Darkest Dungeon Review (floris_bulldog)
The game sets up a barrier to entry for you to get over, which can be discouraging, but once you push through and start understanding the game's mechanics it starts getting quite fun.
The gameplay loop starts to click and off you go dwelling into brutal dungeons, leveling up your characters to go through even harder dungeons or steamroll through easier ones to get some easy smeckels to upgrade your little town. At least that's how I experienced it and it was pretty nice. The game is unapologetically unfair at times but it fits well into the grim dark lovecraftian theme, you don't have full control over what happens just like you wouldn't in real life, you're just supposed to make the most of it, it's pretty immersive which I respect.
That being said, the game simply outstays its welcome. After a certain amount of hours it gets tedious and it never really feels as if you're making significant progress. You hit a wall and you're left to grind for trinkets and stuff so you can get the edge over the endlessly brutal dungeons to get some more loot and story exposition. The gameplay loop also gets old, you're constantly doing the same thing over and over, and while there's variety in characters and especially comps, it can't hold my interest in the gameplay loop.
I gave this game a chance and enjoyed my time with it, but when it stops being fun and I end up uninstalling a game I haven't "fully" finished (which I hate to do), I can't help but not recommend it. It's a really well made game tho, I'm just not into it enough to finish it.