Darkest Dungeon

 PC
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 846 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 627 out of 846
  2. Mixed: 134 out of 846
  3. Negative: 85 out of 846

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  1. TroyNT
    Apr 23, 2020
    8
    8.5. Game is awesome. Wish more thoughts were put into itemization. It doesn't really feel rewarding.
  2. Xeculiar
    Oct 23, 2022
    8
    amazing and extremely unique game havent played something as amazing as this in a long time only complaints are as followed: crimson court is awful, steam edition is the only version with mod support so only buy it on steam and butchers circus is a great addition to this game thats been left to rot
  3. Axelle_1
    Dec 12, 2021
    8
    Darkest Dungeon is at it’s heart more than just a rogue-like RPG. It’s a tale, a story, an epic if you will.
  4. LazyPig
    Dec 7, 2020
    8
    A brutal and unforgiving, but I'll be it a very fun game with a unique art style.
  5. Tromble
    Jun 28, 2021
    8
    Darkest Dungeon is a fantastic and dark experiences that delivers all of the aesthetic goals of a brutal and unfair challenge while mechanically safeguarding the player from ever truly losing too much progress.

    Darkest Dungeon's biggest weakness comes from some of its more awkward decisions made to pad the game's runtime such as bosses reappearing with only minorly increased stats. I    Darkest Dungeon is a fantastic and dark experiences that delivers all of the aesthetic goals of a brutal and unfair challenge while mechanically safeguarding the player from ever truly losing too much progress.

    Darkest Dungeon's biggest weakness comes from some of its more awkward decisions made to pad the game's runtime such as bosses reappearing with only minorly increased stats.

    I highly recommend Darkest Dungeon.    … Expand
  6. Hatters
    Mar 10, 2022
    8
    An amazing game I ALWAYS come back to. If you're struggling, that's totally normal! Experience and knowledge are extremely important when it comes to this game, so trial and error is key!
  7. Wargames
    Jul 14, 2022
    8
    Amazing setting and atmosphere, memorable voice lines, and gorgeous art direction. The gameplay is exciting and the challenge is satisfying up to the endgame point when the game crashes the player's soul by rising the difficulty bar too high and demanding grinding old dungeons to level up the new generation of heroes.
  8. EVIL_UJIN
    Oct 15, 2022
    8
    Пьеса: Into The Dungeon

    Экспозиция: Четыре героя - Крестоносец, Разбойник, Весталка и Шут. Максимальный уровень, максимальные навыки и оружие. Крутейшие артефакты. Ресурсы закуплены по максимуму, ибо денег уже дофига. Идут в обычное подземелье, с обычными врагами, которых убивали сотню раз. Ожидается рутина. Завязка: Почти сразу встретили блуждающего босса - Нечто Со Звезд,    Пьеса: Into The Dungeon

    Экспозиция:
    Четыре героя - Крестоносец, Разбойник, Весталка и Шут. Максимальный уровень, максимальные навыки и оружие. Крутейшие артефакты. Ресурсы закуплены по максимуму, ибо денег уже дофига. Идут в обычное подземелье, с обычными врагами, которых убивали сотню раз. Ожидается рутина.

    Завязка:
    Почти сразу встретили блуждающего босса - Нечто Со Звезд, завалили его ценой огромного стресса всей команды. Пара персонажей впала в психоз. Пришлось сразу сделать привал, который немного снял стресс.

    Развитие действия:
    Во следующем бою рыболюди парой удачных критов убивают Разбойника (не припомню потери персонажей уже боев 15). С трудом заканчиваем бой втроем. Принимаем волевое решение идти дальше.

    Кульминация:
    В третьем бою Весталка ловит максимальный стресс и откидывает коньки от разрыва сердца. Оценив ситуацию, сбегаем из боя и с позором покидаем подземелье.

    Развязка:
    Задание не выполнено. Два оставшихся героя вернулись с сильным стрессом, который нужно будет лечить. Потеряны два персонажа 6 уровня, причем Весталка унесла с собой два крайне редких артефакта.

    Занавес

    Обожаю эту игру!)    … Expand
  9. Hyperfailure
    Apr 29, 2023
    8
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfqhXVN5jaU

    The quintessential Darkest Dungeon TM experience.

    The narrator gives me goosebumps.
  10. farrrullll
    Jan 27, 2023
    8
    Darkest Dungeon Darkest Dungeon v Darkest Dungeon Darkest Dungeon Darkest Dungeon
  11. ZackH25
    Mar 23, 2023
    8
    Very smart game and probably one of the hardest games I have played including games from the souls series. Very rewarding and punishing gameplay loop. You can level up a character for hours and make him seem 'hot **** but then you take him to a risky level near the endgame and there is a good chance he will die and you will have to start that loop over (Would be quicker to level of theVery smart game and probably one of the hardest games I have played including games from the souls series. Very rewarding and punishing gameplay loop. You can level up a character for hours and make him seem 'hot **** but then you take him to a risky level near the endgame and there is a good chance he will die and you will have to start that loop over (Would be quicker to level of the character at least). The enemies and the bosses are great in this game and they all feel different. The madness meter is a brilliant yet very annoying part of the game that makes games way harder. It does get a bit repetitive over time but definitely worth a play if you like a challenging game. Also the loot system is very and extensive.… Expand
  12. Suprizer
    Jun 8, 2023
    8
    F*CK EVERY CORNER OF THIS GAME. THIS IS NOT A GAME ITS TORTURE! But apparently i am a masochistic person 200+ hours 0 regrets.
  13. Honeybadgers
    Mar 20, 2016
    7
    I started out loving darkest dungeon. It is truly terse, dripping with atmosphere, with gorgeous visuals and exceptional narration. The gameplay is pretty good as well. But the game has, for me, a huge problem. It's just too punishing to play. The progression is slower than vanilla world of Warcraft, and you will spend a lot of time grinding dungeons far more than feels appropriate. II started out loving darkest dungeon. It is truly terse, dripping with atmosphere, with gorgeous visuals and exceptional narration. The gameplay is pretty good as well. But the game has, for me, a huge problem. It's just too punishing to play. The progression is slower than vanilla world of Warcraft, and you will spend a lot of time grinding dungeons far more than feels appropriate. I guess i just didn't enjoy the core gameplay loop enough, but once i got a solid team to level 6 or 7, i took a step back and realized that i haven't been having fun for the last ten hours. Even optimal playing is just not acceptable in the pacing. I feel like the game needs a setting that lets you bring in higher level characters to lower dungeons just to accelerate the grind that is necessary to progress, because i got so insanely tired on hiring four new guys, running a level one, and then firing them all. That system for getting money is demonstrative of a piece of bad design. Overall, very playable and i cab definitely see the appeal. But it just ground me down until i wasn't having fun and by that time i had fifty hours in and was not even half done.… Expand
  14. Tubey
    Mar 26, 2016
    7
    Ludicrously immersive and dripping in atmosphere, but where Darkest Dungeon falls down a few points is the over reliance on completely arbitrary RNG to run the gameplay experience. So much so that you can't really be "good" at this game; you're just either lucky or you're not. There's very little you can do to avoid death - you basically roll a dice, and if it lands on the wrong number,Ludicrously immersive and dripping in atmosphere, but where Darkest Dungeon falls down a few points is the over reliance on completely arbitrary RNG to run the gameplay experience. So much so that you can't really be "good" at this game; you're just either lucky or you're not. There's very little you can do to avoid death - you basically roll a dice, and if it lands on the wrong number, you're dead.

    This makes the end game particularly an absolute nightmare. Yes, it creates dread with every action you make, but for the wrong reasons.

    I'm scoring it higher than it probably deserves in all honesty, but it's because I adore everything about it other than the RNG. Pick it up on sale, but be prepared to abandon it in frustration after a while - but for the hours you'll enjoy it, you'll REALLY enjoy it.    … Expand
  15. Leuko
    Jan 28, 2016
    7
    Well delivered game, but lack depth to get me interested for prolonged period of time.

    Thanks to good atmosphere and instant access to many characters with varied skills it was possible for me to enjoy this game straight from the beginning. Unfortunately after a while exploration and combat gets repetitive. There is just not enough diversity in character progression and tactical    Well delivered game, but lack depth to get me interested for prolonged period of time.

    Thanks to good atmosphere and instant access to many characters with varied skills it was possible for me to enjoy this game straight from the beginning.

    Unfortunately after a while exploration and combat gets repetitive. There is just not enough diversity in character progression and tactical decisions during battles. Development of the base is linear too.    … Expand
  16. iseeall
    Dec 21, 2017
    7
    It's an RPG with turn-based battles and a distinctive atmosphere. Its stellar class/ability system is ruined by extreme randomness, permadeath and hidden information.

