Darkest Dungeon®

Darkest Dungeon

Visual: 7/10 (a pretty neat character/world design)
Story: 6/10 (bare-bones to say the least)
Gameplay: 8/10
Difficulty: 8.5/10
Replay Value: ∞
Would I recommend it? Absolutely YES!!

Now despite all positive things that I said, I must admit I rarely play games that pass 20-40+ hours. So I believe I'm gonna quit mid-way through. It's not the game itself bad, but I'm not into grindfest that much. Especially considering how heavy this games grinding feels, so yeah it's not just for me. But this 10 hours after playing this game was pretty much fun, it's not that hard in my opinion, it reminds me with SMT almost because the fair challenge the game has. So yeah I think this games great or at the very least worth to check it out!!

This game is frustrating, annoying and is at no point fun to play.

10/10 would recommend

also learnt the word indefatigable from this game

As much as I want to enjoy this game, and in some ways do, it is ultimately what could be a fantastic game, hampered by several critical failures of game-design.

1. Hunger strikes randomly, independent of when party members have last eaten or when hunger has last struck. This mechanic is also not really explained. I only discovered it when I lost a party member to starvation despite them having eaten recently and having rations in my pack (but not enough for the full party to eat all at once)

2. You cannot bring heroes on missions that are a tier below them. I understand what the devs were going for here, but it unfortunately just does not work. It means that, as you level your roster, you may not have enough low level heroes to create a viable, or even complete, team for tier one quests. It also means spending way more time grinding out levels, rather than having your high level heroes help teach your lower level ones. It doesn't particularly matter, but the in-universe explanation is a bit flimsy, too. Thankfully, this is easily addressed with mods.

3. The biggest issue with Darkest Dungeon is that Red Hook Studios simply has a poor understanding of numbers. As you progress through the game to more difficult missions, enemy speed, dodge, etc. quickly outpace your own to a point that, difficulty aside, it starts to make lots of game mechanics irrelevant. Dodge stats, for example, already don't make sense. Enemies with relatively low dodge stats of 10-15 still manage to dodge constantly, but during champion level missions, you regularly encounter enemies with 40+ dodge, meaning that you simply won't do much damage if you don't build specifically for accuracy, disregarding all other aspects of combat. If an enemy gets a 50% damage reduction but still has 50 HP, the player just has to spend 10 turns grinding down the enemies health. Making gold and other quest rewards that are needed for advancement scarce doesn't make them seem more precious, it just means you have to grind out way more missions without doing a whole lot in between or feeling like you've progressed.


When Darkest Dungeon hits, it really does. The system it employs for positioning during fights is really cool and adds a new dimension of strategy to party planning and combat. I like the system for mental breaks. Characters in general are allowed to have so much depth and development, that I start to feel very attached to them. Unfortunately, getting to the fun bits of the game requires a massive grind that I'm trying to power through, but would not recommend to other players unless they are very much aware of this going into the game.

The quirk system is too random and very illogical. I do love the fact your heroes will die and its impossible to keep them all alive or attach to anyone. Other than that... tis ok i guess 60%, just a pass. very repetitive

Darkest Dungeon is the perfect simulator for watching your therapist silently nod as your hopes and dreams contract syphilis in a torch-lit hallway. It’s like if Edgar Allan Poe wrote a group therapy session hosted by a bottle of whiskey and narrated by your anxiety. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but here, it just gives you six phobias, a drinking problem, and an uncontrollable fear of bookshelves. This games idea of fun is watching your favorite hero have a full-blown mental breakdown because they stepped in a puddle.

Less flashy than XCOM 2, but with so much character depth that sets itself apart from that game's soldier customization. Plus the strong graphics of that game are replaced with a highly stylized, memorable atmosphere. Haven't even gotten to the darkest dungeon yet, but this could likely be my go-to for the rogue-like genre moving forward. Strongly recommended.

I have tried so many times to like this game. I have even given it multiple year breaks, multiple times because I like so much of it and wanted to give the developers to patch the obviously broken RNG and stop trolling the fans instead of catering to the "1337". I have never wanted to love a game more than this one but have been left with no choice but to hate the game and the developer Red Hook. I cannot in good conscious recommend a game that intentionally makes me actively hate the characters I'm suppose to care about, level up and command while actively hating the sadism of the developers cheap reliance on fake, sadistic "RNG".

