Normally I do not replay games, and never ones this long, but for whatever reason, the idea of replaying the infamously punishing Darkest Dungeon struck my fancy, a week and a half ago, after a streamer I follow started a new playthrough of it. And yeah, I had a great time. The essential structure of it is that using a roster of characters, susceptible to permadeath and a great degree of conditions both positive and negative, you must slowly acquire power until you are ready to challenge the titular Darkest Dungeon, a cove of eldritch powers that threaten to swallow the entire world.

And before going on- damn, if those characters aren't cool! They're more "classes" than "characters", I suppose, you can have as many Crusaders and Plague Doctors as you like, but still, each of them has a really strong concept and design that's extremely memorable and interesting while still fitting the dark, low fantasy feeling (Except for the Arbalest, sorry. You've got a poet fallen king wielding a broken executioner's sword and a terse, faceless bounty hunter who pulls you in with a hook, marks you and then scores a crit for 50 damage, "woman with a crossbow" doesn't really do it). All of them also boast a great level of mechanical depth and opportunity for expression.

Take the Crusader, for example, one of your two starting heroes. At first, you'll look at him and deduce that he's a fairly standard tank- hits hard with his sword, takes hits well in return. And that seems to be true, until you unlock characters like the Leper or the Hellion, who can deal way more damage, completely obsoleting good old Reynauld in that field. And yet, it is at that point that you may realize that he packs healing magic, however weak. He's not going to keep up with the Vestal, the designated white mage, but he doesn't need to. Healing when a fight is nearly over helps you last a lot longer throughout a long dungeon, and doing so to take a character off Death's Door (characters can only die at 0 hp) is invaluable. He can also heal off stress, which no other character can do both of. He can also stun enemies, so perhaps he is to be more of a support tank of sorts? Sure, but he doesn't even need to be in the frontline! He has an attack, Holy Lance, that only works in the back but is as powerful as his main one and can target squishier enemies in the back ranks. So what looked like a big bag of HP and damage turns out to be able to fill just about any role in any spot of the party, from tank to control to support to sniper, to the point that once I actually ran a Crusader / Crusader / Crusader / Leper formation against a certain boss, and it worked! All (well, most) of the characters boast this level of complexity, and it allows the gameplay to hold up tremendously well throughout DD's significant runtime.

If Darkest Dungeon has flaws, they do lie in its pacing. Not only are there few interesting things that can happen outside of the dungeon crawling, nothing you can achieve outside of the Darkest Dungeon itself (which you will likely never be setting foot in until near the end of the game) really advances things besides granting you more gold, resources and hero levels, which makes every expedition feel like it matters less than it actually does. Of note are the various bosses, which are a group of very mechanically varied and mostly very well thought-out fights, but unlock very little for you besides the ability to fight harder versions of them, eventually for the prize of a unique trinket at the hardest versions. The game gets much harder at high levels (In this playthrough I had 3 deaths before getting into the highest level dungeons, and then 5 in the much shorter period afterwards, disregarding DD expeditions which meted out something like 7 deaths on their own) and losing a high level hero is very scary, so taking those on doesn't really feel worth it, which is a shame because taking them down is very fun. The game is a lot more merciful than people realize- there's no permanent lose state outside of the hard mode, survivors of the Darkest Dungeon grant exp bonuses to heroes they venture together with and you can unlock the ability to recruit mid level heroes from the get go- but it does still feel like playing things very very safe is the best way to do it, and that takes some of the fun away.

All of this is good and all but Darkest Dungeon also excels in presentation, which I haven't really mentioned up until now. The artstyle is clearly a bit budget but it works damn well, with a sort of comic-booky vibe that manages to feel serious and effective despite the chibi proportions, extremely punchy attacks sprites and some of the best sound design I've ever heard. Everything sounds great, from enemy attacks to UI sounds to lighting a torch to the ambiance in the background of every stage. That, in particular, is very impressive, sounding muted and restrained when the light is bright, but breaking into complete madness if it ever goes too down. All of this is tied together by the Ancestor, the gloomy, uncaring narrator who always has so much to say in regards to both your victories and failures. He's well written and splendidly voiced, to the point that it's a pleasure to hear even his most common lines, no matter the repetition.

So yeah, Darkest Dungeon, excellent game in my opinion. Hurts just a bit to see mostly negative top reviews, but it is what it is. Before ending this I wanna quickly say a few things. First off, I had no DLCs on in this playthrough. Secondly, I think the idea of this game being RNG-driven is entirely wrong, I can recount exactly one instance in my entire playthrough where a character death felt truly bullshit (in the longest and hardest mission in the game, admittedly), which did suck but once in 50 hours does not ruin a game. The game hinges on RNG in the same way that many other tactical games do, there's plenty of systems in place to always give you a chance if you play well, and a failure to prepare for (reasonable levels of) it is a failure to match the game's expectations. Lastly, the game's storyline is something I have mixed feelings on. The atmosphere and sheer writing are great, but Darkest Dungeon is very light on overarching plot, and the big reveals at the end fall more in the "oh, cool" spectrum for me, than the "oh my god" one, though I think it does manage to fit the game's themes without feeling like a kick in the nuts. To quote the man himself, a trifling victory, but a victory, nonetheless.

I keep this game in a special place in my heart despite how frustrating it is at times. A lot of elements make this game great to me: the team composition building, using supplies to be ready for anything a procedurally generated dungeon throws at you, and the extremely quotable narrator. Although I do feel as if this game is just plain unfair at times with a run often being screwed over because you are at the mercy of RNG, even if you use buffs and debuffs to manipulate stats. Regardless, I’m a big fan of this game and the sequel as well.

This game really takes it out of you. Putting it down and coming back (legit a year later) after horrible RNG did at least feel fresh, with the gameplay being deep enough to carry completing all the caretaker goals.

The art and story and music and narration is really amazing. I understand it's meant to be a "hard" game, but a lot of it's difficulty comes down to true random chance, making some parts frustrating.

It's really dependent on if a person can withstand such inconveniences that makes it hard to recommend generally.