izigame.me

Nearly Seven Years

I've been playing Darkest Dungeon for almost seven years and to me it's always been the perfect rogue-like, although I've never had the patience or time to finish it until now.
First let me start off by saying that Darkest Dungeon, at least on its default settings, is still an unforgiving game. At the very beginning, as soon as you boot up the game, it tells you that Darkest Dungeon is all about making the best of a bad situation, and I'm sure anyone who's put any amount of time into the game, can confirm that this is definitely the case.
Effectively, the game plays as thus; A week passes every mission, there are multiple 'Dungeons' you can go to, each with their own trials and tribulations, enemy types and bosses, you take a party of four that will suit that dungeon and complete the given task. After that task is completed (or failed) party members will level up and you'll earn gold and trinkets, which you use to upgrade your Hamlet (Effectively your base of operations) in order to become stronger to make dungeoning easier and get access to harder quests.
There are a multitude of heroes/classes to choose from, each of them bringing their own unique abilities and playstyle to the game. You can also rename all of your heroes to anything you want, making the game ideal for those who want to put their friends in the game (This is what I do for all games that I can, such as XCOM or Phoenix Point or Disgaea) or also ideal for Twitch Streamers as you can make your chat feel more involved by naming them after people in there.
The gameplay loop is very satisfying and I don't ever get bored playing this game, although what I will say is, things -will- go wrong. You will lose that max level hero to something out of your control, yes you can debate that the game is mostly RNG, but think of the game more like D&D as opposed to other turn based RPG's, it's the dice that does decide at the end of the day. However you do have a multitude of ways of mitigating damage and making sure you're getting the most out of your heroes, if you plan ahead well, know when to take a loss as well (tactically) you'll be fine.
The game is long, there's no doubt about that, you're talking anywhere between 30-50 hours for one proper run at the game, beating the final boss and all.
Another great aspect about the game is the Hamlet, randomly you'll get Town Events, these can be positive or negative. Things such as... The Tavern is free for the week, or a free weapon upgrade (This can be particularly helpful in the mid-game when money is an issue.) Or negative ones such as a big bad boss is at your doorstep all of a sudden, with no preparation and you -need- to deal with him. It makes the game feel alive, like not everything is always 100% under your control, and this, for me, is what makes the game so exhilarating.
In truth, I don't really have anything bad to say about the game, I guess I've been done over by RNG a few times but upon reflection, I guess I could've prepared better, but sometimes I did just get crit 3 times in a row and had a hero die, but I also don't see how blaming RNG for losing someone is a bad thing, especially when that's the nature of the game; you expect this going into it. But that's the reality of the game, I'd say it's a feature and not a flaw, you can do all the preparation in the world and be set up perfectly, but as the narrator so aptly puts it, as you think you're doing well. "How quickly the tide turns."
To me, this is one of the best games ever made, it offers extensive replay-ability and despite its unforgiving nature, it's extremely rewarding, I promise when you pull off something magnificent, or one of your heroes becomes Virtuous, or you beat a boss that was skelping you endlessly, you'll be jumping out of your seat in joy.
10/10.