I don't mind losing a toon or two, but losing my highest ranking toon on a short/mid level run, because the "RNG" decided to crit one specific toon with every single enemy after all my toons were done, then crit that same specific toon with every single enemy before any healers on my team could even take a turn, killing the healer I spent over a dozen hours leveling because "F" me in particular.

This may become one of my favourite game of all time like probably top 5 at this point (it is competing against smt 4, 4a, 5v, 3 and persona 3 fem route psp) it has everything i want from a game that i spent like 30 aud on.

art style rocks, game play is fun and satisfying. id say maybe the best thing about darkest dungeon is the fact that yes this is purposly hard but the "easy mode" is not made to be easy as much as its made to help players learn and get used to the game mechanics and what you should expect on harder modes.
although yes there is plenty to learn in this game its quite simple. like the entire game is "if 2+2=4 its going to equal 4" but also some times the game just tells you "too bad so sad" and its you over the head with a metal poll 10 times over. which is honestly very very fun lol. a shit tone of this game is rng but there is enough player control in the game that you dont feel completely powerless its just balenced that well.

ive only really played with the bounty hunter, crusader, vestel, leper, cultist, highway man, Antiquarian, plauge doctor and abomination. ive had a bit of a playaround with otherclasses but look leper highway man and bounty hunter are so strong and reliable its crazy.
loved loved loved this game its like an 8 out of 10. im a lore fiend so thats really the only things im taking points off of as there isnt really character development BUT ive heard the second game has all that so im not complaining

sorry if my spelling and punctuation is wrong or odd i have dyslexia lol

Waste of time if you enjoy leveling up / investing in hirelings as you will quikly run out of resources (gold) to keep them sane/alive.

The disposable nature of the mercenary/hireling system that the game uses is one of the worst I have ever encountered.

the game gets good after you realise its optimal to spend 30 minutes stalling one fight to reduce your stress to 0, also i do not recommend this game to people with lives and things to do other then click flare 30 times.

Punishing in the ways that make no sense and make the game unfun for me personally.

When starting the game I didn't expect much, I thought that I would finish it in under 2 hours and move onto the next game in my library. Safe to say that didn't happen, and I now I think the Leper is hot.
Also the recent update broke the entire game, you have to play it by reverting it to the legacy edition, which is a shame.

The game is overall fantastic. I love the themes and the ideas that surround this game, as well as the gameplay itself. There's always something new waiting. I also love that the game saves no matter what happens. I initially thought I would have a hard time letting go of things or people with it autosaving, but I was actually more grateful for it because it makes sure anything you do or succeed in is also saved. I really like that it plays with human behavior, such as someone being resilient in a bad situation or getting a negative quirk. I personally love every mechanic and story of the game.

I've quit the game three times and finally powered through it so I could feel justified in giving the negative review.

To start off, the story is alright and the art/music/voiceover are great. No real complaints there.

The actual game design starts off fine until you reach the later stages of the game, where it just becomes an exercise in wasting your time. It takes forever to grind a hero to level 6, which is fine for the first part of the game, but becomes majorly tedious as you continue to play. The game forces characters to become unusable in lower tier missions, so you can't have an experienced hero help power level your plebs like you can in, say, XCOM. I understand what they were trying to do but it doesn't work. It makes the game an incredible grind fest.

The worst part of the game was the fact that when you finish a part of the main story dungeon, you can't use those four heroes in any subsequent story dungeon. The in universe reason for this is flimsy, but even if it wasn't this is a terrible piece of game design just meant to prolong the game and keep you grinding for no reason.

Within the dungeons, even travelling about seems to want to waste your time. Your party walks at a snail's pace, and scouting (which is essential) takes forever to resolve. Animations like curio interactions and trap disarming/triggers also take forever.

Balance wise the game is also wack. Seems like the only real choice to make is to stack accuracy on all your heroes because high level enemies have such ridiculous dodge chances. Stuns are OP, consumables take no action and healers are only useful for topping you off so there's very little actual meaningful decisions to make during combat.

Don't waste your time. The game looks and sounds nice but plays terribly.

"Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer"
I love the game its a bit dated and hard to understand but its really fun once you start to somewhat understand things

This game is so rigged, its unwinable by normal means.
Sure, the story and art design is good, but it just demands too much of your free time and patience.
The grinding. Oh the grinding.
Constant grinding, constant mercy at random chance, and just as you think you found a way to best it, the game adds a new mechanic, rule, gimick, kilometer of passages under lock and key...
The party members are more brats than soldiers. They refuse to grind lower level dungeons for criticaly needed resources. They refuse to best the darkest dungeon a second time unless you are playing on easy. And walking speed... oh so slow... and even slower backwards when you run into the Crimson Cort doors.
Speaking of Creimson Court, the invitations to it are another BS level of grind wait.
By the end the game demands you kill your own companions if you are not OP enough with blight and bleed mechanic.
And just as you think you are done, just as you think this is the end, the game goes and update breaks itself and all your cheats... Then half the community decide to insult you for even daring to try playing a game you spent your hard earned money on.

Mods are great.
So if you are going into this game, get WeMod, and set the game for Legacy build - else the blue windmill will straight up rob you.

Love the game. It is very challenging and very difficult but sadly gets repetitive real quick and slow. You can mod it to make it faster and all. But It has some downsides for me.

Now I bought this game to chill and play PvE and take my mind off stressful stuff. I was having a blast but now It feels like a chore. I finished my first playthrough. I thought it would be cool to do some achievements to have some "side missions" going and have more fun. It made the game so boring and repetitive. I'm doing obnoxious things like trying to get RNG right in fights and hunt for bosses in endless DLC fights, die to trap, die to wilbur, die to this, kill a boss with half your party Virtue and other Afflicted... Even if I do it succesfully, it isn't fun or rewarding at ALL. They added all DLCs into the achievements making your base game achievements non-perfect and DLCs a must buy if you really care for having the trophy. They managed to make the base game fun and difficult but achievements non-rewarding and boring as hell at the same time. In games like Risk of Rain 2, you get some cool cosmetics for finishing the game on hardest difficulty or new equipments for doing tedious chores like pushing 100 crabs off the map.

I would say 10/10 game if you asked me the first time I finished it. But every little animation being so slow and doing any sort of achievement and task rewards you with nothing that you can use ingame. Not even cosmetics or a display of mastery. And without mods, most animations are very long and walking across the map back and forth is a tediously slow task. Mods make the game much better than it is. You can also get cool custom skins for your characters. It reminded me of playing Bethesda games where most of them can't really be enjoyed without mods and I hate having to rely on mods.

8/10.

Definitely recommended for people looking for a challenge. The early game is pretty rough imo, but it letter gets better as you figure out more about the game and the heroes.
Just be sure to expect to lose heroes every so often, though you will others to fill their place instead.

makes you rethink of the way you played turn-based games before, its great. narrator goes so hard it's crazy

Darkest Dungeons made me feel the creeping madness from every twisted voice line or sound effect, crawling into my ear like the squishing of bloated maggots or the anguished squeems of those depraved of hope.

The mood setting for this game is just phenomenal and feels, despite its 2D art style and lack of character animation, like the characters are still writhing through it all, clasping through the roads of damnation.

The gameplay for the game feels solid and has its ups and downs in regards to the sanity system but feels fair and balanced. My biggest problem, however, is that it doesn't explain anything about how the game stats work and interact with each other, leaving you to figure it out yourself.

The classes for the game are all decent, but some of them, like the Leper, just aren't as strong as the others, which makes them feel not worth it, and considering you have to level up the character, it's just a waste of effort, which in a game this old should have been balanced out—though it's mostly minor since all the characters are at least usable to some extent, but still.

Overall, the music for the game is good and atmospheric, great to use as a backdrop for something like a D&D campaign, as it fades into the background of the gameplay nicely to give that little extra bit to pull you further into the game.

This game isn't easy and isn't for everyone, but if you're up for a challenge, it's a joy to behold as you get attached to your delvers, only for them to shrivel to the floor from a heart attack. I'd recommend it.

The best game I've ever played. It's tough and unforgiving at every step. The story, characters, and overall game design are simply perfect. The gothic artwork adds a dark, immersive atmosphere. The RNG will constantly make you cry, hitting you for over 30 damage and ignoring your dodge chance entirely.
"Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer"

One of the best games you will ever play. The creators should be very proud of themselves.

I love turn-based RPG and Roguelike + lite but I just can't have fun with this game. There's nothing wrong with the combat or roguelite aspects, it's the gameplay that I have problems with. Endless grind for very little progress, constant micromanaging, RNG for RNG's sake.

Just a crazy good game. Probably my favourite game of all time. Although, admittedly, it's definitely not for everyone. But it's definitely worth giving a shot to see if you like it.

Finally played after my friends got into it. Downloaded mods just for some visual flavor, got sucked in for more hours because of it. Great game, do recommend.