    The good: - great art, music, narrator voice, the whole atmosphere of darkness, death and sorrow - you build a party of 4 characters of different classes, there are over a dozen classes, and each has 8 abilities (of    It's an RPG with turn-based battles and a distinctive atmosphere. Its stellar class/ability system is ruined by extreme randomness, permadeath and hidden information.

    The good:
    - great art, music, narrator voice, the whole atmosphere of darkness, death and sorrow
    - you build a party of 4 characters of different classes, there are over a dozen classes, and each has 8 abilities (of which, again, you can only pick 4 at a time). This all interacts in very interesting ways. Also, a lot depends on relative placement of characters because some abilities can only be used when the character stands, say, in the 3rd or the 4th row, but not in the 1st or the 2nd one. I can't immediately think of any similar games except from Disciples but still, here it's a lot more meat and tons of factors and strategies to consider.

    The so-so:
    - the design of dungeons is almost linear. Even in a cave you just move from left to right. It makes the game feel not even 2-dimensional but 1-dimensional. Almost like you just need to keep the character progression up with the increasing power of monster quads and that's it. There is no spatial component to it, and not much choice in where you go next. Which is probably ok for some people, but almost made me feel this game is intended for Flash or mobile (?) which however would be weird, given the high difficulty and the complex combat system.
    - GUI could be improved. E.g. you can't switch between characters easily while viewing buildings. This requires to close the character stats window, then right-click again on another character and so on. Management of things between battles just take too much time and hassle, and not because of the interesting decisions you have to make but because of struggling with the clumsy interface.

    The bad:
    - as other players said, the extreme randomness takes away much of the strategic feel. Crits, dodges, misses, resists - all this junk is from the RPG world, sure, but as a strategy games player (and I'm mostly fan of TBS games) this all feels like obligatory crap which designers never get tired of putting into games. In fact, when I played Disciples 2 back in 2000s, I opened gbattacks file in some hex editor and manually replaced all the chances to hit with 100% and instead reduced the damage proportionally. Believe me, after that the previously frustrating game (so many battles had to be replayed over and over with the same series of orders during battle, each time to get a different result) - turned into a thoughtful, tranquil TBS which wasn't easier, not at all! Simply by removing randomness here this game would be a lot more pleasing, at least to me.
    - permadeath, which may seem like a cool concept on paper (this game even says to you in the first dialog at game start that it's ok if your heroes die, and some battles can't be won etc). But in reality, in your first playthroughs you won't know what enemies do. So, say, you unexpectedly meet a strong boss which does something (some abilities, e.g. a murloc-type 2-tile boss endlessly spawning new mobs) which you don't know in advance. You face the boss, start losing, your healer dies. The fact that you couldn't know that new mobs are spawned endlessly makes you not feel like you made a mistake (and could correct it if you could re-load) but instead that the game itself makes no sense. Well, the game gives you a hint that ok, this battle can't be won, you must retreat. So, abandon the quest. And after that the dungeon will be unavailable, so no retries. And the killed heroes can't resurrected. And the save file has already been overwritten. Hmm.. This really makes no sense. You could just restart the whole game (as you would in ADOM, remember this 1994 game?) But this wouldn't bring anything because on your next attempt you will face another new monster which has unexpected tactics - and you will lose another party or at least a few heroes on that one, only to learn what that new monster does, and fail another dungeon. All this idiocy could be easily avoided if the authors made permadeath an option. Say, new players can re-load as much as they want, but veterans who have beaten the game and know all the rules and monsters could then try some extra challenge in iron man mode. At least that worked in Fallout 2 and I played it for months (at least 20 attempts) until I beat it in iron man (well, almost, didn't bother to do Navarro base). But that was after I knew the game inside out. Requiring a new player to restart the WHOLE Fallout 2 each time they saw a new monster for the first time or chose a wrong dialog branch would be pointless.
    - no tooltips or any other way to find out about abilities of monsters. Which means you can't really plan any tactics at the start of a battle and instead just apply something standard (which depends on your pre-designed party) and passively watch how enemies do damage to you, put dots or increase stress of your characters. No info => no meaningful strategy    … Expand
  17. sandman1234
    Mar 23, 2016
    7
    On the Pro side:
    This game has an awesome art-style, the voice acting is awesome and it´s quite enjoyable for a while.
    On the Cons side:
    When you reach mid-game I fell like you are grinding all the time, and the game loop is the same all the time
  18. RagingPoet
    Feb 9, 2018
    7
    Darkest Dungeon is an interesting game but it gets old way too soon. Gameplay is very repetitive, even engrossing atmosphere and superb narration can't help it. First few hours felt really good though.
  19. Soullex
    Nov 30, 2022
    7
    Oyun ilerlerde biraz tekrara bağlıyor. Ne zaman karşıma bir boss çıksa içimden geçiyor. Tekrar karakter kasmak da çok zor.
  20. PanMrkvicka
    May 23, 2020
    7
    It didnt grip me that much. I didnt even get to endgame but the game was pretty good just too much about luck.
  21. Wrathzo
    Mar 25, 2022
    7
    Darkest Dungeon is a role-playing video game developed and published by Red Hook Studios. Darkest Dungeon has the player manage a roster of heroes to explore dungeons below a gothic mansion the player has inherited. Played out in a mix of real-time movement and turn-based combat, a core feature of Darkest Dungeon is the stress level of each hero that increases with further exploration andDarkest Dungeon is a role-playing video game developed and published by Red Hook Studios. Darkest Dungeon has the player manage a roster of heroes to explore dungeons below a gothic mansion the player has inherited. Played out in a mix of real-time movement and turn-based combat, a core feature of Darkest Dungeon is the stress level of each hero that increases with further exploration and combat; a character sustaining a high-stress level may gain afflictions that will hamper, or possibly enhance, their performance as an explorer.… Expand
  22. joglow
    Jan 2, 2023
    7
    Kinda addicting at the end and pretty depressing. You will want to finish it in a good way.
  23. SauceBox6
    Nov 26, 2022
    7
    10 - Masterpiece
    9 - Amazing
    8 - Great
    7 - Good
    6 - Okay
    5 - Mediocre
    4 - Bad
    3 - Awful
    2 - Painful
    1 - Unbearable
  24. skohl
    Feb 4, 2016
    6
    This is a good game that I want to like more than I do. It was very fun when I was progressing and killing bosses. Now that I got to the "Darkest Dungeon" final levels, I have nothing left to do in the game except to level up another 12+ heroes to level 5 so I can actually run them. This is proving to be a huge task, and by my estimates I will need to play the game for another 20 hoursThis is a good game that I want to like more than I do. It was very fun when I was progressing and killing bosses. Now that I got to the "Darkest Dungeon" final levels, I have nothing left to do in the game except to level up another 12+ heroes to level 5 so I can actually run them. This is proving to be a huge task, and by my estimates I will need to play the game for another 20 hours before I reach that point.

    That is taking into account modest losses during the level-up process. The thing about this game is that no matter how well you prepare, you will lose heroes, due to the randomness inherent in the gameplay. Everything could be going very well and then you get ambushed once and suddenly you're in a life or death situation because the enemy shuffled your party and crit you once. The best you can do is swallow your pride and retreat, and abandon the mission if necessary, at the slightest hint of danger.

    However from my perspective that is only marginally better than a party member dying, because the surviving heroes will need disease cures, stress heals, and quirk adjustment, requiring them to sit on the sidelines for up to three missions. Either way, you will have to grind. It has become so repetitive that even the voice of the amazing narrator is beginning to grate on me, because I've heard everything he says 100 times.

    I could go on but I think people get the gist from these low score reviews. The game is insanely punishing, period. It doesn't get any easier as you progress, in fact it gets much harder and requires you to know the strengths and weaknesses for each boss and particular area inside and out. That is why everybody who plays it uses the wiki.    … Expand
  25. Setsudo
    Dec 27, 2020
    6
    There is something there. It's too bad that the gameplay depends only from your luck
    More it's difficult to end a dugeon, less money you have then less chance to finish the next etc
    Unless playing easy mode or waste a lot of time to repeat the same way... It ends to get boring and stressfull which is sacarstic when you know that what it kills your caracters in the game Not a game    There is something there. It's too bad that the gameplay depends only from your luck
    More it's difficult to end a dugeon, less money you have then less chance to finish the next etc

    Unless playing easy mode or waste a lot of time to repeat the same way...

    It ends to get boring and stressfull which is sacarstic when you know that what it kills your caracters in the game

    Not a game for me... But good try    … Expand
  26. blade01
    Feb 1, 2016
    6
    Darkest Dungeon is finally out of ea!I played it during ea and it was horrible.It was not horrible because it was buggy or bad, it screwed you over big time and in a scummy way.Is this still true?Lets find out:

    Visuals:I like the artstyle.Really dark and everything blends together very nice.Its a cartoonlike look and i think even if you dont like that style in general in this game its    Darkest Dungeon is finally out of ea!I played it during ea and it was horrible.It was not horrible because it was buggy or bad, it screwed you over big time and in a scummy way.Is this still true?Lets find out:

    Visuals:I like the artstyle.Really dark and everything blends together very nice.Its a cartoonlike look and i think even if you dont like that style in general in this game its so fitting youll like it.Of course the game is no Far Cry when it comes to effects but that is not necessary.

