Darkest Dungeon - Preview @ Cliqist

Mitchell Long of Cliqist published a new preview of Darkest Dungeon based on the new Early Access build that was released this week. So here is a short sample.

Graphically, Darkest Dungeon shines with 2D animation that could easily be mistaken for illustrations in a book. Gothic dungeons, a ramshackle city, and inventive creatures paint a bleak environment. While there is an autosave feature, I found myself wishing there were a manual save option as well. At one point I actually restarted from scratch after losing all my heroes (hey, I never said I was skilled). Being able to load a previous save would have been highly beneficial. However, this structure projects similar psychological factors onto the player: fear of dying in-game, paranoia when opening chests, anxiety about supplies, etc. It’s this investment that allows Darkest Dungeon to transcend the screen, and what makes it a brilliant RPG. You don’t play Darkest Dungeon, it’s an experience. Hauntingly beautiful, intricately chiseled, and meticulously concocted, it’s a fantastic early access release, which bodes extremely well for the finished product.

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More information.

Does this game have an actual ending? Or is it an endless dungeon crawl?

DD is supposed to have a cyclical ending.

rjshae said:

Does this game have an actual ending? Or is it an endless dungeon crawl?

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According to the developers, the game will feature several endings, but they aren't currently in the game.

On a side note, I'll repeat what I previously posted: this is an unusually polished early-access release.
And I just can't get enough of the overall "mood" and quality presentation of the game: from the great graphic style, soundtrack, Gothic writing and narration. As soon as I started playing it, I had no doubts the final release will be a quality title.

This early-access release feels like a "proper" game at this stage, in terms of content (there are games currently on Steam that will certainly last you much less), so when all tweaks are made, and the missing dungeons/content (including the main dungeon, the actual Darkest Dungeon) are inserted into the game, this title will be something special.

FunktionJCB said:

This early-access release feels like a "proper" game at this stage, in terms of content (there are games currently on Steam that will certainly last you much less), so when all tweaks are made, and the missing dungeons/content (including the main dungeon, the actual Darkest Dungeon) are inserted into the game, this title will be something special.

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Yeah, it already has a good amount of polish. The game itself is very difficult, or I haven't figured it out yet. I do love how they have stylized the 2d combat, would like to see more of this in other genres.

irongamer said:

Yeah, it already has a good amount of polish. The game itself is very difficult, or I haven't figured it out yet.

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The game is indeed hard. I also struggled a bit (and still do occasionally), you just have to find a working combination of characters. I have found that having a character with healing abilities is half-way to success (I completed dungeons where I had most characters low on health for the whole dungeon, but never died, because when they reached 0 HP and were on the verge of dying, I would restore 1 HP to all of them, and they would soldier on). That, or a party of mostly melee combatants.
This game sure makes you pay, badly, for your poor choices.

FunktionJCB said:

The game is indeed hard. I also struggled a bit (and still do occasionally), you just have to find a working combination of characters. I have found that having a character with healing abilities is half-way to success (I completed dungeons where I had most characters low on health for the whole dungeon, but never died, because when they reached 0 HP and where on the verge of dying, I would restore 1 HP to all of them, and they would soldier on). That, or a party of mostly melee combatants.
This game sure makes you pay, badly, for your poor choices.

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Truthfully most of the failing has been to random crits followed by a dot deathblow. The healer can always get you back to 1 hp but really most of the problems have been crit rolls.

I have rolled over the dungeon a few times using 2 melee and 2 healers.

irongamer said:

The game itself is very difficult, or I haven't figured it out yet.

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Probably the latter or the basics of turn based gameplay are not known.

FunktionJCB said:

On a side note, I'll repeat what I previously posted: this is an unusually polished early-access release.
And I just can't get enough of the overall "mood" and quality presentation of the game: from the great graphic style, soundtrack, Gothic writing and narration. As soon as I started playing it, I had no doubts the final release will be a quality title.

Click to expand...

Indeed and the failing gameplay destroys most of it

This early-access release feels like a "proper" game at this stage, in terms of content (there are games currently on Steam that will certainly last you much less), so when all tweaks are made, and the missing dungeons/content (including the main dungeon, the actual Darkest Dungeon) are inserted into the game, this title will be something special.

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The title has nothing special: it is old school in mind. The requirement to prepare to an uneven challenge is old school.

It goes beyond tweaks though. As shown by the string of patching, they are drifting from the initial intent that you must fail in order to succeed later to the more usually liked by players approach that you must avoid failure at all costs.

Later on, it gives DD strange vibes.

Dungeons are unchallenging at the moment and can be used to restore sanity to party members.
The developpers went for a pyramidal scheme, though, that, once, coupled with the unchallenging dungeons that make so unlikely to lose an adventure, gives an artificial turn to the progression of the roster.

Adventures move up to three ranks: apprentice, veteran, champion.
Once they reach a superior rank, it is no longer possible to field them for dungeon of the lower rank. Veterans do not accept to explore apprentice level dungeons.

It creates a pyramidal scheme as the progression of the higher level is fed by the progression of the lower level.
Adventurers get their promotion unevenly as they join the hamlet at a different time.

Without proper care, the player encounters situations when they run out of adventurers to field.
For example, once the roster is full, as some point, the player might have only three apprentices to field. As only parties of four might explore dungeons, it means that the apprentice level dungeons are no longer available.
Various solutions like for example getting an apprentice to join a veteran expedition, at the cost of extra stress and inadequate efficiency that might endanger all the other aventurers. This also does not solve the fact that apprentice level dungeons are no longer available.

Another solution, more appropriate, is to dismiss adventurers to make some room for a new entry. Who to get rid of? Apprentices are out of question since you have run out of this type to feed the pyramidal scheme.
Champions are out of the question as they took effort to build and are close to exit from the top (and therefore make room for the bottom)
The guys in the middle, the veterans, are the adventurers to dismiss.

This leads to a totally artificial loop: raising adventurers up to veterans level to feed the progression of the higher level, to be dismissed so you can get room to have access to apprentice level dungeons.
Through multiple upgrages of the hamlet, the process also costs less and less.

This loop would feel less artificial if the loss was not self inflicted and came from exploring dungeons.

Nevertheless, this pyramidal scheme and what it takes to keep feeding it,even if strange, is interesting in itself.