Dungeoneering in Darkest Dungeon
Darkest Dungeon is a "dungeon-themed management sim" which arrived to PC in January of 2016. Like many dungeon-based RPGs, it's based on a 4-member party system designed to force players to think about balancing a team. However, the complication of this game doesn't rest in the typical RPG mechanics. The game isn't a top-down RPG, but a side-scrolling march down a hallway. Nor is Darkest Dungeon a game where you form a party and must live with the consequences forever. It's a game where you have a wide band of adventurers which you can mix and match up before sending into various dungeons on different quests. I think it's pretty well suited to new players despite it's difficulty.
The game reels you in with a quick hook. You've inherited your family estate, which has fallen to a curse due to the greed and hubris of the previous owner. You have been tasked with reclaiming your land from demons and monsters which have inhabited the various landmarks. On the way to the property your carriage is attacked, and your envoy of two must fight its way to the manor, where the primary game opens up. This stage operates as a fairly simple tutorial as the game introduces the turn-based fighting mechanics and the other rules which make the game into a unique dungeon-crawler. Once you've arrived safely at the manor, the caretaker meets you and shows you how to hire new adventurers to your team, and you can begin to upgrade them as well.
With each hire you gain a new member with new abilities which can completely change how a party plays. The games gives players a starting knight and a highwayman, before offering a healer and a magic user as well. This forms the core party composition that most RPG fans will be aware of. As one plays along, however, the game offers "hellions" who can break up and rearrange enemy lines, abominations who can transform into the monsters you fight, and many more each with a unique utility and fighting style. The game rewards players for thinking about party composition and offers many combinations which could suit various playstyles. My personal favorite was a hellion, followed by a leper, then a grave robber, and a healing vestal in the back. This offered me a group that could rush for damage while absorbing whatever was thrown at it, especially after using the vestal for many missions before throwing it with what would otherwise be a hodge-podge team.
Along with the caravan which allows you to hire new members, the manor offers an abbey where your adventurers can pray and receive religious services, as well as a tavern for those who'd like to gamble and drink. Each of these places is upgradeable to allow for greater capacity and to become more "relaxing." Why would a game give you these "relax" spaces? It's an aspect of one of the game's core mechanics: stress. In Darkest Dungeon, each character has more than just the health bar which has become ubiquitous in modern gaming. The player also must contend with the stress of each individual party members. Stress increases the longer a character is in the field, as well as increasing from damage, a lack of light, and falling for traps along the path.
Stress culminates in yet another brilliant aspect of Darkest Dungeon's design. Quirks occur when a character has reached maximum stress or when they return from missions. Quirks obtained when stress meets its max are often worse than those occurring naturally in the line of duty. That doesn't mean that they are always bad, though. When a character reaches max stress, the game tells you that the character's resolve has been tested. In that same moment, the game plays with a random number generator and decides whether or not your character breaks from stress, or fights with a new resolve. The game so often plays with your expectations that things will go horribly for your characters. The buildup of stress for one of the characters often provides stress to the player as well. So when a character becomes stronger for the stress, it's one of the game's greatest highlights. When this occurred during any of my sessions, I'd consider the whole endeavor a success.
From stress, to fighting, to the loot your party can find, the whole game falls under one more mechanic which determines the entire flow of each adventure. Light. Fire in Darkest Dungeon is one of the most important resources you can have. Before setting out on a quest, the player must prepare the party for what it's about to face, buying healing potions, food rations, and, most importantly, torches. The brighter the torch burns, the safer the party will be. With every step, the torch grows dimmer, even getting darker during combat. Managing the level of light produced is a delicate balance. Darker means the loot the party picks up will be that much better, but monsters will be scarier, and stress will build faster. Lighter areas make the march forward feel less bleak, but the ordeal might not be as worthwhile if you earn less than you spent on the expedition. And if you run out of money and people to fight for you, the game is over.
On the whole, Darkest Dungeon is a difficult game. It comes with a warning saying that it's going to be hard, and that your characters are going to die often. That doesn't mean it isn't just as rewarding, and that learning it isn't simple. It's a game which teaches you what you need to know before it becomes so important that you missed the chance to succeed. New gamers will likely find the beats quicker than others, as it plays more like a difficult board game than a traditional video game. Playing it can be stressful, but the victories are earned in a way a lot of games won't reveal until the very end. Not to mention, sessions are quick, and the game is only $30 on Steam. It's one of the most satisfying games I've played on PC this year, and so I highly recommend it.
