Darkest Dungeon®

I would have given this game 5 stars easily, if I didn't feel the urge to actually clear the final dungeon. While never really easy, you can grind away until you max out your party without feeling stuck and bored, there is always something to do. Once you decide to try out the final dungeon you start feeling annoyed. I don't mind the pounding, getting 3 out of 4 maxed party members killed reminds you what you're up against, if it would feel like you were up against a fair challenge. But you're not - you miss a whole lot more, while enemies miss a whole lot less, and hit multiple targets, and give bleed/blight and stress, and with your limited provisions you'll eventually end up getting bleed/blight damage, and then, if you manage, you still have the boss to fight. Pros: - fitting atmosphere - beautiful art - great narrator voice - fun gameplay, gives you that one more expedition (turn/round) craving Cons (listed from bad to worst): - slow progress - it takes a lot of resources to get buildings upgraded, the grind isn't a chore, but it's there - inventory space - it's annoying when you have to leave treasures behind because you don't have enough room; it's even more annoying when you don't have enough room because you have to carry "quest" items that can't be stacked - good vs bad trinket system - most of the trinkets, even the rarest, have you trading one stat for another - provisions - you can only use them on the active character, meaning you have to sit and watch how your other characters bleed/blight away, which makes little sense seeing what they are and considering the inventory is shared; also you can't buy as many as you want and on higher dungeon levels you run out of them - the RNG - the higher the dungeon level, the more you feel the stats are just for show All in all, this is a good game and you can have fun with it, but you have to accept that just as you might have to quit a dungeon before completing it, you might quit the game before completing it.

great dark game

I feel like this is one of those where the progress is really slow, unless you are willing to take a risk - and even then there is a huge possibility of failing entirely... So... slow and steady. I got to 5th lvl of characters and it kinda is tedious... Gotta cure the maladies, gotta heal the stress etc etc. I can't get the feeling that am being constantly stopped from having fun, because random stuff. I guess that's for those who like this kind of experience.

You can easily lose track of time and spend hours just doing runs and trying to level up your guys only to have one or more die on you when a nasty monster spawns, great game

The game name is on point; The darkest, most unnerving yet somehow intriguing dungeon crawler out there. In this game, you try to make the best of what you have, which is usually not enough. That means you have to make hard choices about your favourite characters, deal with sub-optimal happenings and force yourself to cope with unfair outcomes. There is enough depth to make you feel you have the tools to push forward, but the atmosphere in the game is where you cannot really look away from. Everything is horrifying, sad, unbearable and unfair. Yet, by you just keeping to push makes you progress and advance forward, ever so slightly. This game makes you feel. Not necessarily good things, but things nonetheless.