    Sound:The voiceover is well done.You ancestor will speak about thinks, comment on things and most of the time it fits the situation very well.After some time it can be too much i think!

    Gameplay:Let me say it that way:If you like being screwed over constantly this game is your thing.I dont like that.I like hard games where you have to think.Darkest Dungeon can(and will) screw you over in the dirties ways.For example with crits from monsters.Maybe youll receive 4 crits in your first battle and the result will be so much stress that you might have trouble getting through the dungeon.Or youll receive a desease that lowers you stats so much that character becomes useless during that quest(and maybe even beyond the quest).So much stuff is super random, i dont like it.It might screw your hole playthrough if you run out of money after a bad quest.The gameplay itself is solid but not more.Everything is very basic and sometimes even shallow.There is no big story told.You make your own story.If you dont like it(like me) dont buy this game.

    Conclusion:If you like the concept of the game buy it!This is game is a 10/10 for the right taste.Its bugfree with good visuals and that rare these days.If you search for more(like me) story for example and a fair game dont buy Darkest Dungeon.I had some fun with it but i got bored after 12 hours because of the missing story so i can give this game a score of 6 which is an "okay-game".No masterpiece here but still a good game.    … Expand
  27. Wiebe
    Feb 26, 2020
    6
    Great idea, fun set up, its great that it is challenging, but it can become tedious and too hard to recover due to bad balance if you have a bad moment.
  28. PutCashIn
    Feb 25, 2016
    6
    I am very much on the fence with regards to this game - some ideas are brilliant, once you get the hang of the characters abilities and upgrading the town the seemingly impossible game really does open up - however, there is one design decision which has left me unable to play this game with enjoyment.

    When your characters reach level 3 (and again at level 5) they are unable to entre    I am very much on the fence with regards to this game - some ideas are brilliant, once you get the hang of the characters abilities and upgrading the town the seemingly impossible game really does open up - however, there is one design decision which has left me unable to play this game with enjoyment.

    When your characters reach level 3 (and again at level 5) they are unable to entre level one (three) dungeons any more, this combined with the fact that the available dungeons are primarily based on the level of your rostered characters, leaves you an often untenable position where your level 1&2 characters are unable to complete the 'harder' types of level one dungeons, whereas your newly leveled 3 characters are not yet ready for the difficulty spike of level 3 dungeons.

    It is a bizarre decision, I guess it is designed to prevent 'farming' - which is odd ad that is essentially the core gameplay - finding and collecting items for use in your town.

    I simply cannot fathom this decision to split the character roster up based on level, why wouldn't the new character want to tag along with a more experienced character? But the characters can *learn* from experts within the town itself? Just ... bizarre.

    I would suggest even people who like rouge-likes to seriously consider before purchasing, this is a somewhat odd take on the theme, developing into games that either spiral into disaster or become repetitively easy. There really is no 'mid game' because of the level splitting in the roster.    … Expand
  29. Dupa15
    Jun 11, 2017
    6
    Starts off good. The interface is not that intuitive, but manageable.
    The story - what story? there is no story to speak of.
    Graphics is what it is. Dark cartoony, but fluid and carefully done. There are a few annoyances (the game balance, grind, lack of proper rpg mechanics, grind, very high RNG importance and the grind. After a few hours the game gets repetitive. It wouldn't be    Starts off good. The interface is not that intuitive, but manageable.
    The story - what story? there is no story to speak of.

    Graphics is what it is. Dark cartoony, but fluid and carefully done.
    There are a few annoyances (the game balance, grind, lack of proper rpg mechanics, grind, very high RNG importance and the grind.

    After a few hours the game gets repetitive. It wouldn't be so bad, if not for the time padding elements:
    - lengthy animations,
    - same unsolicited dialogs stopping combat,
    - RNG as hell

    All in all I stopped playing after a few hours.    … Expand
  30. UncleEd
    Oct 12, 2021
    6
    This is a game I disliked, but I can see why some people enjoy it. Darkest Dungeon is a side-view turn based combat game, where grinding is its core mechanic. You have your party and go into dungeons trying to complete quests, most of which involve exploring the dungeon or clearing out the enemies.
    There are a lot of good things to say about it. It has a unique visual style, which I    This is a game I disliked, but I can see why some people enjoy it. Darkest Dungeon is a side-view turn based combat game, where grinding is its core mechanic. You have your party and go into dungeons trying to complete quests, most of which involve exploring the dungeon or clearing out the enemies.
    There are a lot of good things to say about it. It has a unique visual style, which I really liked. The music, audio and atmosphere are also really good. You have to watch the stress levels of your heroes in addition to their hit points and stress is usually the main challenge to overcome. Once your heroes die, you lose them permanently. So, you can spend hours leveling up your heroes and lose them unexpectedly. RNG is an additional factor of frustration, which you can maybe overcome with constant grinding.

    If you grind long enough, upgrading your town, then your heroes, I can safely assume you will be able to play through it. And that’s the thing about Darkest Dungeon. If you enjoy or don’t mind the grinding, Darkest Dungeon offers a unique atmosphere and it’s very friendly to casual pick up & play. If you are like me though, you will see early on what is expected from you to complete the game and you will choose to abandon it instead.

    I have played it both on Switch and Steam and found the gameplay much more enjoyable with mouse & keyboard. On a final note, the game warns you that it will collect your data if you wish to access one of the DLCs, which sounded alarming, but I did not really research if it’s something troubling.    … Expand
  31. ExcAverage
    Dec 25, 2018
    6
    Say what you'd like about my skill, but this game is ridiculously punishing. I love the theme and as far as I'm concerned there's no problem the with very core of the game play, however the hours of grinding through the same hallways and enemies that grow dull noticeably quickly, I think there's some major flaws with anything past the core of the game play. There's no real story to digSay what you'd like about my skill, but this game is ridiculously punishing. I love the theme and as far as I'm concerned there's no problem the with very core of the game play, however the hours of grinding through the same hallways and enemies that grow dull noticeably quickly, I think there's some major flaws with anything past the core of the game play. There's no real story to dig for, although if you're looking at buying this I doubt you're in it so much for the story as the game play, and the perma-death mechanic would sound like it would make the game more intense, and I was hopeful that it would be, however it really just ends up padding out the game to crazy lengths for your first run through the game, and afterwards I don't believe this game has much replay value other than playing through on Stygian or Bloodmoon difficulty. If you're really into turn-based RPGs with a bit of strategy, I doubt you'll find this game as annoying as I did, but as it stands there is too much punishment to be reasonable, and it's not always something you can really avoid with skill. Going into a high-level boss and losing a character can set you back hours, and that's piled on top of the time spent with your characters getting quirks and stress removed. Personally, even if I were more into the genre, I'd give this game a pass. Not unplayable, but not very good either. I'd love to see what the devs create in the future.… Expand
  32. Wynkin_Gunn
    Sep 22, 2020
    6
    Progression can be slow for those unacquainted with RPG elements and RNG mitigation. Losses in later parts of the game can set progression back by quite a bit, which made me lose interest in the game. The strong modding community for this game, however, is a nice side bit.
  33. L140
    Feb 18, 2021
    6
    ну и хуйня блять, каждый раз одно и то же, как же хочется сдохнуть...
  34. Tabbou
    Dec 20, 2021
    6
    Nice art, good ambiance, characters and team building are nice but :
    -Too hard
    -Less and less fun trough the stages
  35. TomKing13
    Jul 17, 2022
    6
    c: ........................................................................
  36. CodaHensley
    Dec 2, 2022
    6
    Had a pretty good time with the game until a whole fully upgraded team was wiped in one turn because of some harsh rng. Great game for people who just have way too much time on their hands.
  37. huw12313212
    Mar 6, 2016
    5
    《Darkest Dungeon》前十個小時其實非常好玩，有趣的戰鬥規則，困難的關卡，有個性的角色反應，讓人非常著迷。

    但是這款遊戲的後期Gameplay 非常的過分，怪物非常非常的強，然後你的角色被打死的話，你就要從頭開始練，練一輪大約花五六個小時。然後在後期lv5 的地城就算你的角色都滿血，抗性都疊到最滿，他還是可以一回合殺掉你的角色，然後叫你回去再重新練五六個小時。 然後更過分的是，當角色等級到五級，你會被強迫去打高難度地城，就算你知道他一定打不贏，但是他只有這個選項『叫你的角色去送死』 所以遊戲的後期你一直不停的在重新練角色，然後進高難度地城，然後再秒殺你的角色。    《Darkest Dungeon》前十個小時其實非常好玩，有趣的戰鬥規則，困難的關卡，有個性的角色反應，讓人非常著迷。

