Darkest Dungeon

 PlayStation Vita
User Score
8.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 46 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 37 out of 46
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 46
  3. Negative: 3 out of 46

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  1. Toekutter
    Nov 24, 2016
    5
    For the first several hours Darkest Dungeon sucks you in. It's got the music, narrative, and art style nailed down. It's a dungeon simulator where character life is cheap. You'll level your party just to throw them into the meat grinder, blast their stress, and eek out a few more resources to build up your hamlet. Which is where the cracks start to show in the design. Once you getFor the first several hours Darkest Dungeon sucks you in. It's got the music, narrative, and art style nailed down. It's a dungeon simulator where character life is cheap. You'll level your party just to throw them into the meat grinder, blast their stress, and eek out a few more resources to build up your hamlet. Which is where the cracks start to show in the design. Once you get past the (admittedly excellent) facade, Darkest Dungeon is a grind fest. Leveling is easy; upgrading skills, weapons, and armor requires a constant source of gold. So does recovery after the dungeon since characters develop quirks and become useless or even die if their stress level reaches a critical point. And they die. A lot. So you'll constantly have to create new parties just to get more gold to maintain that elite group (or two) you've created to combat the higher end dungeons. This wouldn't be that terrible if the developers hadn't thrown in a game-breaking town event where you're practically forced to combat a sub-boss who's tougher than the end game one. If you avoid it, he destroys two town upgrades (which require even more grinding to repair). If you evacuate the mission he kills one character (and all deaths are perma). Or you can fight him, get wiped, and he'll just respawn again. I understand the game is supposed to be masochistic but after that it ceased to be fun. Couple that with the confounding decision to utilize the Vita's rear touch panel for controls. You'll be fighting with selecting characters just as much as the monsters themselves because unless you have tiny hands it brushes up against the sensors. It short, Darkest Dungeon is an excellent idea ruined by questionable mechanics and poor control choices.… Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
tbd

No score yet - based on 3 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. RPGamer
    Feb 1, 2017
    80
    Darkest Dungeon is a game that absolutely deserves to be played. It is an emotional ride for the player, a fun tactical battler, and an RPG that amazingly manages to live up to its horror theme. The art direction is sublime, the sound remarkable, and the direction astounding. Worth more than its bloated weight may let on, Red Hook Studios manages to deliver a product both mentally challenging and rewarding, complete in the truest sense of the word. Just expect it to take a good long while to get there.
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  2. Gaming Age
    Jan 4, 2017
    83
    As I said earlier, this game wants you to feel uneasy the whole way through, and it’s hard to think of a better way to do that than not telling you what you’re doing. It means that their game isn’t for everyone — but I suspect that if it’s for you, you’re going to love (and fear) every second of it.
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  3. The Vita Lounge
    Oct 12, 2016
    90
    Darkest Dungeon is an excellent strategy RPG for the Vita, it's gameplay feels right at home on the handheld and despite some minor niggles the game truly shines as one of the great games this year. Any fan of RPG games should definitely give Darkest Dungeon a look.
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