Every step in the dungeons and blighted wilderness evokes tension and dread.Ĭriticisms of this game are often that it’s too soul crushingly difficult. Woodcuts pressed into deep India ink and washed in murky color – their actions animate in striking freeze frame. Heroes aren’t rendered so much as they are captured at a moment in time. But it’s been years since I’ve been so taken in by a game.Ītmospherically, the artwork, the narration tells a grim and engaging story.

The surrounding lands tainted, they explore the immediate vicinity for clues, powerful magic items, and the resolve to fight ever greater perils.ĭarkest Dungeon was released in 2016, so I admit to being, once again, late to the party. Heroes first arrive at a hamlet in the shadow of the narrator’s formerly glorious estate. The forces they encounter are the festering spawn unleashed by the greed of a family ancestor and his need to plumb the depths of a dungeon for wealth and power. Leper knights and agile Grave Robbers join with mysterious Occultists and meek souls with Abominations chained to their hearts. Granted, these aren’t the shining knights and dashing rogues of fairy tales. Those who do, will walk away broken and scarred. When adventurers are carted in by the wagon load to stem the tide of an unspeakable malevolence, can it still be called heroism?ĭarkest Dungeon tries to answer that question as you, the overseer of a small hamlet send band after band of hopeful faces into the maw of evil. Clinging to the very edge of your sanity. But then there are the horrific monsters. Heroism paved by Sacrifice – The Darkest Dungeon Reviewīraving the depths of a dungeon to drag out hidden treasures and lost secrets is supposed to be the pinnacle of fantasy heroics. Home › Articles › Gaming › Heroism paved by Sacrifice – The Darkest Dungeon Review

Darkest dungeon narrator hamlet