Great game good imagery not much else to stay it is just a good game with a great party mechanics.

Ребята не покупайте и не запускайте эту игру. Теперь у меня зависимость. Целый день всё о чём я могу думать это то как приду домой после работы/шараги и завалюсь играть в дд. Я жду когда она мне надоест, но я наиграл в неё уже больше 30 часов и это число продолжает расти

Incredibly grindy. Starts off fun, but quickly devolves to repetitive "Crawl dungeon, level up, crawl dungeon..."

Can't recommend this to the average person. There are so many UI design flaws and lack of UI feedback and just generally feels awkward to use. Losing my campfire wood because I accidentally click on it in my inventory is not acceptable. For a game where one decision can make or break a quest, having to fight the UI will be your biggest monster.

Edit: You can't reopen a container once you close it. Really? REALLY? Losing a secret room stash to this was disgusting. This game isn't hard because it's good game design, its hard because its coded like a flash game with shitty resource controls. Trash.

Devastation and utter joy wrapped in one game. It sucks when the enemy hits you hard, but when you make a comeback... damn does it feel GOOD!

Darkest Dungeon is by every aspect an experience tailored for me, and easily fits in my top 15 favourite game ever played. That being said, I can see why it wouldn't be the case for everyone else. I tend to keep my reviews from brief to slightly detailed on this platform, but Darkest Dungeon is such a unique journey that truly resonated with me. I think it's probably for the best to lay out the full picture; especially if you've just got yourself the game, or are wondering if it would be wise buying it during a sale. So allow me to set the stage, in a structured way, to show you what truly is awaiting you in this wretched land.

"You remember our venerable house, opulent and imperial..."

The Good

Presentation
One of the strongest point of Darkest Dungeon from the very start, and a reason why it personally stuck so much with me, is how original and defined in presentation & concept it truly is. The game is set in the Gothic era, but it also inspires itself a lot from Lovecraftian Horror and it fully takes advantage of it. From the first cinematic, the game engulfs you in mystery, and does it with very few words. To be honest, I sometime let it fully play when booting up the game after a long time, or when I feel like fully immersing myself in my ancestor's delirium.

The visuals, like the title suggests, are very dim and unsaturated. The atmosphere is dark and unwelcoming, even the neighbouring Hamlet that's now decrepit is devoid-ed of any colours. Grotesque black strokes of ink shape the outlines of everything: The UIs, the menus, the texts' typeface, the buildings, the various collectable objects and more so of every characters. That being said, that plays it to its favour as it fully ties in to the story and how atrocious the situation is: it sets the stage and raises the stake on how depressing the world truly has gone into.

While we are talking graphics, the next logical thing would be to address the monster and enemy design. To make fairly brief, they are nothing short of amazing and well thought-out. Many monsters have standard ghastly look as you begin : classic skeletons, to wild dogs and madmen. As you progress the game and ramp up in mission difficulties however, they get even more ghoulish. Bosses are the true stars in design though, and should be as they are centre-piece to the story and they all have a unique grotesque, Lovecraftian design to show it.

As for the music and overall sound design, the tone is gloomy, sometime unnervingly silent while traversing the many dungeons' halls, other time thrilling when engaging in combat. My favourite piece however, is the "The Hamlet", the track that plays when visiting the main hub - the Hamlet. I think that Stuart Chatwood, the composer, really did something special there. This track is very intriguing to me as it tethers between drops of hopeful and depressive tones. I think they've really nailed in creating a soothing yet unsettling atmosphere.

The jewel of sound design though, inevitably goes to the narration of the game, performed by talented and late Wayne June (May he rest in peace), that is present throughout every player choice, every discovery and at every return to the Hamlet, after previous expeditions. Something about the cadence of the words and his deep gravelling voice just tie in perfectly with the writing, and it hitches the right spot in my psyche. I sometimes catch myself quoting him out loud during the day, or when playing other games. His overall performance like his character's nightmares was otherworldly and he is sorely missed.

The more challenging

"And now the true test... hold fast, or expire?."

The gameplay loop on the surface is simple :

Recruit heroes, gather them in an handcrafted party tailored to certain needs via each individual skills (Heroes that benefit from debuffs, status effects, against certain enemy type, etc), and level up their Resolve by exploring procedurely generated dungeons and vanquishing the evil and sometime bosses roaming within them. Gather, in a restrained inventory, loot throughout the expeditions such as gold to buy the various services the town offers like skill and arsenal upgrades, or other valuable trinkets and heirloom to upgrade town buildings; thus improving the efficiency of said services. Rinse and repeat until your roster is strong enough to face the Darkest Dungeon.

