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
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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]
See all critic reviews »