Darkest Dungeon is an atmospheric and enjoyable dungeon crawler that manages to mask its grindy mechanics with fun game play, attractive art and a perfectly toned narrator. The premise is simple enough: You, the player, are summoned by a family member known only as The Ancestor to put right what he destroyed in the family estate and surrounding town through his pursuit of forbidden eldritch knowledge. You're not going to delve into those dangerous places yourself, of course. Instead you assemble teams of heroes who flow into town in a steady fashion and send them down into the tunnels to return with gold and materials to rebuild the town and strengthen your warriors. In time, you will have a team powerful enough to dare go beneath the accursed estate itself.

Game play is primarily controlling your team as they go about their missions. Controls are very simple -- movement & combat are 2D and turn-based. Each hero or monster gets a move each turn, the order determined by their Speed stat and you'll choose from four different moves you prepared for the occasion. Each move can only be performed from select positions in the party and can only hit select positions in the enemy's ranks and the entire effect has an underlying complexity that you learn to appreciate as you fight harder battles: have your occultist summon a monstrous tentacle to pull an archer up front where your crusader can chop him, but be sure your crusader has skills usable from the rear or else he'll be rendered impotent by a push himself. Your fighters will not only shed blood in combat; they will also become stressed by events and, although it seems minor in comparison to losing 15 hit points, enough stress will cause your hero to act irrationally. Worse yet, stress remains even after existing the dungeon and you will have to expend gold to place them in the town's abbey or tavern to relax once more.

Upon returning to town, you can put your plundered materials to use in rebuilding the town. This will make stress recovery cheaper, allow more heroes to arrive on the coach, repair the blacksmith for armor upgrades, etc. Heroes can unlock new skills as the guild house is repaired but all the available skills can be unlocked early on and upgrades are just small stat increases: extra damage or accuracy. If there's a criticism here, it's that there's little true feeling of advancement and no moments where you'll learn a great new skill or stunning new weapon.

Within a few dungeons, you'll be faced with another game aspect: permadeath. Do not get too attached to your heroes as they will drop off over time, victims to skeletons or pig-men or claw-armed cultists. As they perish, you will recruit new heroes from the stagecoach -- thankfully, new heroes come fully armed for their level. It's hard not to get attached and losing a favored hero with nice quirks (minor +/- traits you'll acquire) hurts, at some point resource management wins the day. Likewise, a broken and stressed hero may be sent away to open a roster slot for a more capable explorer.

On paper, Darkest Dungeon shouldn't have been a game I'd spend much time with; I'm no fan of long grinds or permadeath. But its presentation and the fun of tinkering with hero & skill combinations kept me interested throughout.

Darkest Dungeon is an atmospheric and enjoyable dungeon crawler that manages to mask its grindy mechanics with fun game play, attractive art and a perfectly toned narrator. The premise is simple enough: You, the player, are summoned by a family member known only as The Ancestor to put right what he destroyed in the family estate and surrounding town through his pursuit of forbidden eldritch knowledge. You're not going to delve into those dangerous places yourself, of course. Instead you assemble teams of heroes who flow into town in a steady fashion and send them down into the tunnels to return with gold and materials to rebuild the town and strengthen your warriors. In time, you will have a team powerful enough to dare go beneath the accursed estate itself. Game play is primarily controlling your team as they go about their missions. Controls are very simple -- movement & combat are 2D and turn-based. Each hero or monster gets a move each turn, the order determined by their Speed stat and you'll choose from four different moves you prepared for the occasion. Each move can only be performed from select positions in the party and can only hit select positions in the enemy's ranks and the entire effect has an underlying complexity that you learn to appreciate as you fight harder battles: have your occultist summon a monstrous tentacle to pull an archer up front where your crusader can chop him, but be sure your crusader has skills usable from the rear or else he'll be rendered impotent by a push himself. Your fighters will not only shed blood in combat; they will also become stressed by events and, although it seems minor in comparison to losing 15 hit points, enough stress will cause your hero to act irrationally. Worse yet, stress remains even after existing the dungeon and you will have to expend gold to place them in the town's abbey or tavern to relax once more. Upon returning to town, you can put your plundered materials to use in rebuilding the town. This will make stress recovery cheaper, allow more heroes to arrive on the coach, repair the blacksmith for armor upgrades, etc. Heroes can unlock new skills as the guild house is repaired but all the available skills can be unlocked early on and upgrades are just small stat increases: extra damage or accuracy. If there's a criticism here, it's that there's little true feeling of advancement and no moments where you'll learn a great new skill or stunning new weapon. Within a few dungeons, you'll be faced with another game aspect: permadeath. Do not get too attached to your heroes as they will drop off over time, victims to skeletons or pig-men or claw-armed cultists. As they perish, you will recruit new heroes from the stagecoach -- thankfully, new heroes come fully armed for their level. It's hard not to get attached and losing a favored hero with nice quirks (minor +/- traits you'll acquire) hurts, at some point resource management wins the day. Likewise, a broken and stressed hero may be sent away to open a roster slot for a more capable explorer. On paper, Darkest Dungeon shouldn't have been a game I'd spend much time with; I'm no fan of long grinds or permadeath. But its presentation and the fun of tinkering with hero & skill combinations kept me interested throughout.