The real gripe with a lot of players, especially the new ones is the learning curve and overall investment of time required to fully enjoy the game. Heroes that end up dying is a very punishing experience during the expeditions as it drastically lowers the chances of successful runs, and it can also set you back a lot in the beginning when resources are finite. A roster that does not perish instantly though can slowly succumb to stress, which adds in a ton of unwanted parameters, and can be the difference between victory and defeat. The real challenge then is to carefully avoid stressing your party during expeditions as it can lead to members skipping their turn, stressing other heroes or worse, succumbing to heart attacks. I've had my fair share of failed excursions from a single recruit that managed to raise panic in the entire party, leading to a full team wipe. Though this is hard at first, you definitely can and should learn from failure, i.e. what stresses your recruits and how to stop it. This accumulated experience makes each run smoother and all the more satisfying when victorious.

Some will say that a game should be fully enjoyable from the get go, and I do respect this opinion, which is why I understand if these same people end up putting the game down for a while, if not forever. Truth be told, I had a previous 60 hour run that sat idle for a good year when I came back to the game. Darkest Dungeon is a very complicated game to get into, even at standard difficulty. A good tip is to leave the wiki opened and gather as much information / strategies as possible. This will smooth out the experience.

My recommendations :
- Upgrade gears and skills first, as they improve your heroes' base stats, and make them deadlier and harder to hit in more difficult dungeons.
- DO NOT activate the Crimson Court and Colour of Madness DLCs as they increase the game difficulty drastically in the beginning, since they implement various, deadlier monsters that can spawn in standard regions.
- Start with the standard vanilla experience with maybe new hero class unlocked, and activate Districts and other DLCs as you progress and gain confidence.
- Take your time, open the Wiki, seek resources
- Most of all: have fun and be patient, be mindful, be prepared

TL;DR:

This game is a masterclass on how to make a game frustrating.

Like sure sure dark atmosphere, stress and affliction and management is cool.

culprit of trashness.
Accuracy rating - DMG range.
You have a plan. Ok i can do this atk and for Mark and buff and then the next character does this the next does that.
Oops you missed, everything is halted for next round.
Or
You wanna kill a character and you roll 1 damage or somesh.


These things feel so bad. Like literal waste of time bad.


I can't mod the game yet cause I'm on steam deck on vacation. But first thing I'd do, is change accuracy and damage on upgrades or level ups.

So I can at least try and focus on one hero patch him up in town and level them up.

Cause right now, I have a dude leveled survived multiple dungeons.
Just as useless as a fresh recruit.

Like you can't interact with the map proper, cause your focus is directed at surviving basic ass maps and still dying, constantly rotating heroes whilst trying apprentice level maps.

Already bought it back in Beta. Cool concept! Artstyle is great and the voice Actor is legendary.

The newest update has some type of data collection on it. I do not think a game like this needs to collect our data until this gets explained in detail why this is needed I will uninstall the game, Please stay informed about these kind of things and have a nice day.

An incredibly frustrating game that for better or for worse is very addictive.

Lovecraftian dungeon crawler with turn based combat that has incredible art and atmosphere good music wonderful enemy variety intense fights deep and engaging strategy great character variety, looting, upgrades and more. Very difficult but rewards you for learning the game.

I struggled at first and wasn't sure I was getting it but after a while it really became compelling and engrossing. Liking it more and more as I continue playing it.

this game is pretty fun to play and give great atmosphere, and mod make the game 100 times better

A game that I have a love-hate relationship with but is the most enjoyable game I've played.

One of the best games of all time. You will hate all that exists, and you feel ecstasy you've never felt before.
You will feel irrationally close to your roster, which is very unhealthy.
You will feel true loss when the Deathblow hits.
You will gain back your faith in a greater power when you survive a DoT on Death's Door.
Play it. DO IT. Give in to thou temptations!

This game is fairly outdated from a graphics perspective. But it's just oozing style. And the narration is probably the best thing any video game has ever had. It's a brutally addictive game. Don't look to hope. You'll find no quarter here. This game will feed your inner masochist. Embrace it. Mortality clarified in a single blow!