    但是這款遊戲的後期Gameplay 非常的過分，怪物非常非常的強，然後你的角色被打死的話，你就要從頭開始練，練一輪大約花五六個小時。然後在後期lv5 的地城就算你的角色都滿血，抗性都疊到最滿，他還是可以一回合殺掉你的角色，然後叫你回去再重新練五六個小時。

    然後更過分的是，當角色等級到五級，你會被強迫去打高難度地城，就算你知道他一定打不贏，但是他只有這個選項『叫你的角色去送死』

    所以遊戲的後期你一直不停的在重新練角色，然後進高難度地城，然後再秒殺你的角色。

    我用簡單一點的比喻，就是想像你現在在玩神奇寶貝，然後你抓了一隻綠毛蟲，好不容易進化成巴大胡，然後你在路邊遇到一位沒見過的神奇寶貝訓練師，一交戰就放出噴火龍燒死你的巴大胡，然後你就要回去從綠毛蟲開始練。然後你想把巴大胡練高等一點再去打訓練師，但是抱歉，不行，這個遊戲就是規定你綠毛蟲要PK 小火龍，鐵甲蛹要PK 火恐龍，巴大胡就是要被噴火龍電。你沒有任何自由度跟選擇，你只能打自己只有30%機率打贏的敵人。

    非常浪費時間。不值得花時間在這款遊戲，如果你真的想玩，建議玩十個小時內就好，後面10~100小時沒有更多內容，只是攻擊的數字越來越大而已，你要全部撐過去他才肯讓你打Final Boss，然後就算打完Final Boss你花一堆時間經營的角色也回不來，因為他最終戰也是設計成一定會死。    … Expand
  38. Someonon
    Jan 31, 2016
    5
    The positives : Dark atmosphere,
    Nice rpg elements,
    Unique classes,

    The negatives: RNG is ridiculously fake and unfair (i'd say 90% chance equals around 60%),
    Repetitive,
    Buggy (... yes, even after final release).

    If you like Roguelike rpgs and don't mind the RNG fest pick it up
  39. nilsy
    Apr 3, 2017
    5
    WOW! WOW! but i dont like it...

    This game manages to impress me just i dont like playing it.
    It gives the impression that with a few tweaks this could have been fighting for GOTY but now its just this ambivalent feeling were i want to like the game but just dont.
    Do hope there will be a DD2 that has a better experience for me, would give a sequel a try.
  40. SigilFey
    Feb 10, 2016
    5
    Who will LOVE this -- ?

    + Players looking for an extreme, roguelike challenge. + Those who love games of chance, taking risks, and either winning or losing big. + People who appreciate quality artistic design and style. Who will HATE this -- ? - People who appreciate skill and strategy over sheer, dumb luck. - Fans of RPGs that rely on meaningful mechanics and smart,    Who will LOVE this -- ?

    + Players looking for an extreme, roguelike challenge.
    + Those who love games of chance, taking risks, and either winning or losing big.
    + People who appreciate quality artistic design and style.

    Who will HATE this -- ?

    - People who appreciate skill and strategy over sheer, dumb luck.
    - Fans of RPGs that rely on meaningful mechanics and smart, rewarding play.
    - Individuals who wish to finish what they start.

    There is no "in-between" for Darkest Dungeon. I adore brutally difficult games (strategy titles like XCOM, realistic shooters like ArmA, punishing RPGs like Dark Souls, realistic flight sims like the old Jane's series, etc.), but that's not what this is. Darkest Dungeon presents you with a myriad of brilliantly designed gameplay concepts that all boil down to one and only one mechanic -- completely random rolls of the dice.

    Whether you play smartly, or you just grab the nearest torch and blindly explore with half-a-party...you have about an equal chance of success or failure. The RNG is so horribly stacked against the player, that the game's most creative idea (the Stress mechanic) -- which should have created wildly interesting character evolution -- basically degenerates into even more of a chance for the RNG to destroy all of your progress in the most ridiculous way possible.

    HOWEVER -- if you're willing to simply play the game like you would play the slots in Vegas -- then Darkest Dungeon offers what amounts to one of the coolest, most interactive slot machine ever. It's so much fun to watch, and that's what you're basically doing. You can increase your chances of success by getting into the mechanics of probability and kitting out your party with better chances to "roll high" (similar to playing 3-4 slot machines at once). Know, however, that in the end, success or failure is based almost entirely on 100% luck...and the House always wins.    … Expand
  41. Wulfrune
    Mar 29, 2016
    5
    I really wanted to like this game and for a short while I did. However, to sum up this game in a nutshell, all you're going to get is variations on the theme and duplications of what fast becomes irreverence. Once you've completed one mission, you've basically completed them all, this coupled with the unforgiving nature of the game makes it a "play once for a short while, then confine toI really wanted to like this game and for a short while I did. However, to sum up this game in a nutshell, all you're going to get is variations on the theme and duplications of what fast becomes irreverence. Once you've completed one mission, you've basically completed them all, this coupled with the unforgiving nature of the game makes it a "play once for a short while, then confine to background and ignore". If this game is your bag, fair play to you, enjoy, but as an old gamer, this game does nothing to want you to keep playing it, therefore I cannot recommend it.… Expand
  42. Crackfarmer
    Apr 2, 2016
    5
    Played it couple times but then i never got back into it. If you close it one time - you'll never open it up again. It's kinda the same **** over and over again. Wouldn't pay a single cent for it.
  43. praisethesun11
    Jan 27, 2016
    5
    TLDR Pros and Cons will follow.
    I really really really wanted to absolutely love this game. It was exactly what I was looking for and in many ways it's the perfect pick up and play game. You can hop in and do 1 or 2 dungeons and be done in 30 minutes or less, or you can really grind out some new adventures and log 4+ hour runs. The game autosaves constantly (major props to all games that    TLDR Pros and Cons will follow.
    I really really really wanted to absolutely love this game. It was exactly what I was looking for and in many ways it's the perfect pick up and play game. You can hop in and do 1 or 2 dungeons and be done in 30 minutes or less, or you can really grind out some new adventures and log 4+ hour runs. The game autosaves constantly (major props to all games that do this) and forces you to live with your decisions. It encourages you to experiment with the wide variety of classes and skills that you have access to in order to come up with the perfect teams (yes, plural) that suit your vision. However, that's where creativity and player choice ends. Very quickly you realize that no matter how much thought you put into your team, the battle will be decided by RNG. I'm generally a huge fan of RNG. Praise be unto RNGesus! But in this case your perfect strategy can be completely ruined by bad luck. If I go into much detail it will just sound like complaining, but understand that this game is NOT fair. All of the mechanics of the game are stacked against you, and quick thinking and careful planning means nothing. As an XCOM, Dark Souls, and Fire Emblem veteran I expect to be challenged, but this game is cruel, in a bad way. Sometimes a Veteran-level dungeon is a breeze because everything swings your way, and sometimes an Apprentice-level dungeon is a sadistic nightmare in its first battle. To be quite honest, I think this game is exactly what the developers wanted to make and with a few tweeks it could be amazing, but at this time, for this review, it's not quite there.

    Pros:
    +Fantastic art direction, animation, and music that really sets the mood
    +The mood. Its dark, eerie, and perfect for dungeon crawling.
    +Diverse group of classes and enemies
    +Permadeath with no option to turn it off
    +Stress mechanic (also a negative)
    +The inability to grind lower-tier dungeons

    Cons:
    -Far too reliant on RNG (game-breaking)
    -No story
    -Very few areas
    -Uninteresting loot and level-up mechanics
    -Stress mechanic (also a positive)
    -Bugs abound (lost save files, crashes to desktop)*

    *playing on high-end PC    … Expand
  44. Tk4Bullet
    Aug 3, 2020
    5
    I really like the atmosphere of the game, the concept, artwork, complex mechanics and how you have the freedom to create your teams of four and embark. What I could not stand was the massive overload of RNG runing many dungeons. If an enemy has 12 HP, your leper will hit him for 11 and then the enemy will crit you next turn. The random food checks are **** such quirks as kleptomaniac orI really like the atmosphere of the game, the concept, artwork, complex mechanics and how you have the freedom to create your teams of four and embark. What I could not stand was the massive overload of RNG runing many dungeons. If an enemy has 12 HP, your leper will hit him for 11 and then the enemy will crit you next turn. The random food checks are **** such quirks as kleptomaniac or other trashes that force your heroes to interact with curios are idiotic too. The game tries so hard to **** you up even on the lowest difficulty even if you try very hard,… Expand
  45. gravehaven
    Sep 25, 2022
    5
    A bit overhyped. Anyone that has played Dungeons and Dragons will find this bland. It's really just a brutal twist on a random number generator. That's it. Art is amazing, sound and music are amazing, voice acting is amazing, design is really just a jRPG with an unforgiving RNG.
  46. RazorSamurai
    Mar 15, 2019
    5
    ху...ета для дол.....боебов
    фарми 40 часов и прое....би то что нафармил за один присест
    ладно, вообщем, атмосфера и сеттинг на уровне, музыкальное сопровождение на высшем уровне к этому никак не придраться. но проблема игры заключается в том, то что она заставляет тебя вечно гриндить то голду то фамилияры. здесь есть несколько боссов которые повторяются по 3 раза и некоторые    ху...ета для дол.....боебов
    фарми 40 часов и прое....би то что нафармил за один присест

    ладно, вообщем, атмосфера и сеттинг на уровне, музыкальное сопровождение на высшем уровне к этому никак не придраться. но проблема игры заключается в том, то что она заставляет тебя вечно гриндить то голду то фамилияры.

