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It is unsurprising that Redhook’s Darkest Dungeon – entering its final beta now, and due to be released fully by the end of the year – found its funding on Kickstarter, considering it reads like a combination of every popular indie game element from the last five years: a rogue-like, 2D, side-scrolling RPG that combines X-Com-like party and base management with the unforgiving difficulty of Dark Souls. However, while Dark Souls’ tagline was “Prepare to Die”, Darkest Dungeon’s may as well be “prepare to become a syphilitic masochist, then go insane, then die of a heart attack when it all gets to be too much”. The most original element of Darkest Dungeon’s indie-game mélange, apart from the unique art style (most reminiscent of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comic series) is the Stress, Quirk and Affliction system.
As you send your party into the dungeons and ruins of the Dark Estate to “reclaim your birthright and free [your] family from the ravenous, clutching shadows,” the oppressive darkness, brutal combat and hideous monsters will take a psychological toll on your characters. In Darkest Dungeon, Stress is its own stat, and as Stress builds up your characters begin to crack under the pressure, developing Afflictions and Quirks that affect their abilities and change how they play. Your Occultist may become Selfish, rushing towards even the most obviously booby-trapped chest, while your previously stoic Man-at-Arms suddenly becomes Irrational, spouting nonsense, skipping his turn and refusing to be healed by his party’s spells. Quirks can be positive too, forging heroes out of the most hopeless moments by adding buffs to their combat and helping to reduce the Stress levels of other party members. However this system of positive and negative Quirks is not so much balanced on a knife edge, as it is bouncing on a chainsaw, and for the most part the relentless dungeon crawling will mean madness and death to your rotating roster of wanna-be heroes.
When the Stress gets too much and you either accomplish your goals or flee the dungeon in retreat, the base management system comes into play. The “Darkest Estate” is a run down shell of its former self, and it is your job to return it to its former glory. Expeditions give you Heirlooms, and Heirlooms are used to upgrade parts of the decrepit town, which in turn allows you to heal and upgrade your heroes. The tavern offers booze, gambling and a convenient brothel for reducing the stress of your heroes (paid for with their hard-won gold), while for those with more spiritual inclinations, the chapel offers inner peace through prayer, meditation, and self-flagellation. There is a Sanitarium, a Blacksmith, and a whole host of other fantasy RPG NPCs to help your heroes survive another run into the ruins of your ancestral home. Darkest Dungeon’s base management system is a simple but satisfying mechanic, offering tangible returns on your deadly pursuits: as you upgrade your buildings they slowly change from decrepit shacks to proud outposts of civilisation amidst the madness of horror and death that lurks at the edges of the Darkest Estate.
While Darkest Dungeon may read like a grab-bag of Kickstarter’s favourite gameplay elements, it is a surprisingly cohesive whole. At the core of Darkest Dungeon is a satisfyingly crunchy combat system, that is then skewed towards delightful chaos with the Stress, Quirks and Afflictions. However, Stress also proves to be Darkest Dungeon’s biggest stumbling block. The meaty combat system can become stilted during pitched battles, as Stress begins to take hold and character actions are delayed by their exclamations of doom and hopelessness. Occasionally causing a chain reaction of Stress within the party, this leads to more combat-delaying flavor text, and stratagem breaking shifts in abilities and health, up to and including heart attacks that can kill characters before the enemy has landed a blow. While this is all part of the fun of Darkest Dungeon’s unique gameplay, and part of the grotesque, Lovecraftian gothicism of the atmosphere, it does mean occasionally frustrating breaks in the flow of gameplay, to the point that the player’s own agency sometimes feels undermined by Redhook’s gleefully sadistic take on the dungeon crawling RPG.
Though it may occasionally feel unfair, and its sheer difficulty will prove a barrier to many, players looking for a different kind of party-based RPG (or a new masochistic hit in between instalments of Dark Souls) will find a highly entertaining and deeply satisfying experience with Darkest Dungeon. An atmosphere of doom may pervade your journey, but the art, combat, and wonderfully over-the-top narration will ensure that you keep coming back for more.
Darkest Dungeon is currently available on Early Access through Steam for €19.99
