Darkest Dungeon [Review]: A satisfyingly difficult RPG for Xbox & PC

Darkest Dungeon is a renowned roguelike RPG with an emphasis on tactical gainsay, procedural dungeon crawling, and utterly oppressive game mechanics.

Darkest Dungeon hit Xbox One on February 28, 2022, having previously launched on PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. It'southward maddeningly hard, with truly evil RNG and soul-crushing atmospherics, but I discover it hard to put down.

(Xbox One, PC)

Darkest Dungeon

$25

Bottom line: A stylish turn-based RPG not for the faint at heart. Not to be missed by roguelike fans.

Pros:

Slick comic-way visuals.
Fiendishly gothic atmosphere.
Satisfyingly difficult gameplay.

Cons:

Some may find information technology to exist too oppressive.
The randomness can experience incredibly unfair at times.
UI on Xbox is a little chaotic.

Darkest Dungeon: What makes it crawly

Category	Spec
Genres:	Tactical RPG, roguelike
Mode(s):	Unmarried Role player
Developer:	Red Hook Studios
Publisher:	Red Hook Studios
Platform(south):	PC, PlayStation iv, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One
Release date(south):	PC: Jan 19, 2022, Xbox: Feb 28, 2022
Price:	$25

In an age where Last Fantasy has practically become a slash 'em up, I observe myself looking for turn-based RPGs in odd places. I had never heard of Darkest Dungeon, but a quick glance beyond Steam reviews showed how popular it was — and it's for skilful reason.

Darkest Dungeon takes identify in a gothic earth, which draws on classic horror inspirations and unmistakable Lovecraftian influences. You lot're tasked with the reconstruction of an inherited family unit manor, battered and ruined with disrepair. Your benefactor spent the entirety of the family fortune seeking ancient relics, merely found only horror in madness in the dark tombs he sought to plunder.

Though story isn't the primary focus of the game, you lot'll observe text files and plenty of narration as you raid the game's dungeons, complemented by a suitably spooky musical score.

To build upward your Estate, you'll hire mercenaries and adventurers of various types, and equip them with items purchased or plant throughout your travels. Each fourth dimension yous embark upon a quest, you'll be given some clues as to what sorts of dangers y'all'll face. Customizing your mercs is part of the fun of the game, every bit they can be levelled up and granted new skills as you might wait.

The uniqueness of Darkest Dungeon comes into play when you actually begin to delve into the depths of those eponymous dungeons.

Darkest Dungeon places an emphasis on the psychological well being of your heroes as well as their strengths and powers. Your torches will fire equally you proceed through dungeons, increasing the fright and stress experienced by your heroes, in addition to increasing the power of the dark enemies y'all will face.

Likewise much stress build-upwardly tin lead your heroes to crevice, producing an array of both positive, but more often than not negative effects. Some heroes thrive under pressure, whereas others might become insane. Managing these dynamic systems keeps Darkest Dungeon interesting, specially when combined with the way its dungeons are generated with randomized loot, narrative objects, and layouts.

As yous grow in power, you'll upgrade your estate with diverse facilities, helping yous rid heroes of their negative traits and fears, while nurturing more useful ones. Darkest Dungeon becomes wonderfully addictive if you lot're predisposed to upgrade 'em upwards-way gameplay.

Like any cocky respecting roguelike, Darkest Dungeon throws tons of other curveballs into the mix, some of which might drive you mad.

Darkest Dungeon: What might bulldoze y'all mad

Darkest Dungeon features various mechanics designed to punish the role player in twisted ways. During missions, you'll have to manage character status effects, stress levels, and hunger, and provision accordingly. Sometimes, you might end up running out of sorely needed items, or not have enough cash to purchase them at all. Characters permanently dice, too, and a nasty crit on your healer is sometimes hard to avoid or compensate for.

Darkest Dungeon features various mechanics designed to punish the player in twisted ways.

Darkest Dungeon warns players in its opening that you're non supposed to survive all missions, and you're not supposed to get fastened to your heroes. Even your favorite characters will eventually die; the game is far too perilous to rely on any unmarried hero. Darkest Dungeon passively saves also, so don't await to salve scum your way to victory.

In improver to randomized layouts and boodle, dungeons also contained randomized enemies and hazards. A quick exploration of a iron maiden led to one of my about useful characters becoming trapped. He took impairment, a huge stress hit and became inflicted with a claustrophobia quirk, permanently increasing his stress level in corridors.

Mitigating the chaos is the proper name of the game, but it's folly to try and play "perfectly." If you're the type of gamer who hates roguelike-style RNG chaos, Darkest Dungeon might drive you mad.

Additionally, at least on Xbox, the UI likewise is almost as oppressive as the game's atmosphere. Finding bones controls for moving the map around, igniting torches, and finding other UI features is a huge task and quite difficult to get used to. Hopefully, the studio will improve it with subsequent patches.

Darkest Dungeon: Last Thoughts

Darkest Dungeon is a tremendous game that offers something quite unique on Xbox One. Few games follow the Lovecraftian tradition so well, with relentlessly ghastly dungeons and terrifying eldritch horrors.

At $25, Darkest Dungeon is a supremely high-value buy, offering dozens of hours of dynamic gameplay, albeit non for the faint at heart. Proceed with caution, because achieving victory in this game is so, and so satisfying.

Buy at Xbox Store

This review was conducted on Xbox Ane using a copy provided by Microsoft.

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