Darkest Dungeon
There have been many games with a dark foreboding atmosphere that stress you out as you play. Amnesia, Dark Souls, Resident Evil, Silent Hill are just but few of the titles. Few however in my opinion, manage to do so quite as effective as Darkest Dungeon manages to do.
Darkest Dungeon is a 2 dimensional rogue like game in which you hire adventurers in order to progress each dungeon, all in preparation for the final series of dungeons: The "Darkest Dungeons".
The game offers a great soundtrack, amazing story and what is probably the most immersive experience in the dark fantasy genre you can ever encounter.
Step aside jump-scare games, the true master of Stress is here.
Story
The story begins when a previously unknown to you ancestor sends you a letter of inheritance, claiming you are now the owner of the ancestral manor and the small Hamlet surrounding it. Not being alarmed by the fact that you most likely do not know the dude, as you only refer to him as ancestor, as well as the side that he is -still- alive when he says you inherited it, you decide to go there.
Obviously, when you arrive you see that the entire place has gone tits up, as your Ancestor was not exactly a stand up bloke. Deals with Eldritch abominations, criminals, occult personalities and straight up murderers to name but a few of his sins, has caused the entire area to become corrupted, cursed and plagued by monsters and brigands.
You have two choices when you realize all this.
A) Get back on the carriage and GTFO (and close the game) OR
B) Roll up your sleeves and get to work as you mutter a few choice words about your ancestor.
With every boss you defeat you uncover a new journal entry which sheds some light into just how depraved, corrupt and dark your ancestor's dealings were.
Gameplay and Music
The gameplay is rather straightforward. You have to recruit adventurers from the carriage, and then send them out in teams of 4 in order to complete missions, gather loot and various other materials, which you will use to upgrade your heroes and the hamlet, to help you deal with what is to come. Every now and then you will unlock a boss fight which will help you understand the story better.
The game is very reliant on RNG mechanics, from the stats of the players, to when a blow will be their last, the amount of RNG used would ruin most other games. Here however it fits perfectly due to a very interesting Stress mechanic. All heroes, in addition to their health bar, have a stress bar which slowly goes up as you explore a dungeon. Certain attacks will give you flat stress instead of damage and the higher the stress the more closer to death your hero is. The Stress bar in of itself has 2 stages. 0-100, and 100-200. When your stress is below 100, your character behaves in a normal way, however when he reaches 100 then his resolve is tested. This means that, once more through RNG, your character will either break due to stress, and become afflicted, or he will explode in a spark of valor, becoming Virtuous.
Afflicted characters, behave erratically (depending on their affliction) and will constantly act or speak in ways that stresses out the rest of the party. This means that even if a single party member becomes afflicted, then the timer is on, until -everyone- reaches 100 stress and will have their resolve tested.
Virtues on the other hand, cure stress from the character, and occasionally will benefit the party, so that is always a great thing to happen, however, as with everything in this game, the odds are stacked against you, and more often than not, you -want- to avoid reaching 100 stress regardless. If you think afflictions are bad then wait till it reaches 200 and the character immediately dies from a heart attack.
With all the above, the game manages to blend random elements into what essentially is a game in which you always struggle to make the best out of increasingly worse odds. This serves it extremely well, as you will find yourself more and more invested into what is going on, and as the stress bar of your adventurers go up, so will yours.
Offering the cherry on top of a perfect stress cake, the music comes into play. With Stuart Chatwood's amazing compositions, every dungeon feels different, and the shift from the ominous music of exploration to the drum fueled combat music, the music plays its own part in fully immersing you into the world and adventure.
Synopsis
The game offers an amazing immersive experience, with everything blending in to draw you in. With all the mechanics working to bring you both, those rage-quit moments, where the RNG screws you over a bit too much, as well as those adrenaline fueled moments where you are just teetering on the brink of losing, and a single critical, or hero going into a Virtuous state turning the tide, making it all seem that much more epic.
With a great soundtrack, dark theme and an interesting story, this game might not be -that- old, but with Mod support and the great DLCs that are out there, it is without a doubt, a great experience and hands down one of the most stressful -and- fun games out there!