    здесь есть несколько боссов которые повторяются по 3 раза и некоторые ивентовые и все, я не доходил до темнейшего подземелья и доходить не буду, тратить время впустую не мой конёк.

    и то прикол в том, что я играл с самого начала покупки лицензии с аддонами на ускоренную анимацию ударов и ходьбы, страшно представить, сколько времени я бы потратил играя без них.

    вообщей сумме впустую потраченных 60 часов, спасибо, поел го.вна. но с радостью буду ждать вторую часть из-за нового оста, надеюсь он там будет.
    5.5/10

    UPD.
    16 марта прошел игру, у♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ая концовка которая♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ни♥♥♥♥♥♥ не удовлетворяет вообще. зря потраченное время, да и то эти два последних квеста вообще несложные а фарм сложен. назвал бы игру. farmest farm    … Expand
  47. Botanistaken
    Sep 4, 2023
    5
    gets too boring, because of the repetitive gameplay. i stopped playing after 8 hours. dont get me wrong i love difficult games but if the only difficulty of the game you have developed is to pass the same sections with the same logic and strategy over and over again, i aint playing that.
  48. Tomplifier
    Feb 17, 2021
    4
    This game has some nice mechanics and I like the gameplay.
    But it is no game at all, this "game" is work. It's hard work. And not enjoyabel. To me.
  49. gracjanski
    Feb 4, 2018
    4
    I lost motivation to continue to play because it is so repetitive. Basically you are just fighting. The other elements in this game are just little features: build up your town, manage your heroes. Reminds me of XCOM, but the latter is just much better.
    Fighting is interesting, because a bit complex and the classes sound good, but I get bored, because you dont have any possibilities to    I lost motivation to continue to play because it is so repetitive. Basically you are just fighting. The other elements in this game are just little features: build up your town, manage your heroes. Reminds me of XCOM, but the latter is just much better.
    Fighting is interesting, because a bit complex and the classes sound good, but I get bored, because you dont have any possibilities to change your strategy if you fail, the save file is overwritten all the time. Big design mistake. No, I dont like games for masses and simple games, but I dont want to waste my free time with repeating dungeons, that are almost all the same.
    The dungeons are all the same, just go to the right, no big decisions.
    Story? hmmm.. oh yes, there is one. You can write it in 2 lines. By the way the german translation is bad, although there is not much text to translate.
    The overview in the interface is low: you have to click very often, many elements are too big. Seems like this game was being made for consoles and mobile devices and not for PC.
    Art design is great.
    Many mods are on steam workshop...bad for GOG-Gamer.

    So what shall motivate me to continue to play? The story is not the reason. The gameplay is boring. Building up your heroes? Most of them are dying and you cant do anything about it.

    Surely not a 10/10 game.    … Expand
  50. derpenstein
    Jan 28, 2016
    4
    Finished the game after about 22 hours of incredibly repetetive gameplay...
    I genuinely wonder how many of the reviewers actually made it through the game.
    The main Problem with Darkest Dungeon is that it is INCREDIBLY GRINDY and REPETETIVE. You encounter the same 10-20 types of enemies over and over again and even the bosses get recycled multiple times. All with improved stats.    Finished the game after about 22 hours of incredibly repetetive gameplay...
    I genuinely wonder how many of the reviewers actually made it through the game.

    The main Problem with Darkest Dungeon is that it is INCREDIBLY GRINDY and REPETETIVE.
    You encounter the same 10-20 types of enemies over and over again and even the bosses get recycled multiple times. All with improved stats.

    The reason why it takes forever to finish the game is because the game makes it almost impossible to beat dungeons lvl5+ without maxed out skills and gear - these require you to max out the blacksmit and guild upgrades and invest an absurd amount of money into maxing your characters (e.g. a max lvl skill upgrade alone costs about 1500 with even with the reduced cost upgrades. So basically 4 times 1500 for 1character and then * 4 again because you need a party of 4. Now consider that you get about 6000-7000 for a medium level medium length quest + 3000-4000 in loot but gearing up for a mission in turn costs about 2000.

    ^this should give you an appoximate idea why it takes forever to complete the game)

    If you dont bring maxed equiment and skills your characters are going to die! (miss, lack of damage, enemy attacks that take out entire lifebars)

    Funny enough - once you bring well equipped and maxed characters to a dungeon - the game is barely a challenge at all.

    ^So basically my main Problem with the game is that it was BORING more than anything else.

    Now on to some other things..
    The sound design is below average - as the rest of the game you will hear the same tunes over and over and hear the narrarator repeat the same 2 lines over and over again. Like goddamn was it too much to ask for to let the narrarator record a few more lines for the dungeons you will be running over and over again? Apparently so...

    The quirk system is disappointing and serves mostly as a number crunching +/-%dmg type thing.

    The drawings and overall graphic design is gorgeous though and the one thing in this game that really stands out as something positive.    … Expand
  51. JustAPlayer1981
    Feb 8, 2016
    4
    The premise of replaceable heroes and deadly fights is promising and is working in the first two thirds of the game.
    BUT the big problem is the balancing of the ENDGAME, meaning when you enter the last four (darkest) dungeons:
    1) The game forces you to use four different heroes for each dungeon meaning 16 level 6 characters in sum, because once a hero has left a darkest dungeon he will    The premise of replaceable heroes and deadly fights is promising and is working in the first two thirds of the game.
    BUT the big problem is the balancing of the ENDGAME, meaning when you enter the last four (darkest) dungeons:

    1) The game forces you to use four different heroes for each dungeon meaning 16 level 6 characters in sum, because once a hero has left a darkest dungeon he will never go back. After more than 30-40 hours of gameplay you may have enough level 6 heroes (I had 20). But this design decision seems to be an artificial and unnecessary prolongation of the gameplay. This leads to point 2.

    2) To level up at least 16 level 6 characters you have to invest hundreds of thousands of gold, hundreds of resources (like the busts and portraits) and many hours of gameplay. But the gameplay itself gets tedious after 30+ hours of the same dungeons and same opponents. And it gets really annoying if too many heroes of a certain class die (for example healer) and you have to build up new heroes from the start. If you plan wisely you can avoid the latter to happen (luckily I had enough heroes but I can imagine there are folks who will find this mechanic too frustrating). If the gameplay wouldn't be so repetetive and would be more varied it would be more acceptable to spend so many hours.

    3) Of course dying of maxed characters is much more annoying than dying of level 1 characters so the game mechanic should provide some means to evaluate the last dungeons in a better way. Especially the SECOND AND THIRD "darkest dungeons" are so tough that it's almost certain some of your level 6-characters won't survive the first run. If you compare it to the gameplay before these two dungeons are way too difficult. If you do know what's the best way (at least the last four dungeons have no random rooms) you will still face numerous very tough opponents while your heroes can't get any better (the upgradeability of weapons and armor ends at level 4, only your resistances get slightly better). So you have to rely on trial and error and chance to find the right rooms and the rights heroes/attributes/skill/trinkets to beat the opponents in the endgame. This is, in my opinion, not acceptable with high level characters in whom you have invested so much time and credits. It has nothing to do with personal skill (I had no bigger problems with the game up to this point) but luck. Of course you may look at walkthroughs to see where certain rooms are, but if you want to beat the endgame yourself you have to be very restistant to frustration. In this case that's not a good kind of frustration because the payoff is not worth it.

    4) The FINAL fight is so ridiculously easy that it must have a mere symbolical meaning in the "story" of the game. The two PRECEDING dungeons are tougher than everything else in the game.

    All in all I think the developers should spent more time in variation and endgame-balancing. Or at least the character development should require less resources so you don't have to do the same repetitive tasks for 40 hours.    … Expand
  52. beefcake1
    Mar 9, 2016
    4
    Do you like endless grinding with the same sequence of attacks, and no depth in strategy or monster variety???

