Darkest Dungeon®

Darkes Dungeon is brutal and well crafted dice-roll simulator. Sure, you can check some guides for the top team-composition. You can min-max your stats and abilities. You can apply for the mathematic and the theory of games. You can plan every your step. You can pray. You can get some luck finally. But RNG will beat you once. Sooner or later it will own you with no any reason. There is nothing about skill or strategy while you can't handle the devastating bad luck streak which force you to grind for a several hours more. That's why i've dropped Heartstone and Talisman and that's why i've dropped Darkest Dungeon. 3 stars for the catching art-style only.

You inherit a run-down domain, and you are now responsible for cleansing it of the evil that befell it. So begins this game, which is a mix of RPG, a bit of strategy and added rouge-like gameplay. You do this cleansing by getting together a diverse group of various fortune hunters, thrill seekers and hero-likes, and sending them off to fullfill various goals. And while working on those goals you come across all kinds of hindrances which you have to overcome, most often in the form of monsters. But not only these obstacles are your enemy, also the inner fear of your characters and their minds that are besieged by the evil and darkness they witness. A bit of Lovecraft added in there, but it adds tremendous deepness and character to the game. So you have to see that they not only survive their physical wounds, but also come out of the experience spiritually intact as much as possible. But you will fail at this, and not everyone can be saved, and most characters will show some weird mental habits after a while down the road - which can be soothed by various means depending on the character (praying, whoring, drinking,..). And then again, some of your heroes will die in the line of duty. The atmosphere is perfectly conveyed by the visuals and the audio. The narrators voice commenting on various choices, combat results and happenings is very well done and adds so much to the dark mood. All parts make a very well done whole. The game feels like every little choice matters, and it is very unforgiving to mistakes, yet this also makes the game, at last to me, brilliant. It walks the narrow path between challenge and frustration very well and puts you in place where you really have to pull it together. This is not a game where you save/load until every quest is finished perfectly, you have to live with your mistakes, or the bad luck the game will definitely throw at you at some point(s). So make no mistake, this one is definitely not for the squeamish.

One of many games coming down the pipe that focus on 'difficulty' involving permanent character death and slow progression. The problem with this game is there aren't truly any difficult challenges to overcome. All of the battles have an obvious solution, and all of the party members have a clear role. The 'challenge' comes from the absolutely random events and artificial difficulty thrown your way though piss poor balance issues. Certain characters are useless in certain party formations, but to fix this if an enemy changes your formation takes 3-4 turns all the while each turn ends with the enemy further breaking your formation. Stronger enemies get 2-3 turns in a row to each of your turns, often stunning or disabling characters during their series of turns and locking you out of play. The random objects found while exploring have zero benefit to the player, but massive downfalls. At best you might uncover a treasure trove of gold that only benefits you slightly between missions. At worst, attempting to loot a chest could completely cripple your entire campaign. There is a good RPG buried in here, but it's covered in six feet of poorly designed random bullshit.

This game is utterly fantastic. It's not without some minor flaws, and it is very much a game that will either appeal to you or not, so do be careful before purchasing. That said, it does everything it sets out to do with aplomb. It is easy to pick up, very difficult to master, and has deep and challenging tactical fantasty combat with a simple but solid strategy/upgrade layer to keep you busy between dungeon runs. And lots and lots of Lovecraftian horror. Not for the faint of heart. Your heroes will die, and with reasonable frequency depending on your skill level, and the game demands that you learn its systems in order to succeed. If you're into stuff like XCOM, this is a reasonable analogue overall, though the individual systems are very different. Also worth noting that there's no save-scumming. This is all ironman mode, all the time. When things go south, you don't have the ability to go back and load your game. In addition, it's worth noting that the game looks and sounds stellar. Wayne June's narration is inspired, the writing is excellent (and there is some decent story exposition, here, though it's not a story-driven game in the strictest sense), and Chris Bourassa's Mignola-inspired artwork is absolutely top-notch. Pick this up at the $20 release price point and you won't be disappointed. This is easily a $35 game in terms of value. I logged 48 hours into it even before it left early access, and there are others out there with hundreds of hours. Final release gave everything a nice polish, balance changes, the final area of the game, and lots of new horrifying things to kill you, and Red Hook Studios is already working on their first free post-release expansion (did I mention free?). Grab it!