The mission ended in disgrace when four able-bodied adventurers died in an unprecedented quadruple heart attack. The auto-save feature is always on, so every mistake, every critical hit or critical miss, is permanent. As a habitual save-scummer, this was hard for me. The worst thing about Darkest Dungeon is coming to grips with the idea that there can be no perfection. The classes are interesting and unique, but the individuals are just meat for the grinder.

There’s an important distinction, though, between the character classes and the individuals. I love that Darkest Dungeon takes inspiration from so many sources, yet uses all of those pieces to create character classes that serve a clever, foreboding fiction. When the hound master lost his mind to stress, he became bitter and withdrawn, commenting that his bumbling companions lacked proper training. When the Vestal, an acolyte of a Roman goddess of purifying fire, became racked with fear, she would cry out for her god’s protection in the darkness. Every sound effect, every splash of color, and every character and ability all work to create an environment inspired by low fantasy novels and pulpy weird-horror magazines. Lovecraft’s one-note writing.) Both the heroes (occultists, Amazonians, thieves, paladins, plague doctors, lepers, bounty hunters, rogues) and the enemies (skeletons, zombies, ghosts, enthralled souls, fish-people, mushroom-monsters, spiders, maggots) draw from a huge sampling of source material, and I love its unexpected variety.ĭarkest Dungeon is exceptional for how carefully-built and deliberate all its parts are. Darkest Dungeon’s greatest delight is finding new ways to screw you.Ĭalling Darkest Dungeon merely “Lovecraftian” is a disservice to the mythology developer Red Hook has built here. A massive tentacle reached through it and grabbed my healer, shoving her to the front of the party and flipping my careful plan right on its ass. In the team’s first battle, an enemy summoner opened a portal to hell. I enjoyed experimenting with characters who could fight in a melee role from one spot, but a support role from another.ĭuring one of my early expeditions, I had poured through character sheets to find the perfect set of four heroes and assigned them in the perfect order. The most interesting classes are those in the middle. Most melee attacks can only be aimed at the front ranks, and some spells can only be cast from the middle of a group. The order of the heroes is important, with heavily armored tanks taking the front spot and spell-casters, archers, and healers holding in the back. I also enjoyed tinkering with character classes in different party positions. Your heroes can die just as easily from a heart attack as from a sword. It’s easy to do one or the other, but that’s not enough.

When characters crack, they take on random debilitating traits like “abusive” or “afraid.” This is the well-executed balancing act of Darkest Dungeon: I love trying to keep people healthy and sane. Seeing a friend die or barely surviving a critical attack has a tendency to make people freak out. It’s hard enough keeping everyone alive, but battles put adventurers under a lot of stress, too. Battles are always tense, though, and I found myself dreading them as expeditions grew longer and more dangerous.

Combat gets more fun as more character types arrive in town and new abilities get unlocked. Especially at the beginning of the game, I found the few characters and abilities available made these battles more of a slog. Combatants take turns using abilities to attack, heal, or cast spells. When your party of maniacs runs up against a squad of horrors, a short, turn-based battle starts.

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