As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, horror is one of my favorite genres when it’s done right. Good horror games blend amazing atmosphere, intriguing narratives, and clever game mechanics to create experiences that evoke engagement and emotion. I’ve been burned by horror games recently, but Darkest Dungeon reminds me of what I love about horror.
The game is a party-based roguelike RPG set in a Cthulhu mythos inspired world. The roguelike mechanics work amazingly well in a horror setting- the randomization and permadeath keep players on edge—you’re never quite certain what’s coming up next, and every decision is a major one, as any missteps mean one of your characters is gone for good. In fact, the game describes this perfectly for you on start-up:
You play the heir to a dubious estate; the patriarch apparent of the family squandered your fortune with an obsession for finding a rumored gateway to power under the family’s ancestral home. As anyone who’s ever played a game before might expect, this did not go so well. Your relative has opened a portal to a realm of monsters and madness, and now you are left to direct parties of adventures to attempt to “deliver our family from the ravenous, clutching shadows… of the darkest dungeon!”. The narrative, while neither overly original nor terribly complex, sets a tone that the writing, visual aesthetic, sound design, and voice acting are all bolster and expand. The game is brooding, but not without a touch of dark humor. At one point the narrator told me I would pay for my provisions, first in gold and then [dramatic pause] in blood. The characters in my party, as they slowly became more stressed and beaten down by the terrifying environment, began to take on new (and not entirely positive) personality traits. One of my characters became abusive, meaning that he insulted other party members. While initially comical, this became a huge problem when another character became indignant and refused to be healed by the abusive character anymore.
You can’t, as of yet and from what I could tell, visual customize the characters you get in any way (though one of their Kickstarter stretch goals was color customization, so that at least should be coming). However, while the game does have some classic gender roles ala Fantasy Life (a female character with c lass called “Vestal” is one of the main healers), the game does a good job of giving the five (out of thirteen) female characters a variety of roles, as the image from their Kickstarter page shows. Furthermore, as a roguelike, a lot of customization happens randomly throughout the game, as your characters gain new traits and quirks that make them unique.
The game is in Early Access right now, and while it’s certainly far more complete than most, what it seems to be lacking right now is balance. This could, of course, be entirely intentional on the part of the designers. My party came out of its first dungeon nearly dead (the last fight had all of my characters constantly on the brink of death) and incredibly stressed. I was able to get back to town and heal them, but I had to spend a fair amount of money to get their stress down (I sent my crusader for some prayer and my highway man for some booze). Spending that money bringing their stress down meant less money to spend on food, shovels, and other supplies for dungeoning. I also noticed that healing was incredibly low- my healer could only heal someone for 1-2 points a round, while damage was often 5-8 points. I understand that the idea is that your party is constantly being assaulted and never really comfortable, but at his rate I can’t see how I’ll be able to keep characters for more than a dungeon or two.
Darkest Dungeon reminds me a lot of another Cthulhu-inspired horror game I played on early access recently, Sunless Sea (Sunless Sea just came out of early access to full release). Both get at that haunting, ominous vibe that I love so much. I’ve linked the Darkest Dungeon trailer below, which is a great representation of the general mood of the game. If you like what you see there, you won’t be disappointed at all in the game.
