#7 - Darkest Dungeon
Developer: Red Hook Studios
Genre: RPG (with the dreaded Roguelike elements)
January 19 2016
PC, PS4, PS Vita
Darkest Dungeon was one of the Steam Early Access success stories, finally getting a 1.0 version this year followed by a lucrative (hopefully) Sony console release.
I know some people who don't dig it but, frankly, those people are WEAK. They become attached to their party of adventurers, thrust into the titular dungeon, and become sad when one of them dies. And die they will, since Darkest Dungeon's random number generator style of gameplay means that a big, ugly Cthulhu style brute will bump you on the head rather hard and rather often.
There is a learning curve, and the trick to it is to treat your adventurers like cattle. Herd them into the dungeon's abattoir and don't be surprised when the abattoir do what it do - You've got plenty of willing ... erm ... cows left over.
You'll soon find ways round most of the enemy types. They'll still kill you, just not as regularly and not as cheaply.
Darkest Dungeon's got style. Beautifully drawn characters, appropriately OTT doomy music and a narrator who must curse himself every day that Hammer Horror is no longer a thing.
The final dungeon - the darkest one, natch - is tough, so tough that I've not cracked it yet in nearly 40 hours. Other games have caught my eye but I keep getting pulled back every so often when I think of a new combination of adventurers for a party.
It's not a game for everyone, and if I don't see another Roguelike for as long as I live I'll be content, but there's enough polished fun to be had for Darkest Dungeon to easily make my top games of the year.
Death is not the end, if you own the dungeon. Those contractors you hired to clear it out?
Yeah, it's probably the end for them.
FLAPPY BIRD!
Developer: Red Hook Studios
Genre: RPG (with the dreaded Roguelike elements)
January 19 2016
PC, PS4, PS Vita
Darkest Dungeon was one of the Steam Early Access success stories, finally getting a 1.0 version this year followed by a lucrative (hopefully) Sony console release.
I know some people who don't dig it but, frankly, those people are WEAK. They become attached to their party of adventurers, thrust into the titular dungeon, and become sad when one of them dies. And die they will, since Darkest Dungeon's random number generator style of gameplay means that a big, ugly Cthulhu style brute will bump you on the head rather hard and rather often.
There is a learning curve, and the trick to it is to treat your adventurers like cattle. Herd them into the dungeon's abattoir and don't be surprised when the abattoir do what it do - You've got plenty of willing ... erm ... cows left over.
You'll soon find ways round most of the enemy types. They'll still kill you, just not as regularly and not as cheaply.
Darkest Dungeon's got style. Beautifully drawn characters, appropriately OTT doomy music and a narrator who must curse himself every day that Hammer Horror is no longer a thing.
The final dungeon - the darkest one, natch - is tough, so tough that I've not cracked it yet in nearly 40 hours. Other games have caught my eye but I keep getting pulled back every so often when I think of a new combination of adventurers for a party.
It's not a game for everyone, and if I don't see another Roguelike for as long as I live I'll be content, but there's enough polished fun to be had for Darkest Dungeon to easily make my top games of the year.
Death is not the end, if you own the dungeon. Those contractors you hired to clear it out?
Yeah, it's probably the end for them.
FLAPPY BIRD!
__________________
"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan
"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan