Darkest Dungeon - Welcome to madness

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Hello everyone! A few entries back I talked about Valdis Story, a “Metroidvania” indie game that was funded through the popular Kickstarter website, a website dedicated to the crowdfunding that has contributed to fund some recent indie gems such as Shovel Knight, a tribute to the 8-bits era adventures, or Mighty No. 9 and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, two games destined to be the spiritual successors of fan favorite classic franchises such as Mega Man and Castlevania respectively, and that are being developed by their original creators, who released a campaign in Kickstarter to fund their new projects after abandoning their former companies to create their own studios, collecting more than four and five million dollars for their projects, proving like this that some classic franchises are far from being as dead as some companies want to make us believe, at least among the most veteran players. Well, in this new entry I bring you yet another indie game that was funded through Kickstarter, and although it might not have made as much noise as the games I mentioned before during its funding campaign, it called my attention since the very first time I saw it, as it transmitted that feeling that one cannot describe but that you only feel with certain gaming gems, for the game certainly shines in many aspects. I´m talking about Darkest Dungeon. Ready to travel to the deeps of darkness and madness?

One of the game´s friendly bosses.

Developed by the recently founded indie team Red Hook Studios, a team made up of several veterans of the game and entertainment industry, Darkest Dungeon is a Dungeon Crawler RPG that makes a special emphasis in the psychology of the characters and how this one affects to their actions and their relation with their teammates, in fact, the psychological part is so important that one could almost get a PhD in psychiatry after just a few hours of game. The first thing that catches our eyes as soon as we start playing Darkest Dungeon is it´s polished presentation, specially for an indie game, with characters designed making an intense use of the black ink that gives the feeling of being playing some kind of interactive comic, together with the use of dark colors that helps to give the game´s atmosphere a feeling of oppression and despair that matches perfectly with the game´s gameplay idea of surviving in a world full of madness and nightmares. The story of Darkest Dungeon starts when we inherit a mansion and all of its surrounding lands from one of our ancestors after he´s death. Unfortunately our ancestor had a taste for the occult arts, which eventually led him one day to accidentally open a portal from which all kind of horrible creatures started coming out, and so now it will be our duty as descendants of the family to close that portal. The story of Darkest Dungeon might not be that original or deep, but it compensates it with some high quality narration, working just fine in order to carry on with the game.


As I mentioned before, Darkest Dungeon is a Dungeon Crawler RPG that belongs to the Roguelike subgenre to be more specific, which means we will have to explore endless dungeons filled up with enemies, deathly traps and treasures in order to complete the different missions that will be assigned to us, dungeons that will be randomly generated every time we enter them to complete a new mission. In order to able to take on the missions we will have to recruit heroes to put together teams for our expeditions. We will be able to recruit from a variety of heroes, which include:

Arbalest

A runaway turned soldier, the Arbalest is the definitive backline fighter. Able to rain suppressing fire down on the enemy, snipe high profile targets and apply powerfully effective first-aid, she is a rallying point, a turret, a beacon in the dark.

Bounty Hunter

A brutally efficient single-target executioner and crowd control specialist. For the Bounty Hunter, planning is key - mark targets for bonus damage or look for opportunities to capitalize on a stunned foe. He can also wreak havoc on an enemy party's order using his grappling hook, flashbangs and powerful uppercut.

Crusader

Battle-hardened and stalwart, the Crusader has held the front lines in a hundred holy wars. He either attacks foes head-on with righteous fury, or embraces a melee support role by leveraging his powerful defensive buffs & off-heals.

Grave Robber

The Grave Robber is a versatile and nimble combatant, moving back and forth through the ranks with ease. She strikes without warning and retreats to the shadows, continuing her assault at range. If her throwing daggers and poison darts aren't getting the job done, she can return to the melee, buffed and slinging her pickaxe!

For Wallace! For freedom!

Hellion

Wild, unpredictable, and utterly ruthless, the Hellion thrills to the spilling of blood! Her massive glaive affords her impressive reach in combat, while its razor sharp edge leaves lasting wounds on enemies. Certain skills leave her exhausted, however, and she may occasionally need to take a turn to recharge her adrenaline before entering the fray once again.

Highwayman

A rogue, a thug and a thief, the Highwayman has honed his skills with dirk and flintlock to devastating effect. Whether at range or in a melee, he is equally effective at dispatching his foes. Be it a grapeshot area-of-effect, or single target bleed, the Highwayman's skills focus solely on dealing damage in a variety of ways.

Jester

Combat is a power-ballad - a slow build up, and a grand finale! On offense, the Jester leaps to and fro in a bloody cacophony, positioning himself for a glorious end in the front ranks! Alternatively, he can hang back, delivering chilling melodies and unsettling riffs that terrorize his foes, and give strength to his allies.

Leper

A ruined man, a warrior, and a poet. The Leper is most effective when given a turn to focus himself before raising his massive blade. When he swings, it is all or nothing - crushing blows and massive damage or the empty whistling of a glancing blow. He is entirely self-sufficient, drawing strength from his life of trauma, and able to channel it into heals, protection, or unrelenting fury.

Man-at-Arms

A professional. A mercenary. Bring coin, and he will fight for you. Assaults or desperate defenses, skirmishes or tunnel-fighting, he's done it all. And he'll do it again.

Occultist

A lifetime of scholarly inquest into ancient and forbidden lore has opened the Occultist's mind to the powers of the void. Debilitating curses and maddeningly impossible support skills are his specialty. The void, however, is an unpredictable power, and consequently skills' effectiveness can vary dramatically, and usually come at a cost of light, or stress.

Assassins what? Dunno that game...

Plague Doctor

A doctor, researcher and alchemist who prefers to hang back, eating away at her foes with stacking damage-over-time abilities like toxic clouds & plague-filled grenades. She is equally effective in a support role, blinding and confusing foes while enhancing a party's survival with damage-increasing tonics, and remedies for bleed and blight effects.

Vestal

The warrior nun channels her zeal for battle into healing abilities, holy judgments and dazzling explosions of light. A strong backbone to any party, the Vestal can also hold her own on the front line with a powerful mace bash and close-quarters condemnations.

Hound Master

Hound and master have kept order in every dirty pub and bandit-strewn village from coast to coast. A specialist in harrying blows and crippling, bleeding strikes, this pair is sturdy and versatile. By cudgel or teeth, they *will* keep the Law.




As you can see there is a big variety of classes that include from your typical mercenaries to the more unique lepers or jesters classes, offering like this a little bit of everything for everyone. Each character will have its unique stats (physical and mental) and skills based on their class, with several combinations possible for each type of class, making the recruitment possibilities for our team almost endless. Once we have put together a team, we will have to dwell in the dungeons in order to complete the missions, which can be of one of the following types:


- Cleanse/Skirmish: We will have to win 100% of the fights in the dungeon.

- Scout/Explore: We will have to explore 90% of the dungeon.

- Kill the Boss: We will to kill the designated boss.

- Purify the Altars: We will have to activate 3 altars.

- Reclaim Relics of the Light: We will have to collect 3 relicts.


Each mission will have a different difficulty level, with the requirements and rewards of each mission varying depending on its difficulty level, which means that the more difficult a mission is, the better the rewards will obviously be, as well as the chances of failing. As we complete missions, we will unlock new ones and obtain rewards that we will be able to use to improve our characters, which we will be able to do in the town. The town will contain different types of buildings, such as the tavern, the abbey or the blacksmith, each of them with a special function that will allow us to improve our characters in different ways as well as letting them lick their wounds after having been beaten to hell. The available buildings in our town will be:

Town map

Abbey

The Abbey is one of the locations in the town where you allow your heroes to relieve stress through the options of Cloister, Transept and Penance Hall.

Blacksmith

The Blacksmith is one of the locations in the town where you allow your heroes to upgrade their gear.

Graveyard

The Graveyard is one of the locations in the town where you can view your fallen heroes and how they died.

Guild

The Guild is one of the locations in the town where you allow your heroes to train and learn new skills.

Nomad Wagon

The Nomad Wagon is a location in the town where you can purchase trinkets.

Sanitarium

The Sanitarium is one of the locations in the town where you can treat your heroes´ quirks and diseases for a price.

Tavern

The Tavern is one of the locations in the town where you allow your heroes to relieve stress through the options of Bar, Gambling and... Brothel... I guess no matter how tough you are everyone needs some human warm from time to time, right?

Stage Coach

The Stage Coach is one of the locations in the town where you can recruit new heroes.


Survivalist

The Survivalist is one of the locations in the town where you can upgrade your heroes camping skills.


Town Square

The Town Square is one of the locations in the town that will allow us to replay the story´s cut scenes and read our ancestor´s log.


