Darkest Dungeon’s greatest delight is finding new ways to screw you.Ĭalling Darkest Dungeon merely “Lovecraftian” is a disservice to the mythology developer Red Hook has built here. A massive tentacle reached through it and grabbed my healer, shoving her to the front of the party and flipping my careful plan right on its ass. In the team’s first battle, an enemy summoner opened a portal to hell. I enjoyed experimenting with characters who could fight in a melee role from one spot, but a support role from another.ĭuring one of my early expeditions, I had poured through character sheets to find the perfect set of four heroes and assigned them in the perfect order. The most interesting classes are those in the middle. Most melee attacks can only be aimed at the front ranks, and some spells can only be cast from the middle of a group.

The order of the heroes is important, with heavily armored tanks taking the front spot and spell-casters, archers, and healers holding in the back. I also enjoyed tinkering with character classes in different party positions. Your heroes can die just as easily from a heart attack as from a sword.

It’s easy to do one or the other, but that’s not enough. When characters crack, they take on random debilitating traits like “abusive” or “afraid.” This is the well-executed balancing act of Darkest Dungeon: I love trying to keep people healthy and sane. Seeing a friend die or barely surviving a critical attack has a tendency to make people freak out. It’s hard enough keeping everyone alive, but battles put adventurers under a lot of stress, too. Battles are always tense, though, and I found myself dreading them as expeditions grew longer and more dangerous. Combat gets more fun as more character types arrive in town and new abilities get unlocked. Especially at the beginning of the game, I found the few characters and abilities available made these battles more of a slog. Combatants take turns using abilities to attack, heal, or cast spells. When your party of maniacs runs up against a squad of horrors, a short, turn-based battle starts.

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