Title: Darkest Dungeon
Platform: Windows PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $30
Skills Learned:
Inventory management
RPG Party Composition
Upgrade mechanics
The game reels you in with a quick hook. You've inherited your family estate, which has fallen to a curse due to the greed and hubris of the previous owner. You have been tasked with reclaiming your land from demons and monsters which have inhabited the various landmarks. On the way to the property your carriage is attacked, and your envoy of two must fight its way to the manor, where the primary game opens up. This stage operates as a fairly simple tutorial as the game introduces the turn-based fighting mechanics and the other rules which make the game into a unique dungeon-crawler. Once you've arrived safely at the manor, the caretaker meets you and shows you how to hire new adventurers to your team, and you can begin to upgrade them as well.
With each hire you gain a new member with new abilities which can completely change how a party plays. The games gives players a starting knight and a highwayman, before offering a healer and a magic user as well. This forms the core party composition that most RPG fans will be aware of. As one plays along, however, the game offers "hellions" who can break up and rearrange enemy lines, abominations who can transform into the monsters you fight, and many more each with a unique utility and fighting style. The game rewards players for thinking about party composition and offers many combinations which could suit various playstyles. My personal favorite was a hellion, followed by a leper, then a grave robber, and a healing vestal in the back. This offered me a group that could rush for damage while absorbing whatever was thrown at it, especially after using the vestal for many missions before throwing it with what would otherwise be a hodge-podge team.
Along with the caravan which allows you to hire new members, the manor offers an abbey where your adventurers can pray and receive religious services, as well as a tavern for those who'd like to gamble and drink. Each of these places is upgradeable to allow for greater capacity and to become more "relaxing." Why would a game give you these "relax" spaces? It's an aspect of one of the game's core mechanics: stress. In Darkest Dungeon, each character has more than just the health bar which has become ubiquitous in modern gaming. The player also must contend with the stress of each individual party members. Stress increases the longer a character is in the field, as well as increasing from damage, a lack of light, and falling for traps along the path.
Stress culminates in yet another brilliant aspect of Darkest Dungeon's design. Quirks occur when a character has reached maximum stress or when they return from missions. Quirks obtained when stress meets its max are often worse than those occurring naturally in the line of duty. That doesn't mean that they are always bad, though. When a character reaches max stress, the game tells you that the character's resolve has been tested. In that same moment, the game plays with a random number generator and decides whether or not your character breaks from stress, or fights with a new resolve. The game so often plays with your expectations that things will go horribly for your characters. The buildup of stress for one of the characters often provides stress to the player as well. So when a character becomes stronger for the stress, it's one of the game's greatest highlights. When this occurred during any of my sessions, I'd consider the whole endeavor a success.
From stress, to fighting, to the loot your party can find, the whole game falls under one more mechanic which determines the entire flow of each adventure. Light. Fire in Darkest Dungeon is one of the most important resources you can have. Before setting out on a quest, the player must prepare the party for what it's about to face, buying healing potions, food rations, and, most importantly, torches. The brighter the torch burns, the safer the party will be. With every step, the torch grows dimmer, even getting darker during combat. Managing the level of light produced is a delicate balance. Darker means the loot the party picks up will be that much better, but monsters will be scarier, and stress will build faster. Lighter areas make the march forward feel less bleak, but the ordeal might not be as worthwhile if you earn less than you spent on the expedition. And if you run out of money and people to fight for you, the game is over.
On the whole, Darkest Dungeon is a difficult game. It comes with a warning saying that it's going to be hard, and that your characters are going to die often. That doesn't mean it isn't just as rewarding, and that learning it isn't simple. It's a game which teaches you what you need to know before it becomes so important that you missed the chance to succeed. New gamers will likely find the beats quicker than others, as it plays more like a difficult board game than a traditional video game. Playing it can be stressful, but the victories are earned in a way a lot of games won't reveal until the very end. Not to mention, sessions are quick, and the game is only $30 on Steam. It's one of the most satisfying games I've played on PC this year, and so I highly recommend it.
Title: Darkest Dungeon
Platform: Windows PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $30
Skills Learned:
Inventory management
RPG Party Composition
Upgrade mechanics
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