Well, I got a super-awesome $5 deal for it, and I figured, why not?
But it's ridiculously hard - not just CHALLENGING, mind you - but pointlessly difficult.
The random dungeons are identical. The various beasties with various hideous faces all have the same attacks and defenses. The rewards are defeatingly scarce. Your heroes are unrepairable, even when they are.
After 4 hours of play I feel like I'm still just starting.
I am not that sort of masochistic, I want to enjoy my games. I lament GOG's not having a "THIS GAME SUCKS" refund policy.
Every fight you feel Really massive variety of emotions. (For example only one group amte left on a battlefield, and boss has just 20 HP. He hits that final guy and he gets COURAGE. Yeahh you are happy, but he dies in the next turn.
The one thing i can wish is release of butcher`s circuis in GOG, but i doubt it, so count as minus of game bought/
Darkest Dungeon is extremely atmospheric.
The narrator is just orgasmic, not to mention the Lovecraft-inspired writing in the one-liners and occasional stories he'll share. This, along with the gritty art style, makes returning to familiar locations on familiarly designed quests feel no less immersive than the first time around. The stress mechanic amplifies this exponentially.
The feeling of danger is superb. In the beginning especially, as you'll be unfamiliar with which foes perform which attacks, based on their positioning. As your knowledge (and roster, party, hamlet, trinket stash, experience and progress into the different dungeons) increases (and upgrades) over time, the thrill never leaves, as DD loves dishing out the most decisive blows whenever the player feels at their most confident.
I have just under 200 hours spent on this game, and while a lot of comments here are critiquing the RNG, it has been improved immensely. Strategy is king, and it's application is also unique - most of it happens during the preparation phase, which in and of itself is full of choice and consequences.
Through my experience with the game, I've had parties be both astoundingly victorious and brutally slaughtered. I've found some party/trinket compositions that almost always guarantees a stress-free victory, given that you still pay attention, but this still doesn't mean my heroes are 100% safe. Playing on the hardest difficulty with all DLC enabled (don't do this your first time around) has elevated the game even further for me. Never will I forget the stories (which were all made as they went) of Flintlock Oliver the Highwayman, who avenged his father during the last quest, or Payback Jonah the Bounty Hunter, who met his end in a final stand against the Formless Flesh.
One of the best games I've ever played, along with Dark Souls, The Last of Us, Fallout: New Vegas, Heroes of M&M 3, etc.
I love the concept of this game and the storyline structure. But it is fatally flawed and will only be tolerable to a small minority of people who don't mind long grinding games and repetitious restarts. As others have mentioned, the game lacks balance. It is way too easy to die; actually dying (a lot) is a core gameplay mechanic. However, if you are willing to either install mods or to tweak some game files yourself, this game can be somewhat enjoyable. I really can't recommend the game unless you are prepared to mod it in order to reduce the frustrating grinding.
The game has a rather interesting storyline and structure, You are called upon to clear out the monster-infested estate of your family and to find the source of the evil. As you crawl through various dungeons with your four adventures, you get loot and other items that can be used to upgrade the local town. Your adventurers come from several classes and can be upgraded and leveled up by going into dungeons. These mechanics can get quite repetitious; however, the whole stress dynamic keeps things interesting. Fighting monsters can give your heroes all sorts of mental and physical ailments that can only be fixed in the town. Certain items (trinkets) that you find while adventuring, along with some stress-reducing character skills, can address problems related to stress, but the town has the best fixes, along with places for upgrading equipment, recruiting new heroes, buying provisions, and so forth. It all works well enough to keep things interesting, but again, can get quite repetitious and laborious over time.
The ending of the game is a bit silly and anticlimactic, but whatever. The most fun is to be had in close fights when your heroes are well matched against a group of enemies. The narration and writing are top notch, and the sound effects and music create a dreary atmosphere. I like the simple art style, which is appropriate to the setting and story. Darkest Dungeon is worth a try for fans of RPGs and D&D type games. However, for most people, it will not be worth the bother in its default state--you'll die all the time, will never become attached to your fragile heroes, and will not make much progress in the game, even with all of the grinding.
