By: Declan Hertel Entertainment Editor
I like my games to hurt.
I have no interest in waltzing through a modern “press A to win” game. I don’t want to be told I’m great just because I sat down and pressed start. I want to be tasked with proving it.
The booming market for indie games has begun to supply me with the beat downs I crave, and one of my favorite entries in the “brutal-difficulty-as-fun” genre just got a full-release on January 19 after a very long period of early access: Red Hook Studio’s debut game, “Darkest Dungeon.”
“Darkest Dungeon” casts you as the heir to a gothic mansion (and all the dungeons and catacombs beneath it) that happens to be infested with all manner of creepy creatures. To take ownership of the house, you must recruit adventurers from all over and send them into the depths to clear out the beasties.
The game is an interesting mash-up of genres: the main meat of the gameplay comes from sending parties of adventurers into the randomly generated dungeons, and the game plays out like a standard RPG. But it also shares some similarity with sports simulation, wherein you have a roster of “players” you can outfit and upgrade to better fight the monsters below.
In addition to the physical damage your men will take, “Darkest Dungeon” is unique in presenting the psychological toll that confronting horrifying abominations bound to take on your heroes. Heroes have a meter that represents their mental health and letting the stress pile up as you adventure may just drive them insane, causing them to desert, cower, or even attack their compatriots. The small hamlet outside the mansion has all manner of amenities to help your adventurers regain their heads, for a price.
“Darkest Dungeon” is a fantastic example of subtle innovation in video games; it mashes mechanics old and brand new together with an unlikely genre combination and puts it all in a beautifully dark environment. Instead of trying to create something totally unique, they created a great game that feels familiar, yet does things no one has even tried before. I love it.
“Darkest Dungeon” can be purchased from darkestdungeon.com through the Steam platform.
