Darkest Dungeon is a title that aims to center it’s gameplay around the stress that an adventurer must deal with when exploring the unknown. A range of characters, from Arbalests, to Paladins, to Lepers, all can be included within your four man team, as you carefully prepare for the terrors of each dungeon. The monsters aren’t the only foe you face, as you must be prepared to combat the effects of stress and starvation.
At each station, we were presented with character sheets, detailing what each mercenary was capable of, and their ideal role. I’m no stranger to Red Hook’s delightfully punishing game, but I am also by no means great at it either, yet I find myself coming back for more each time. It has a lovingly crafted atmosphere that just oozes despair, and some sublime voice-work from Wayne June really helps reinforce just how bleak the game can get. This stylized design is quite apparent in the new content as well, with a focus on the subaquatic. The sheer variety of enemies I encountered served to impress, and I was quite eager to see what’d await me in the next room or in the next battle.
________________________________
“My time with Darkest Dungeon at PAX this year really encapsulated all that can go wrong for an ill-prepared adventure.”
Sunken ruins and scaly monstrosities adorn the new location of the coming update “Those from Below”. The demo itself culminated in a battle with the admittedly horrifyingly designed Siren, one of the two new bosses. The Cove, the fourth dungeon to come, adds a variety of new enemies, as well as curios (objects with which you can interact with), narration, and a few other surprises as well. There are no new classes coming down the pipeline, but there is a variety to choose from as is, and Red Hook’s title continues to serve as an example of Early Access done right. I had to remind myself more than once that this was still technically an incomplete game, yet the level of polish it has lends itself to make the game feel like it’s already been shipped.
The update itself is shipping later this month, and I for one am eagerly looking forward to getting back into the game and re-acquainting myself with Darkest Dungeon. It’s one of the most unique offerings to be found on the market right now, and the Stress mechanic is truly one of a kind. During my time with the game at PAX, I got to experience as much of the new content as possible, but the sheer difficulty and trials of adventuring proved to be too taxing for my party. My vestal had essentially come down with a case of “I kick ass for the lord!”-itis, and proceeded to crit the living hell out the enemies in front of me. There are chances for the Stress system to work in your favour, and it feels great to see your characters react in such a manner, even when your party is on death’s door, it can instill hope, a quality that is sorely needed in the world of this game. You grow oddly attached to the characters, despite there being no real backstory to any of them. They’re there for the coin, but you don’t want to fail, and your success in each dungeon relies on the well-being of each party member. Carefully crafting a team that just “clicks” is a great feeling, and while I’d thought I’d found this during my time with the game at PAX, The Cove reminded me that there was still much for me to learn.
My time with Darkest Dungeon at PAX this year really encapsulated all that can go wrong for an ill-prepared adventure. My run ended in a way that you’d expect from this game. My vestal, in all her fervent glory, went down swinging. My plague doctor, ironically, fell to blight. My Hellion was struck with an affliction, before being killed by the many fish-men in this dungeon, and my Paladin fell to a Heart Attack, a recently added feature in which if you become too stressed, your character will die outright. It was an almost fitting end for this run, and it certainly won’t be my last attempt to conquer this new dungeon.
