Darkest Dungeon is a risk/resource management game. Think of it like Cthulhu poker. Overall, it's a strategy game, but from moment to moment, it's a game of luck. And luck isn't always fair. (It's not always unfair, either... Point being it's random.) The game's randomness can be ridiculously punishing. A perfect expedition can turn into a disaster in 30 seconds because of nothing other than a string of pure terrible luck. Using poker analogy, it's like when you started with a pair of Aces, but somebody else got the Royal Flush in the end. It can feel terrible. The thing is, the game lets you fold your hand and cut your losses. You can retreat from battles. You can retreat back to town instantly when you're not in battle. You don't lose anything other than the initial investment into the expedition and the cost of nursing the team back to health. If your whole team die permanently in a dungeon, it's almost always because you went on tilt and took more risks when you were already in a bad situation. The flip side is, if you never take any risks, you'll never get enough loot in return for your investment into the expeditions. Your expedition fund will slowly dwindle away as a result. The balance of risk and return is the crux of the gameplay. If you don't like it, you probably won't have a good time with the game. Overall, the risk/resource mechanics, and how well they tied into the theme and atmosphere, are what makes this game–admittedly an otherwise good but not spectacular dungeon crawler–a fun and truly unique experience.
The Mac OSX version is 1.0 instead of 2.0. I don't know if it's different for the Windows version, but I have encountered no checkpoints in the game at all. It makes the game on hard quite challenging, at times frustrating, and overall pretty fun. I can see it being a problem with some players, however. On the game itself, it's hack-and-slash with very straightforward and solid game mechanics. The strength lies in the level design. The constant ambushes and environmental hazards keep the levels exhilarating. The lack of quest markers and item highlighting makes exploring and scavenging an engaging and rewarding experience. Overall, it's great mindless fun that makes you feel smart all the same.
Highlight: The randomly triggered events somehow managed to create believable characters that I cared about by the end of the game. What made the experience fun for me was that there was a story lurking in every corner waiting for you to discover. Problem: Gameplay is very simple. It took a few hours for me to learn all the ropes and the game offered little challenge since. Camping was especially repetitive, unchallenging, and tedious. Run of the mill: At the highest setting the AI for individual units is not bad, but they don't seem to have any concept of coordination. The basic combat mechanics is not bad, but there aren't enough special abilities to keep it interesting after 20+ battles.