Very conflicted.
Great game marred by over reliance and brutality of the Random Number Generator.
Gets boring fast as completely unfair when it decides misses for you continuously and criticals for the opponents - wasting your time. Obviously, your mileage with vary to whether you've worked out its wasting your time.

Will be glad when games stop wasting their potential on crap RNG.

Real shame, looks great, other mechanics great, let down by a nown and boring flaw.

Don't get me wrong, the game is great, the visuals, theme, the sound, the feeling, almost everything about this game is amazing.
Sadly I cannot recommend this game because of a single point, the GRIND.
It is horrific, boring, repetitive and absolutely annoying.
I really wanted to love this game, but after 20 hours, I can say it isn't for me. This amount of grind is DISGUSTING. This could've been a 9/10 without this much damn grinding.

I'm usually not someone who complains about RNG, but there are just so many variables to manage in this game that I find it hard to really plan for anything. Even on easy mode, the grind is insane. The art is very nice, but dungeons are also made with just a handful of assets. The zones feel different from each other, but each run feels exactly the same. There isn't really a story to hook you either. I feel like there are much better tough as nails, emergent storytelling, RPGs out there.

"madness consumes the mind!"
plunge yourself into the dark horror that is darkest dungeon. feel the anger! feel the fear! feel the madness! buy it for 25 bucks! hate it! love it! give it your all in the depths that is the darkest dungeon!

Finally tried this game after coming on sale for cheap. It's definitely tough and i recommend not looking at guides until you beat the game at least once.

Fun, unforgiving, brutal, gritty, good game overall I like. A lot to learn and a lot of things outside your control that can really fuck things up. Not for everyone and you might not want to replay after the first playthrough like I did

After 35 hours of quality fun it get way too repetitive and boringly easy. At around the first 10 hours my heroes died because I wasn't prepared. Now after another 20 hours I have the whole roster fully upgraded (weapons, armors, skills) and i don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have no inspiration to move forward. Most of the buildings in town don't worth upgrading anymore because i don't need them at all. Nothing new is coming up. If this 30-40 hours of fun worth the price tag for you then go ahead and have quality fun with it. But there are other games that i could sink 1000+ hours into without getting bored for almost the same price tag.

One of the best grinding games I've played. I played it a lot on the iPad and missed it recently so purchased on Steam and started playing it again. There's new content and I'm excited about trying out the new expansions :)

very fun lovely combat system that is fair and unforgiveing would recomend

Darkest Dungeon: The Game That Gave My Anxiety Anxiety
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5 — would get emotionally wrecked again)

Let me start by saying Darkest Dungeon isn’t a game — it’s a full-blown mental health simulator wrapped in a love letter to H.P. Lovecraft and sealed with a blood-soaked wax stamp. Imagine if Edgar Allan Poe, your middle school emo phase, and a sea of tentacles had a baby. That’s Darkest Dungeon.

You start with a happy little group of adventurers, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Fast forward five minutes: one’s paranoid, one’s abusive, one has a gambling addiction, and the last one is hugging the corner whispering “the abyss gazes back.” Classic team-building!

Tentacles? Oh, you bet.
If you don’t like tentacles, first of all: how dare you. Second: this game isn’t for you. There are more slimy appendages here than in a late-night anime forum. By week three in-game, you’ll start questioning if your real-life soup is trying to mind-control you.

Inspired by Lovecraft?
Absolutely. If you’ve read Lovecraft, you’ll recognize the vibes: unexplainable horrors, relentless dread, and vocabulary that makes you say “do I even speak English?” The narrator (voiced by Wayne June — a man whose voice could narrate my grocery list and still make me cry) basically reads excerpts from the Necronomicon while you watch your Crusader have a nervous breakdown because someone looked at him funny.

Mechanics?
Your characters stress out over everything. They’re like Tamagotchis with PTSD. Step on a weird tile? Stress. Teammate coughs? Stress. Something squelches in the dark? Double stress. I’ve seen less drama in reality TV.

And when they die — because they will die — the game just shrugs and tells you to “recruit more meat shields.” Heartwarming.

Final thoughts?
Darkest Dungeon is a beautifully cruel game that teaches you life lessons like:

Never open an ancient tome.

Tentacles are never friendly.

Trust no one. Especially yourself.

And for the love of sanity, bring a jester. You’ll need him more than therapy.

If you’re into atmospheric horror, tactical punishment, and existential dread with a side of calamari, you’ll love this game. Just... don’t get too attached to your party. Or your sanity. Or hope.