    If so, then Darkest Dungeon is the game for you!! I gave this game alot of play, gave it second chances, third chances, but in the end it just showed tself more for what it really is: a shallow dungeon grind. Once you figure out the optimum way to use the limited characters    Do you like endless grinding with the same sequence of attacks, and no depth in strategy or monster variety???

    If so, then Darkest Dungeon is the game for you!!

    I gave this game alot of play, gave it second chances, third chances, but in the end it just showed tself more for what it really is: a shallow dungeon grind. Once you figure out the optimum way to use the limited characters and items {you only get to use two items per character} to beat each dungeon / boss, the game goes from being semi-strategic to completely formulaic and dull.

    This game is not an RpG at all, dont believe the rubbish that you read. The ONLY variation in the game comes from critical hits, which more often that not end up with your team being punished. Don't believe those who says "well this game is meant to be tough". That's rubbish too.

    I would have more fun rolling a 20-sided dice repeatedly and eating a chocolate bar when I get a 1.

    And to think I spent 26$ of my hard-earned on this dirge. Darkest dirge.

    Dont believe the hype.    … Expand
  53. night4
    Oct 18, 2016
    4
    I absolutely hate the art style and graphics. Looking at the game made my eyes bleed.

    I'm giving it a 4 instead of a 0 because some of the classes I read about online seemed interesting. It's too bad it's so friggin ugly.
  54. Dash3717
    Jun 25, 2018
    4
    Not worth playing unless you prefer frustration to good game design; enjoyable in many areas but held back too much by obtuse and subpar overall design to be worth recommending.
  55. JimmyJams
    Apr 26, 2018
    4
    I mean it's not much of a "game" more like a series of dice rolls that usually don't work out for you. As someone who plays jRPG games a lot, this game pretty much emphasizes what I hate the most about them: RNG. The game wants you to lose, it wants your characters to die and you to lose any progress you've made. There's no decisions or skill you can use to overcome the RNG because it'sI mean it's not much of a "game" more like a series of dice rolls that usually don't work out for you. As someone who plays jRPG games a lot, this game pretty much emphasizes what I hate the most about them: RNG. The game wants you to lose, it wants your characters to die and you to lose any progress you've made. There's no decisions or skill you can use to overcome the RNG because it's RNG.

    When I first played the game on Darkest (ie normal) difficulty and I'd literally lost 5 heros on level 1 missions. Missions that are literally the first ones you encounter and are the easiest ones available. The same frustration persists at higher levels even after you get a handle on the game. You get this sense that you can't win the game no matter what you do because of the constant debuffs your heros take at random due to traps you can't see, moves you can't avoid or defend against, dice rolls that have mobs dodging half your attacks, critting your heros to near death, etc.

    The game just wastes your time and leaves you empty handed.    … Expand
  56. Ead
    Dec 31, 2020
    4
    I have played the game for a few hours, now I decided to share some of my experience.
    The best part is the art style looks cool, even it's a copycat from Withcther's.
    But man, this game has so many short-comings. The UI sucks. If you are using a controller to play this, the logic to use the UI definitely sucks and confusing. Simple things like equip equipment can be very hard to do,    I have played the game for a few hours, now I decided to share some of my experience.
    The best part is the art style looks cool, even it's a copycat from Withcther's.
    But man, this game has so many short-comings.

    The UI sucks. If you are using a controller to play this, the logic to use the UI definitely sucks and confusing. Simple things like equip equipment can be very hard to do, and there is no tutorial about that.

    The gameplay logic sucks. If you have a character that's good at disarming traps, you will need to switch to that character to do so. That means you will need to open their character panel to see their traits and switch to this character just to disarm traps. How tedious can this be?

    Man, does this game need you to grind. Leveling up is extremely slow, and each time you enter the dungeon you have a very high chance of getting a negative trait which could void all your efforts.

    Oh man, the combat sucks. The combat is purely based on RNG. That means your formation, your character skill don't really mean that much. Even you have a team of all level 4 character, facing level 3 dungeons. As long as they got two crits in a row, you either lose a hero or retreat. And you totally don't get to control who is the next one will be moving. This void all your RPG strategy part. Also, did I mention the hit rate is a joke? Healing is also a joke while the enemy can cause devastating damage to you. And you lose morale all the time, no matter you are walking or in combat.

    On man, that's not all. Another most stupid design is that the higher-level character won't be able to go to the low-level dungeon anymore. So if you lose a major character, you better pray you can build an new character from a low level without dying or getting bad negative traits. Even if you have a new higher level character, without proper equipment and preparation. It's very highly likely you will lose it in the higher level dungeon.

    In short, this game isn't for anyone who enjoys a fair fight or strategic fight or with a sane mind that understand winning the slot machine is useless.    … Expand
  57. Vortyrion
    May 14, 2023
    4
    A game that is full of bad design decisions.
    A sequel that is missing most of the things that made the first game great.
    A rogue-lite with mechanics and RNG hell that force you to suffer many hours before you manage to achieve some meaningful progress.
    And that is the main difference, where the first game makes you struggle this is make you suffer.
    And it's simple, not fun.
  58. F3T1W
    Aug 27, 2021
    4
    A stuffy toy, dropped, unable to bear to lose your favorite fighters after hiking, torches one love
  59. TemplarGR
    Sep 9, 2016
    3
    Horribly overrated indie grind. Bad game design, and cheap difficulty. I am all for stylized dungeon crawlers, they are among my favourite games, but this isn't worth your time. I don't understand, with all the Souls series popularity and all, why the modern gaming community thinks difficulty means bad design. Avoid.
  60. psycros
    Feb 17, 2017
    3
    So intriguing, yet so very flawed. DD boils the dungeon crawler down to its absolute essentials, but adds a "stress" mechanic that turns perfectly functional characters into useless drooling nutters. You can salvage them by spending tons of hard-won gold while they sit out dungeon runs recovering..and you MUST go into another dungeon as soon as you complete your last expedition. There'sSo intriguing, yet so very flawed. DD boils the dungeon crawler down to its absolute essentials, but adds a "stress" mechanic that turns perfectly functional characters into useless drooling nutters. You can salvage them by spending tons of hard-won gold while they sit out dungeon runs recovering..and you MUST go into another dungeon as soon as you complete your last expedition. There's no "wait in town" ability - for some reason you're forced to be a masochist throwing yourself into the RNG meatgrinder non-stop. There's also no camping in the dungeon without a firewood item, of which you can carry precisely ONE. No healing between fights except by consuming food..and the game will happily tell you that you're starving 2 seconds after you just ate. Did I mention that some character classes won't join a party if certain other classes are present? But you MUST have a full party to "embark" on your next series of utterly random dice rolls, so you'll probably end up high and dry, unable to progress because you can't a healer or a tank. Grindy, punishing, repetitive and crippled by inexplicable design flaws - not recommended.… Expand
  61. suneater
    Nov 17, 2016
    3
    Madness takes digital form in your quest to grind your brains out in Darkest Dungeon. On the surface, you will find elements of city management, a complex party system that requires you to balance not only classes but their post-spelunking ailments and illnesses, multiple tilesets with a variety of bosses that require different strategies, and a bevy of trinkets and baubles with equallyMadness takes digital form in your quest to grind your brains out in Darkest Dungeon. On the surface, you will find elements of city management, a complex party system that requires you to balance not only classes but their post-spelunking ailments and illnesses, multiple tilesets with a variety of bosses that require different strategies, and a bevy of trinkets and baubles with equally weighted good and bad stats. All these elements (despite the RNG) combine into an enjoyable experience for the first dozen or so hours.

    All this is fun and games until you clear the first boss for each dungeon and the problems with randomness and luck really show their ugly faces. RNG holds every gameplay aspect of DD in it's iron grip; from miserable combat accuracy (for both you and the enemy), interacting with curios, suffering from permanent debuffs, and even being able to run from battle are all randomized. I love board & card games so I'm used to rolling dice and suffering for it but when the entire game is determined by luck it gets infuriating. Imagine playing Monopoly: you land on an unowned property only to have to roll dice to determine if you can buy it, roll again to determine if you can put a house on it, and then your opponents get to roll when they land on it to determine if they have to pay you. Every step is a roll of the dice (not even counting traps) with your characters gaining stress randomly while walking and sometimes forcing you to interact with obviously bad curios because of a permanent trait they have.

    Of course, RNG can always be brute forced because this is a video game and anyone who has played an RPG before knows how to brute force any kind of difficulty: grinding. In order to beat anything above the first tier of bosses, you are expected to have the best gear possible on all your characters in order for them to survive. With a max roster size of 28, characters running away or suffering from multiple crippling ailments, and permadeath (because why not?), you're looking at spending several hours grinding "easy" dungeons in the hope of bringing back some cash without your party suffering from any more permanent debuffs or dying. Near the end of the game, losing a max level key party member can spell the end of your progression and send you back to the grind mines. Since launch, they added the ability to upgrade your recruiter to occasionally bring you higher level recruits, but this also requires grinding up multiple buildings just to have the chance at buying non-unleveled heroes.