One of the main features we will always have to keep in mind if we want to be successful in our missions is the intensity of light of the torch that we will use while we explore the dungeons. A meter located in the upper part of the screen will indicate us the intensity of the light of our torch, which will greatly affect the events that take place inside the dungeons in different ways depending on its intensity, so for example, if the light of our torch is really intense, we will have more chances or surprising our enemies, which means we will be able to attack first during the combats, on the opposite, if the light of the torch is rather weak, we will give the enemies more chances of surprising us, although if we defeat them under these conditions we will receive better rewards. This system does really help to keep things interesting while exploring the dungeons, as well as emphasizing the feeling of survival in a dark and hostile place, for you know that when the light goes out and you are out of torches, things are about to get ugly. And talking about hostile places, Darkest Dungeon makes use of a random encounter turn-based combat system. As we explore the dungeons, the enemies will assault our group in order to try to stop us, with the players having to defeat them to be able to proceed in their adventure. Our group will made up of 4 heroes, each of them taking a specific position inside the group. It will be very important to keep in mind the position we will assign to each character inside the group, for depending on the position the characters are assigned they will become more or less effective, since the type of skills they will be able to use during the combats will greatly depend on their position and the position of the enemy they are trying to attack to. During the combats we will be able to perform one of these 3 actions during each of our characters´ turns: use attack or support skills, switch the characters positions in order to adapt them to the necessities of the group during the combats, and use items from the inventory. During the longer dungeons we will also be able to camp in certain parts of the dungeons to help our characters recover their strength through different options, and believe when I say that finding one of these areas when your characters have been beaten up badly (which will be quite often) must be a very similar feeling to finding an oasis in the middle of the dessert after walking for 5 days nonstop with 50 degrees Celsius and wearing winter clothes.

Ok guys, time for some spooky tales! Who starts?

As I mentioned at the beginning, opposite to what we see in many RPG games where our heroes are all almighty shining examples of justice, Darkest Dungeon shows a more cruel and dark vision, with our heroes being just a bunch of mercenaries that are just looking for personal richness and glory, developing all kinds of mental illnesses due to the horrors they have to face in the twisted and gloomy dungeons during their adventures, and just like with the character classes, there is a bit of everything, from zoophobia, alcoholism and bulimic, to egomania, necromania or gambling, some of which will greatly affect the character´s behavior, till the point that sometimes they will make the Joker look like just a funny clown. The game uses a stress indicator that displays the stress accumulated by our characters during their adventures in the dungeons. As they progress through the dungeons, their level of stress will increase with the different events that will take place, and once the stress indicator fills up, our heroes´ resolution will be put to the test. When this happens, there will be only two possible results: one, our heroes will overcome their fears and gain a new positive mental trait, or the most probable result, they will develop a new mental disease, which can cause them to become highly unstable, putting in risk the whole mission and the live of all the characters, oh, and by the way, when you die in Darkest Dungeon, you die forever. Yes, you did indeed read that well. Once one of our heroes dies, there won´t be any way to bring them back, so don´t expect any “Phoenix Down” a la Final Fantasy or any kind priest that will be willing to revive our fallen comrades for a few coins like in Dragon Quest, in Darkest Dungeon there is no space for such “divine happenings”, there is only space for death and despair awaiting for you in every single corridor of every single dungeon, so more often than not the question you will make to yourselves is not whether a certain hero will die or not, but more like which hero you want to try to keep alive, for believe me when I say you will see many, MANY, of your heroes fall, in fact, the game is so cruel that you can even lose heroes during the tutorial, so my advice is that you don´t grow too keen on any character, because you really never know when the end of the road might come to them.

This stress... I need a new job!

Finally, I would like to mention just in case is still not clear enough, that the gloomy and dark style of Darkest Dungeon is not only applied to the art of the game, but also to the gameplay itself, for Darkest Dungeon is a thought cookie that takes any chance it has to put your nerves to the test, perhaps even more so than it does to your characters, having to fight corridor after corridor for our lives against enemies that don´t include anything similar the word "mercy" in their programming code, so those looking for an relaxing and pleasant experience should stay away from the game, for Darkest Dungeon shows no interest in pleasing that kind of player, now, if you are looking for a dark and challenging experience in the vein of Dark/Demon Souls, or you just simply love psychiatry, then Darkest Dungeon is your game. Although the game is not completely finished yet, you can already buy the previous version (or early access) on the Steam website. This version is fully playable and already has plenty of content to keep you entertained till the full version is released somewhere in summer 2015. The full version of the game will add yet more character classes, dungeons, enemies and items among other things, and will also be available for PS4. Anyway, enjoy! Well, provided you don´t all end up losing your heads too...


GAMEPLAY VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF1uhwxh8tk