2020/9/10: Playstation 4: Darkest Dungeon (Guest Review)

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VideoGameCritic
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2020/9/10: Playstation 4: Darkest Dungeon (Guest Review)

Postby VideoGameCritic » September 10th, 2020, 4:36 pm

Check out my latest guest RPG review for Darkest Dungeon. Feedback encouraged!

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Stalvern
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Re: 2020/9/10: Playstation 4: Darkest Dungeon (Guest Review)

Postby Stalvern » September 10th, 2020, 5:04 pm

Very, very minor quibble: The aesthetics are like playing a Poe story. He only wrote one novel, and it's about a ship stowaway who ends up sailing to the South Pole.

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: 2020/9/10: Playstation 4: Darkest Dungeon (Guest Review)

Postby VideoGameCritic » September 10th, 2020, 5:51 pm

Good call Stalvern! I like your attention to detail.

Tron
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Re: 2020/9/10: Playstation 4: Darkest Dungeon (Guest Review)

Postby Tron » September 10th, 2020, 7:22 pm

This sounds like my kind of game. I read the IGN review after reading this one. Sounds like a lot of micromanagement. Lots of trial and error. Steep learning curve and a whole lotta randomness and luck. Sounds like a tough game that may seem unfair at times. Maybe someday I’ll get it.

DaHeckIzDat
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Re: 2020/9/10: Playstation 4: Darkest Dungeon (Guest Review)

Postby DaHeckIzDat » September 12th, 2020, 11:20 am

Tron wrote:This sounds like my kind of game. I read the IGN review after reading this one. Sounds like a lot of micromanagement. Lots of trial and error. Steep learning curve and a whole lotta randomness and luck. Sounds like a tough game that may seem unfair at times. Maybe someday I’ll get it.

The game is beatable, you just need an saintly amount of patience to do so. One thing I didn't mention is that you have access to the final dungeon from the get go, but you can only take each hero into it once. After that they'll refuse to go back in, and you'll have to level up yet another team to replace them. Considering how many tasks the final dungeon has, and the fact that your party will probably get destroyed without finishing the level more than once, and that lone probably makes the game ten times longer.

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C64_Critic
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Re: 2020/9/10: Playstation 4: Darkest Dungeon (Guest Review)

Postby C64_Critic » September 12th, 2020, 4:58 pm

I actually own this game on Steam, but I've never installed or played it. I was very intrigued by the art style, so when I saw it on sale for $9.99 I grabbed it. I may have to boot it up and give it a go, just to check it out - great review!

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JustLikeHeaven
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Re: 2020/9/10: Playstation 4: Darkest Dungeon (Guest Review)

Postby JustLikeHeaven » September 18th, 2020, 10:08 am

Thanks for the review. I picked this game up last year on the switch. I played it for an hour or two and pretty much hated it. Your review inspired me to go and give it a second chance. Darkest Dungeon was a game I wanted to like, but it was just so stinking brutal! My first attempt I didn’t understand how stress worked and I played incredibly sub-optimally.

With my most recent play through I’ve come to adore the game. It’s follows through on its concept and delivers beautifully. The game is a mixture of old school D&D dungeon crawls mixed with a healthy dose of Lovecraftian horror. As someone who plays D&D I really fell hard for the game the second time around.

The game constantly forces you into making excruciating decisions. It rewards risky “no light” runs, but always you to escape at any time (at a cost). You get attached to your best characters and fear when they’re about to die. It’s tense, tactical, and exciting.

A big part of my initial folly with the game was I didn’t understand how to properly upgrade the town. A fairly large flaw is that you can easily waste your first few upgrades and make things accidentally more difficult for yourself.

While I disagree with your score, I have to thank you again for reminding me of the game. I’m super glad I gave it a fair shake and stuck with it this time. I find myself playing late at night muttering, “Just one more run...”


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