    These are all complaints about how the game was "meant" to be playing though. Through the options menu you can choose to mitigate some of the RNG but it still leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the miserable elements above aren't covered in the menu and removing & replacing them would completely change the game. I don't hate the individual elements that bring this game down but when combined it just feels like Darkest Dungeon despises the player and is actively trying to stop you from playing it. I'm sure the devs thought this was some kind of clever meta-torture based on the Lovecraftian horrors you run into but I didn't find it amusing. There will be a small, masochistic audience that will sink their teeth into this and grind it for hundreds of hours (only 1.3% of the people who have bought it on Steam have beaten it, including SAM users) but for the average person I would not recommend it.    … Expand
  62. MrSubjective
    Jan 25, 2016
    3
    Pray for random chance, have no skill or strategy.
    What an awesome art masterpiece ruined by RND (0-100).

    Skip 10/10 reviews, that's just first 30 minutes overhype. The game is way too far from ideal.
  63. ShiArch
    Jan 30, 2016
    3
    Read the cons to understand why I gave it 3. Difficulty and Grinding are two different things.

    Pros - 1- Good atmosphere 2- Good artwork 3- Some very nice ideas (like Heroes stress) Cons - 1- Far too reliant on random numbers. Its like throwing dice every turn. 2- The stress system is poorly implemented. Let me explain : a) It takes 100 stress for your hero to become afflicted    Read the cons to understand why I gave it 3. Difficulty and Grinding are two different things.

    Pros -
    1- Good atmosphere
    2- Good artwork
    3- Some very nice ideas (like Heroes stress)

    Cons -
    1- Far too reliant on random numbers. Its like throwing dice every turn.
    2- The stress system is poorly implemented. Let me explain : a) It takes 100 stress for your hero to become afflicted with a psychosis b) There are around 7-15 battles in every dungeon c) Every battle will involve around 5-20 turns between heroes and enemies which mean enemy can attack 35 to 300 times in a single dungeon run. d) Now consider the fact that because of random numbers a enemy critical attack can deal 20-40 stress in a single attack easily.
    in short your team will get stress and psychosis no matter what you do and it depends entirely on random numbers.
    3- There is no such thing as progression in this game. High level heroes wont do low level dungeons so its always same stuff over and over again.
    4- The titular 'Darkest dungeon' is a level 5 dungeon requiring you to spend dozens of hours of grinding and grinding and.... only to find out that you have to beat it 3 times and the team you used can never be used again to raid 'Darkest dungeon' so basically you have to grind again and again and.... Its a total grindfest with random numbers and arbitrary level restrictions. Difficulty and Grinding are two entirely different things but many fail to understand that basic fact.    … Expand
  64. ORukisan
    Mar 1, 2016
    3
    This is a game I wanted to love. Initially its different, graphics and voices are enjoyable for the first 30 minutes maybe even the first couple of hours. But then the its repetitive, over and over again to grind gold and other items to improve the town. Most importantly the combat engine is almost undecipherable. Random character sequencing in combat, I actually created a spreadsheetThis is a game I wanted to love. Initially its different, graphics and voices are enjoyable for the first 30 minutes maybe even the first couple of hours. But then the its repetitive, over and over again to grind gold and other items to improve the town. Most importantly the combat engine is almost undecipherable. Random character sequencing in combat, I actually created a spreadsheet where i tracked combat turns and all i can say it is very luck/game biased even on the easiest settings. I have played other games where grinding is part of the experience (i.e. original Lineage 2). i can click and move repetitively forever but winning in this game especially mid stage and beyond is based more on luck than understanding the game dynamics. I would still buy it, but enjoy it for the artistry, game breaking innovations than being able to engage the game with strategy and understanding.… Expand
  65. DeyvsonCaliman
    Jul 25, 2016
    3
    This game got my attention, it's dark style is very nice, and although it has simple graphics and mechanics, it could really get your attention. At the beginning the game is very fun, if you lose a character it's no big deal, you can easily develop another. But as you progress through the game it becomes harder and more repetitive.

    When we lose a character later on it can be a real pain    This game got my attention, it's dark style is very nice, and although it has simple graphics and mechanics, it could really get your attention. At the beginning the game is very fun, if you lose a character it's no big deal, you can easily develop another. But as you progress through the game it becomes harder and more repetitive.

    When we lose a character later on it can be a real pain to level up another, so the game can become really grindy. When we kill a boss and lose some characters it seem like a fair price to pay, but when I got a party wiped it made me almost give up on the game. At some point I would put my save games in another folder, so I wouldn't lose my characters, which really made me hate myself, for it's a kind of cheat.

    After we kill the bosses the first time we have to do it all over again, then again, and each time we bet far higher against an ever increasing difficulty. Finally when I got to the Darkest Dungeon, and beat it miraculously for the first time, was only to find out the characters I used couldn't be used there again. I just gave up, I couldn't bear the grind anymore. This game had a lot of potential, an incredibly nice scenario, but it just wear the player down until you start hating the game and regretting even having started it.    … Expand
  66. CitySpellsword
    Aug 16, 2020
    3
    Darkest Dungeon is beautifully voiced, contains a great variety of units, and succeeds at almost all of the fine, little details of world-building. Unfortunately, the big-picture game design is absolutely terrible and fights against itself in every way. Intricate statuses and positioning that allow you to think and plan critically? Nope, it's a game of coin-flipping to land any attack. TheDarkest Dungeon is beautifully voiced, contains a great variety of units, and succeeds at almost all of the fine, little details of world-building. Unfortunately, the big-picture game design is absolutely terrible and fights against itself in every way. Intricate statuses and positioning that allow you to think and plan critically? Nope, it's a game of coin-flipping to land any attack. The RNG is so high you're just playing slots and hoping every little success is enough to keep progressing your hamlet. Also, it's a world of intrigue and exploration that literally punishes you for trying anything new. This is the kind of game design from 20 years ago built to sell overpriced game guides, but now that you can just google "What is this boss/curio?", you always will because the you'll spend double the hours getting punished and set back if you try anything other than the safest, most obvious approach.… Expand
  67. zanzou
    Apr 19, 2020
    3
    This isn't an rpg. It's a slot machine with an rpg skin. The grind is akin to gacha game progression because you keep on having to grind countless heros from level 0 repeatedly by design.
  68. DrkAsDeath
    Aug 23, 2020
    3
    Its all right but the combat is pretty lack luster. You can make a case that the rng ruins the game sometimes. ex... ive had a teammate that dies in the first turn. Double crit and then a death blow. pretty stupid tbh. The fighting in general is pretty dumb. pick a move and then hope it hits. imagine xcom 95% chance to hit but misses and then multiply that by 5 and you get darkest dungeon.Its all right but the combat is pretty lack luster. You can make a case that the rng ruins the game sometimes. ex... ive had a teammate that dies in the first turn. Double crit and then a death blow. pretty stupid tbh. The fighting in general is pretty dumb. pick a move and then hope it hits. imagine xcom 95% chance to hit but misses and then multiply that by 5 and you get darkest dungeon. People who say its not biased off rng is pretty stupid. They find the most broken build and then steam role threw the game and call it skill. basically the exact same type of people who say camping takes skill in Call Of Duty. Im not even close to being like that so i despise anyone who is. which makes me work for my reward. Which in this game means almost nothing. So it kinda sucks that i half to work harder for the same reward. So i beg to differ why would anyone play this? Do you enjoy grinding. Losing something that you pointless worked hard on for hours. Or getting lucky and crit the boss and calling it skill. The world may never know… Expand
  69. platq
    Feb 29, 2016
    2
    kiepska gra w ktorej niema dobrych wyborow sa tylko zle i gorsze niemylic tej gry z grami taktycznymi to czysty surviwal i o wiekszosci decyduje rng
    dotego gra zasypuje masa kometazy do wszystkiego co sie dzieje cigle wyskakujace chmorki itp po czasie nuza
  70. Sirik_Matak
    Mar 28, 2016
    1
    The game drives on nice art design and va. Other than that, it fools people who can't into 1+1 mathematics that it's a deep and hard piece of gaming.
    Max out your dps, ignore everything else (9/10 classes and skills).
    Win.
    Delete.
  71. Jerrido
    May 29, 2020
    1
    Drop players on the GOG platform, no DLC, no achievements. Now there is no trust in these developers
  72. yosa1
    Feb 3, 2016
    1
    This game is a massive disappointment, some of the aspects of this game are horrible wile others are badly programmed; the stress mechanic was illogical from beta, and has been made worse with subsequent patches, to the point that it is the the focus of the game play due to that fact that high stress is a death sentence.

