Thirith on 1/2/2016 at 11:26
*a wild thread necromancer appears*
Am I the only one playing this game at this point? I started over the weekend, got killed a bunch, and restarted, having a better understanding of the mechanics. It's not the kind of game I'd play for hours on end, but it's nifty, punishing in fun ways, and eminently atmospheric. I pretty much came for the Mike Mignola-style visuals and stayed for how Darkest Dungeon uses its relatively simple mechanics to great effect.
I wish I had a better grasp of what/how much equipment to take along for what sort of outing. Also, those curios have backfired on me so often, I tend to bypass everything that looks slightly iffy on my journeys, which probably means that I get half as much loot as more foolhardy adventurers.
WingedKagouti on 1/2/2016 at 15:18
Quote Posted by Thirith
*a wild thread necromancer appears*
Am I the only one playing this game at this point?
I don't play it myself, but a couple of people on my Steam Friends list do. From what I can tell, it seems like the game is geared towards trial and error learning with fairly harsh punishment if things go wrong. So you basically have to learn what king of encounters to expect from each area, what works against those encounters and in the process sacrifice a lot of cannon fodder.
It's not the kind of game I'd want to play much of, so for now I'm satisfied with hearing stories from it.
Malf on 2/2/2016 at 16:36
Yeah, I said in the RPS comments that I've been put off by the fact that everything I've read about it depicts unending and relentless misery, not the kind of thing I want to wrap my head around at the moment.
And from what I've seen, I'm not sure the simplistic mechanics are enough to satisfy me.
Thirith on 2/2/2016 at 17:45
I think the misery thing is overplayed somewhat - it's the game's style, but it's a matter of genre more than anything else. This War of Mine it ain't, nor even Bloodborne. It's more like horror comics in that respect.
It's true, though, that the mechanics are simple. Not easy, since you have to learn to master them, but if you're looking for depth there are much better games.
TheDuriel on 3/2/2016 at 06:40
misery is the games style. not the experience youll get from it.
the combat system, while on the surface simplistic, is actually quite indepth with each character class having multiple playstyles available and each ability has its own unique quirks.
sure if you play it for the very first time youll probably end up restarting 2 hours in, after having learned the basic mechanics. but i wouldnt count that as a negative point.
each mechanic of the game comes with its own risk/reward management aspect. do it take this route? do i use this ability? do i try to loot this object? how many supplied to i take with me? what building and hero do i upgrade first? and more.
its by far the best dungeon crawler released in the past few years. and if youre a fan of stuff like call of cthulu/torchbearer/ftl then youll definitely find yourself at home here.
smallfry on 3/2/2016 at 15:59
Well-said. I really like the game, and according to steam I've played over 60 hours since I got it during early access and I'm still enjoying myself and learning new things. But, I wouldn't call it a dungeon crawler, or a rogue-like (or -lite) either. It's really more of a character management game. Who do I take on this mission? Should I tell my guy to take a week off and drink his stress away or use him anyway? What other team combinations can I play with to make these guys more likely to come back in one piece?
I do wish there were more surprises in the dungeons. I've seen one cool, surprising thing but if there were a lot more (like in a true rogue-like) this game would be all the better for it.
henke on 10/9/2017 at 11:07
I picked up the recently released iPad version of Darkest Dungeon so I'd have something to play on my weekend trip to Stockholm. I started on the easiest difficulty, and so far I've done the prologue and 2 proper missions, though I had to retreat from the second one when my guys started getting too beat up, insane, and low on provisions. Haven't lost anyone yet tho, but I'm spending a lot of money on brothels and bars to mend my fragile soldiers' worried minds. I've said before that I prefer when turn based strategy games focus mainly on the missions, with a minimum of inbetween faffing around with upgrades and whatnot, and DD seems to strike a pretty good balance in that regard. The actual combat gameplay is... ok I guess? It's no Steamworld Heist or Frozen Synapse, but it's ok. At least at the moment it's fun enough to keep playing.
The iPad port
It's pretty barebones. The whole thing is locked in a 16:9 aspect ratio, which means a lot of wasted space on the iPad's 4:3 screen, and while all the text is smaller than you usually find in iPad games, it's readable. Seeing an object's description requires you to actually hold down on the object, and this sometimes makes it hard to read what an item is without also selecting and using it! Despite all that, it plays surprisingly well.
twisty on 10/9/2017 at 11:32
The Steamworld Heist iPad port on the other hand is an absolute gem. Unfortunately it cost more than what I paid for the PC version on the last Steam sale, but still worth every penny.
