm going to fight those demons and come out on top. The first step to that victorious end, ironically, is probably to stop playing Darkest Dungeon.
There are more things I want to praise the game about, especially how the cast of heroes seem to be a bunch of social outcasts or demon hunters who are here because it makes sense for them to be here. Thematically, the designers have made such a coherent game inspired by Lovecraftian mythology, and the dark gritty world feels perfectly insane and terrifying. But perhaps that can be left for another day when I have time to analyse why each hero is there in the first place. The backstories you hear from the Ancestor's memories are surprising intriguing and very fitting to the setting. The lore of this game is nothing short of amazing, and I hope I will have time to write about it soon.
I am writing this because I feel many reviewers of this game are missing the point about what kind of game Darkest Dungeon is. Launch up the game and the first line you see before the title screen reads "Darkest Dungeon is about making the most of a bad situation", and that's what the game is in a nutshell. The game hates you, the RNG is all fucked and the stats, hit rates and damage rolls you see on screen are probably all lies. But that is ok, because that is what Darkest Dungeon is supposed to be. You receive a letter from the Ancestor telling you to clear his hell-infested manor and collect the treasures and heirlooms that remain behind after he was killed by the villagers - and outside the game world, Red Hook Studios is the Ancestor, inviting you to "go to hell" (this is literally the thumbnail of the trailer). You know clearly what you are heading into, and yet in the face of hell you complain it is difficult and unfair? That is really quite strange considering you accepted the invitation from the bloodstained Red Hook and "now, like him, you are a part of this place".
The naming of the game is appropriate too. Some dungeons are dark, others are darker, and in the darkest of dungeons, weakness cannot be tolerated. And this is not only about the weakness of the players' skills - because things will go wrong no matter how well you plan your moves - it is also about the weakness of the heart. Stress is a meter on the heroes that do nothing until you reach a breaking point. What will you do when everything in the game starts going wrong? Will you also become like the characters hitting the 100 stress mark, and start hating on the game for being unfair? Or accept that you are battling the darkest of hellspawns and the evilest of abominations, and it is going to be unfair. Stay FOCUSED, be COURAGEOUS and become POWERFUL, then push on till the tasks' end. This is a game that trains the heart to be brave; and for me, also to accept loss and humiliation and understanding that nothing in the game nor in life will go as well as planned.
Coming out of the Darkest Dungeon, I think it has made me a better person. Strangely enough, I have not rage-quit the game simply because a favourite character dies, or a random crit change chains into a series of unfortunate events. "How quickly the tide turns", exclaims the snarky narrator when a terrible blow lands, and life is like that too isn't it? Life, too, is a game of chance. And my life had been pretty awesome up till this year. Graduating from university this year, I was intending to continue to grad school before everything started falling apart. My father was diagnosed with a disease incurable in the sanitarium and was forced to retire way earlier than he intended to, and suddenly I could not afford going to grad school and not take home any substantial income for the next few years. Job hunting has been excruciatingly hard in this bad economy and things do not seem to be getting any better. I cancelled a total of 4 plans for graduation trips, and while everyone is spending money on celebrations and travels, I spent $25 on this very special game that reminded me that to be alive is a terrible fate in itself. Danger lurks at every corner and things will always go wrong. And when disaster strikes, we try to make the best out of it. I got a game to escape the stress from the outside world, but in turn the game itself stressed me out so much more that made me more determined to make things right in my real life. The task ahead is terrible, and weakness of the heart cannot be tolerated. Rather than sulking and blaming fate to be unfair and cursing the gods who have inflicted this suffering unto my life, I'm going to fight those demons and come out on top. The first step to that victorious end, ironically, is probably to stop playing Darkest Dungeon.
There are more things I want to praise the game about, especially how the cast of heroes seem to be a bunch of social outcasts or demon hunters who are here because it makes sense for them to be here. Thematically, the designers have made such a coherent game inspired by Lovecraftian mythology, and the dark gritty world feels perfectly insane and terrifying. But perhaps that can be left for another day when I have time to analyse why each hero is there in the first place. The backstories you hear from the Ancestor's memories are surprising intriguing and very fitting to the setting. The lore of this game is nothing short of amazing, and I hope I will have time to write about it soon.
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