    The game intimates that there are percentage based variables in    This game is a massive disappointment, some of the aspects of this game are horrible wile others are badly programmed; the stress mechanic was illogical from beta, and has been made worse with subsequent patches, to the point that it is the the focus of the game play due to that fact that high stress is a death sentence.

    The game intimates that there are percentage based variables in the RNG style of play but clearly the numbers never add up, as an 85% hit chance can net you an easy 7/10 misses, to the point were you wait in anticipation hoping the move hits; the AI however gets some hidden buffs to all chances that assure you will have trouble by the second battle.

    Quirks, your character gain benefits at times and debilitation, this really pissed me off as they gain every fear and phobia known to man in a very short time, quirks are fine but hell make them rare.

    I'll never bother with this game again, as it uses skewed random number scripts and has some very bad game mechanics, its linear and grindy and while torchering others maybe Red Hooks idea of a game, im not that masochistic.    … Expand
  73. h3xw0l7
    Oct 2, 2016
    1
    There's something here but I feel it's ruined since you're essentially just rolling the RNG. If you identify as masochistic than you might enjoy this, but otherwise if you want a game where you live and die by RNG and there's nothing you can do than go for it.

    Caught by surprise? Enjoy syphilis. Want to get attached to a character? He's going to develop kleptomania and ruin everything.    There's something here but I feel it's ruined since you're essentially just rolling the RNG. If you identify as masochistic than you might enjoy this, but otherwise if you want a game where you live and die by RNG and there's nothing you can do than go for it.

    Caught by surprise? Enjoy syphilis.
    Want to get attached to a character? He's going to develop kleptomania and ruin everything.
    Want a heal that can heal between 0-12? Enjoy your heal for zero and now you're bleeding. (it causes you to bleed)
    Whole team comes back stressed? Best to just let them go and hope the wagon brings usable classes because you're broke. (Quit **** bring me five arbalests, seriously wtf)
    Invest in your buildings to make stress treatments cheaper? Each time your character "ranks" up the bills go up too, yay perpetual debt!

    I cannot stress enough that you are literally battling Satan's RNG machine, if that sounds fun go for it, but I'm done, there's no enjoyment here to be had.    … Expand
  74. Jaddel
    Aug 12, 2021
    0
    Unbalanced RNG heavy game.. Thx, but no... These days i have enough games RNG-heavy... (50% progress in the game)
  75. QuixoticKnight
    Feb 20, 2016
    0
    //...Cool Artwork...
    ChanceToDoAnything = Skill(0,5) + Random(0,95);
    if (ChanceToDoAnything < 95) DestroyCharacter(CurrentPlayer);
    //...Cool Artwork...

    That is pretty much the algorithm for the entire game. If that sounds like a blast then pick it.
    Don't expect it to be fun just expect it to be completely arbitrary and mean.
  76. monnef
    Nov 2, 2017
    0
    The game is unplayable on my system (mouse clicks are not registered, only runs on a small section of the screen; I do meet minimal requirements). After contacting their support and waiting over half a year, nothing has changed. The game is still not fixed and their support is not responding.

    Beware of this studio (Red Hook Games/Red Hook Studios). They don't support their paying    The game is unplayable on my system (mouse clicks are not registered, only runs on a small section of the screen; I do meet minimal requirements). After contacting their support and waiting over half a year, nothing has changed. The game is still not fixed and their support is not responding.

    Beware of this studio (Red Hook Games/Red Hook Studios). They don't support their paying customers and I recommend to not support them as well.    … Expand
  77. Frank70
    Feb 12, 2016
    0
    It's a great game ...At the beginning. Then it become a tedious, monotonous , boring grinding. You go ahead for all the time you have invested with but you feel too often bored, cheated, annoyed with the classic headache of boring and repetitive games . An hero you have growth for 12 hours can die in 2 seconds and that would be acceptable if playing the game was actually funny. It's not,It's a great game ...At the beginning. Then it become a tedious, monotonous , boring grinding. You go ahead for all the time you have invested with but you feel too often bored, cheated, annoyed with the classic headache of boring and repetitive games . An hero you have growth for 12 hours can die in 2 seconds and that would be acceptable if playing the game was actually funny. It's not, its just repeating the same actions thousand times to get 999 easy victories and 1 defeat that delete all of them . Then you start ask yourself "im getting fun" and the answer is "no" .… Expand
  78. jimwinsor
    Jun 17, 2016
    0
    A horribly designed and hideously unbalanced end game dungeon ruins what was up to that point a promising design. A long grind ends up leaving the player empty and disappointed.
  79. OberiousLocke
    Jun 3, 2021
    0
    Not a bad game, necessarily, but it is incredibly (and deliberately, I think) harsh on the player to the point of being unfair. Further, with Red hook doing business with Epic for exclusive early access for Darkest Dungeon 2, I cannot in good conscience recommend giving them money. Automatic 0.
  80. themechanicalma
    Jan 19, 2017
    0
    Mac crashed while playing this game, restarted computer and found saved game is now gone.

    Might as well, ~20 hours in and the game becomes seriously repetitive where players would explore similar dungeons, fight similar enemies, and make similar tradeoffs. The game mechanics is interesting and the dungeons fun... for a time, but the once the abilities of each class is understood and the    Mac crashed while playing this game, restarted computer and found saved game is now gone.

    Might as well, ~20 hours in and the game becomes seriously repetitive where players would explore similar dungeons, fight similar enemies, and make similar tradeoffs. The game mechanics is interesting and the dungeons fun... for a time, but the once the abilities of each class is understood and the enemies of the dungeons known, then it begins to feel as if the game length is artificially stretched to justify the asking price.

    To devs: if you want to only allow 1 single save for each gameplay, then you better make sure the save file is properly backed up before overwriting to it. ♥♥♥♥ing amateurs.    … Expand
  81. DingerDonger
    Jun 27, 2020
    0
    Darkest Dungeon is the pinnacle of artificial difficulty in a video game. This game is meant to do one thing and one thing only: test your patience. There is a heavy RNG element in this game at every single turn, but the vast majority of the outcomes work AGAINST you. If you like missing all your attacks, receiving numerous critical hits on your back row character that stresses out yourDarkest Dungeon is the pinnacle of artificial difficulty in a video game. This game is meant to do one thing and one thing only: test your patience. There is a heavy RNG element in this game at every single turn, but the vast majority of the outcomes work AGAINST you. If you like missing all your attacks, receiving numerous critical hits on your back row character that stresses out your entire party, or just plain random events that ruin your run, give Darkest Dungeon a try. There's no story, very little strategy that matters (since everything can go out the window at the whims of the dice), and very little teambuilding that matters since they're all destined to become turds eventually. Speaking of party, you are not meant to keep party members around for very long. The game is built in such a way that forces you to continuously recruit new members as your old ones die to the extreme randomness of the dungeons. And if all your party members die on a run and you're only left with low levels? Guess it's game over for you.

    If you like playing games like Russian roulette or if you like to see how much pain you can endure from self-torture before you pass out, this game might just be for you. Otherwise, I'd avoid it like the plague.    … Expand
  82. Komoto
    Jul 26, 2022
    0
    You will spend weeks or even months manicuring your teams to attempt any of the end game content only to have it all be destroyed because of bad RNG. Nothing about this game respects your time and you're better off playing any game from the vast roguelike options available today.
  83. chialeos
    Sep 12, 2021
    0
    this game cured all of my friends longing depression
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Awards & Rankings

26
#26 Best PC Game of 2015
25
#25 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015
26
#26 Most Shared PC Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 56 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 53 out of 56
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 56
  3. Negative: 0 out of 56
  1. KeenGamer
    Aug 12, 2020
    80
    There is a good reason that Darkest Dungeon won a ton of awards and sold over 2 million copies - in portraying the dark underbelly of fantasy adventuring it touched on subjects rarely addressed in games before it. Its amazing sound, comic-like graphics, and intense, perpetual Ironman difficulty create a title that was addictive to those wanting Lovecraftian horror with a side of near Dark Souls difficulty. If you have never experienced it before, now is a great time to make its acquaintance, to be prepared for the release of Darkest Dungeon 2. And, if you were a previous visitor, make sure you take another look to experience the new DLC that has been added since your departure. Hours of broken peripherals and rage quits await.
    Read full review
  2. High-Def Digest
    Apr 10, 2016
    90
    Darkest Dungeon is the rare game that gets my heart pumping while playing, not because it’s scary (even though it is a little scary), but because the stakes are so high.
    Read full review
  3. Pelit (Finland)
    Mar 31, 2016
    88
    Darkest Dungeon is a masterpiece of emergent storytelling. [March 2016]
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