Darkest Dungeon is a challenging gothic roguelike turn-based RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring.Reclaim Your Ancestor's EstateRecruit, train, and lead a team of flawed heroes through twisted forests, forgotten warrens, ruined crypts, and beyond. You'll battle not only unimagi...
Darkest Dungeon is a challenging gothic roguelike turn-based RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring.
Reclaim Your Ancestor's Estate
Recruit, train, and lead a team of flawed heroes through twisted forests, forgotten warrens, ruined crypts, and beyond. You'll battle not only unimaginable foes, but stress, famine, disease, and the ever-encroaching dark. Uncover strange mysteries, and pit the heroes against an array of fearsome monsters with an innovative strategic turn-based combat system.
Core Features
The Affliction System – battle not only monsters, but stress! Contend with paranoia, masochism, fear, irrationality, and a host of gameplay-meaningful quirks!
Striking hand-drawn gothic crowquill art style
Innovative turn-based combat pits you against a host of diabolical monsters
Narration system to celebrate your successes...and failures
16 (and counting!) playable hero classes, including Plague Doctor, Hellion, and even the Leper!
Camp to heal wounds or deliver inspiring speeches.
Rest your weary, shell-shocked characters in town at the Tavern or the Abbey to keep their stress in check.
Classic CRPG and roguelike features, including character permadeath, procedural dungeons, and incredible replay
Can you stem the tide of eldritch horrors erupting across your family’s ancestral estate?
At first it was fun but as how the game is you need at the end a perfect team to beat every specific boss at the champion level and darkest dungeon. And that leads to the point the game becomes boring because this is just an administrative and time taking task to do so. You play dungeons all over again and it happens nothing until you have your 4 hereos lvl 6 ready, without very bad quirks, illness etc. for the specific dungeon and boss so you put them into your buildings and wait until they are perfect. If you don't do that it is possible they die or at least some of them escaping the boss and you put more time into that so you better do as I say. The biggest mistakes they made in my opinion is, it's take too long to build up new champion level hereos you really need to make the game faster and less repetitive.... or, you cannot customize every class as far as you need them for specific bosses. Also, you cannot escape from this mechanic by buying other DLC, the Crimson Court e.g. will make it worse. The focus of the game is: Failure will be painfull. So I had a lot of patience playing this game but at the end there are other games you can play if you don't like sending hereos into a senseless dungeon mission just to wait until they are healed from deseases and quirks which would ruin your boss fights.
I want to start by saying this is one of the best and most well made games I have played. The art, the theme, the music, the classes, the VO, the story gods the story, the combat. Everything about this game is so very well made and refined. And you can play it forever. I have been playing it since it came out in early access and am literally playing it again now.
And that I must digress.
I am adding to the conversation of this game due to nonsense reviews being considered helpful. If you don't like games with RNG it's not for you. If you don't like games that punish you. It's not for you. Don't leave a negative review because the game isn't what you like in games. I hate survival crafting games. They are the most pointless waste of time on the planet to me. Same with mobas. So I don't review those games as some people enjoy that type of game and at the end of the day they are not for me quite clearly.
People are griping about being inflicted with position changes in combat. While several classes have skills that answer this. Or status ailments. Same thing. These are core mechanics in the game and you can do the same to your enemies tripping them up as well.
The combat is extremely well balanced. Punishing with more dificult enemies. Yes. But that is half the point. You will lose people and at times it will be devistating. People will break, die, cause terrible problems for the whole party under stress. You will be punished for mistakes and sometimes RNGesus will step on you and destroy your favorite characters. And it's wonderful in that. It gives a feeling of hopelessness at times. Instills dispondance in a run. Ramps up the tension. Do I attempt another room? Do I stay put? Can we survive? If Just one survives I can get past this.
I don't want to play a game where I can just turn it on and win. What's the point? This, you have to claw your way to the end through a path made of the corpses of your friends.
That is beauty.
Is not without cost. In other squad based games (Final Fantasy, XCom, etc) you can basically get to a point where you know how to maximize perks and battle options in order to create nigh-invulnerable teams. Not with Darkest Dungeon. In Darkest Dungeon, even upgraded crusaders or occultists with charm trinkets and amazing stats can fall in battle. Anyone can (and probably will) fall in battle. The Darkest Dungeon knows that everyone has a price.
The strengths of the game relies on its atmosphere and the 'just one more quest' approach to hook you, and it does a really good job of it. It's been years since I've played a team-based RPG with such brutality... yet it beckons for you to keep struggling to overcome each dungeon's challenges. For those reasons alone, it is a very well made game.
As others have stated, it is a very frustrating game with tons of surprises that will keep you on your toes. After playing several hours now, I have yet to defeat any higher level bosses and have lost several good team members. If you love a difficult game, or just squad based RPGs in general, Darkest Dungeon will be right up your alley... or dungeon.
After reading all the negative reviews I had doubts whether I should get this game or not, but after buying it AND completing it (on the medium/"Darkest" difficulty), I have no regrets, and feel that most of the reviews seem unfair, really (or pehaps outdated?)
And I don't mean to say that the game is perfectly "fair" - you will fall victim to a series of unlucky RNG rolls many times, and your heroes will die as a result, but the game *literally* tells you in the opening screen that you should be expecting it. Yes, some of the enemies can occasionally land crits for 100% of a hero's HP, and then kill them before you can react, but It's all about minimising the chances of such scenarios happening, and if things go bad, in most cases you have a choice to either push your luck or retreat before any of your heroes die.
I can't help but clarify at least one point: one of the reviews dismisses the camping mechanic as useless because of the chance of your group getting ambushed - and, sure, if they get ambushed, you can very well end up worse off than before you struck camp, but several classes have camping skills that prevent ambushes. 100% chance. No RNG involved there, you use the skill and your group is safe.
It is a slow game that requires a lot of planning and takes many hours to complete. It can feel grindy because you need to keep recruiting new heroes in order to sufficiently upgrade everyone as they level up, so be ready for that, but there are so many classes and so many possible synergies that you can keep trying new things rather than repeat the same thing over and over again (the skill and combat system is brilliant in its complexity, it can definitely be overwhelming at first though)
Biggest cons for me? I found skill progression on higher levels disappointing (cost vs effects of most of the upgrades feels ridiculous), and I feel that heroes' progression in general could have been made smoother and more interesting.
But seriously, it's a great game.
Before i begin, i'd like to clear a popular misinterpretation:
Darkest Dungeon is not a role-playing game! It is part management, part tacticle, turn-based battles, with some portions of dungeon-crawling, settled in a dark fantasy setting, und playing under rogue-like conditions, which means: very hard, extremely unforgiving, and iron-man only.
If you are looking for a classic RPG or dungeon-crawling experience, i recommend to delete the game from your wishlist and stop reading already:
Darkest Dungeon is designed for a very specific niche, and can be a really nightmare for the casual player!
As well as it can be salvation for the right person...
...
Still reading and interested?
Then hear my personal story...
My first experience with DD was terrible. I remember playing the game for 5 minutes, and experiencing so much troubles, that i deinstalled and refunded right away.
A year later, and still unsatisfied with all those AAA titles in my library, i stumbled upon the game once more, and decided to give it another, this time serious try.
That was the beginning of a relationship, that changed my life!
Switching between ragequitting and mastering the steep learning curve, i slowly began to understand the deeper mechanics of the game, and realized, that playing good is just not enough, and that DD may very well be one the most demanding games of all time, but also, that the game, in its very core, is a fair and balanced experience, and that excellent play is rewarded immensely...
Now, several dozen hours later, im more hooked than ever!
Darkest Dungeon is one of those immensely rare games, that manage to stay exciting and attractive, and it is not even finished, with new patches and DLC still released!
And even though the game does not entertain in a traditional way, but more like a puzzler, it is the only game in my endless library, that i always return to, and that i appreciate in an unparalleled way.
Which is astounishing, as i spend the most time in DD with... thinking!
I do literally spend hours (!) with the preparation and execution of each single single dungeon run, with micro-managing my party, their professions, their positions, their active skills, both fighting and camping, with curing and buying and improving and planning and preparing... and exploring and fighting and looting!
And even while doing the action part, i think about optimal strategies each step i take. And i, who, admittedly, isnt the most patient and clever person around, love it! And love that i do!
Playing this game seriously does also mean, to have to work on important real-life skills. In a game, that leaves no room for lazyness and brainless play (DD is the most unforgiving game i have played in my entire life! In fact, a single decision can cost you the game!), you either do your very best, or wont get anywhere!
In fact, every time that i fail, do i take my time to think everything through, and realize, that it could have been avoided. Every failing is a lesson, i try to learn from...
Now, some people claim, that this game is driven by a cruel, unfair RNG. Which is not completely false. The whole combat relies on chances, as well as several other, small mechanics. Still, a well prepared and optimally played party works together like a charm, and can handle almost every mechanic there is in this game...
And the feeling, when everything works as intended, and when a party returns safely, packed to the brim with treasures, that can then be used to work on the strategy layer (the town), and prepare for the next tactics-part, is simply amazing!
And even when RNG screws you completely over, and you should fail without fault, do i feel, that the real goal in this game is doing the best you can, and that the path is the real award in this game.
So, even when you fail, and you will, because we are just humans: Take a break, relax, learn from your mistakes, and start a fresh run with a new party.
I still recommend to use guides, as learning everything by trial-and-error IS an annoying and unnecessary part, and i wished, that the game would contain more and extended information!
Also, while talking about negatives, dungeon-runs become a bit repetitive, and i hope, that this part will be extended, with more opportunities to do...
The same flaws apply for the tactical battles: the little monster-variety, without any random elements added, will eventually lead to the same couple of strategies, used again and again...
And lastly, the RPG-part is too shallow, with extremely simple random hero-attributes, and leveling up and improving skills is very unspectacular.
Im also painfully missing some skill-tree, some options to specialize heroes.
I really liked to have lesser heroes for hire, but more options to develop them...
But, im sure that we havent seen the last patch and expansion, or maybe there will even follow a sequel :)
Now, if you have read to this point, and am still interested, this might be the game you are looking for.
A word of advice, though: The beginning of a new game starts pretty rough, with very little to do, and much to learn. Dont let you discourage in this stage: The more you play, the more features get enabled, and the better and fulfilling the game gets, and after you've failed a couple of times, and have learned the basics, the real experience begins :)
I wish you a great time with this gem!!!
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