Game News Darkest Dungeon Released

[Infinitron]

Tags: Darkest Dungeon; Red Hook Studios

Back in 2014, stylish dungeon crawling roguelite Darkest Dungeon was one of the Codex community's most anticipated titles. But after it was released on Early Access in February 2015, dissenting whispers began to be heard. Not enough content. Shallow, grindy mechanics. Too much randomness. And then there was that nonsense about corpses. Things really came to a head when disgruntled modder Celerity found his way to our forums in November, turning our Darkest Dungeon thread into his latest platform for crusading against the perfidious dev team. Some were convinced to abandon all hope in the game. For others, such zeal actually provoked a backlash. Whatever your opinion, the true test of Darkest Dungeon's worth begins today. Here's its release trailer and description:

Darkest Dungeon is a challenging gothic roguelike turn-based RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring.

Recruit, train, and lead a team of flawed heroes through twisted forests, forgotten warrens, ruined crypts, and beyond. You'll battle not only unimaginable foes, but stress, famine, disease, and the ever-encroaching dark. Uncover strange mysteries, and pit the heroes against an array of fearsome monsters with an innovative strategic turn-based combat system.

• The Affliction System – battle not only monsters, but stress! Contend with paranoia, masochism, fear, irrationality, and a host of gameplay-meaningful quirks!
  
• Striking hand-drawn gothic crowquill art style
  
• Innovative turn-based combat pits you against a host of diabolical monsters
  
• Narration system to celebrate your successes...and failures
  
• 14 (and counting!) playable hero classes, including Plague Doctor, Hellion, and even the Leper!
  
• Camp to heal wounds or deliver inspiring speeches.
  
• Rest your weary, shell-shocked characters in town at the Tavern or the Abbey to keep their stress in check.
  
• Classic CRPG and roguelike features, including meaningful permadeath, procedural dungeons, and incredible replay

Can you stem the tide of eldritch horrors erupting across your family’s ancestral estate?

Descend at your peril!
​

Darkest Dungeon is now available for the price of $25 on Steam and GOG, with a 20% launch discount until next month. Post your verdict in the comments if you're playing it!

 

[likaq]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/262060/discussions/0/458606248640750001/

steam, steam never changes

 

[Hoaxmetal]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/262060/discussions/0/458606248640750001/

steam, steam never changes

It's not rare for EA/Beta versions to be cheaper than release version.

 

[likaq]

It's not rare for EA/Beta versions to be cheaper than release version.

Yes, but that was not my point.
It is yet another thread on steam with butthurt about price.

 

[Durandal]

It's not rare for EA/Beta versions to be cheaper than release version.

Yes, but that was not my point.
It is yet another thread on steam with butthurt about price.

people are prepared to shell over 60 bucks for 7-15 hour games like Farcry 3 and Fallout 4, yet when an arcade SHMUP asks 40 bucks for a branching story mode that takes upwards to twenty hours+ to complete PLUS having an arcade mode you can 1cc in multiple routes all to your hearts' extent together with friends, it is overpriced
Anything that isn't AAA isn't worth over 15 bucks for these people. Cheap indie games on sales have ruined everyone's standards for the content-price ratio.

Also, why are we hating on Darkest Dungeon again? Fill me in on the circlejerk.

 

[The Avatar]

people are prepared to shell over 60 bucks for 7-15 hour games like Farcry 3 and Fallout 4, yet when an arcade SHMUP asks 40 bucks for a branching story mode that takes upwards to twenty hours+ to complete PLUS having an arcade mode you can 1cc in multiple routes all to your hearts' extent together with friends, it is overpriced
Anything that isn't AAA isn't worth over 15 bucks for these people. Cheap indie games on sales have ruined everyone's standards for the content-price ratio.

Also, why are we hating on Darkest Dungeon again? Fill me in on the circlejerk.

It's a matter of the economics of supply and demand. Cheap indie games are priced cheaply because there are a ton of them out there(because they cost less to make, and the developers have less to lose). AAA games are expensive because console peasants create a huge demand for these AAA games- and there's less of them out there compared to masses of indie games. Not to mention that they have to pay an entire studio's worth of developers salaries, plus the fat cat CEO's at EA and Activision.

 

[Jaesun]

In before Celerity butthurt/DRAMA

 

[Mustawd]

Celerity. This thread is relevant to your interests. Proselytize away my good man tranny.

 

[sser]

Would like to thank Celerity for his recommendations. Bought a few extra copies for my friends and I've already dumped over a hundred hours into it. The gameplay is impossibly good and expertly designed.

 

[vealck]

Ah, DD. I was in love in its art style, setting and interesting premise from the day I saw it on Kickstarter. Bought it the very first day of EA.
But the actual gameplay turned out to be something like masochistically rolling over and over a dice that you well know was loaded against you.
And that's pretty much everything to it: click to roll the dice. Get unlucky 9 out of 10 times. Rinse and repeat.
I wonder if anyone with actual job has time for this bullshit, because it hardly can be called 'playing'. There's almost no difference between doing that yourself and watching someone else doing it on YT. (inb4 sex vs. porn reference)

 

[CrustyBot]

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Areanynamesnottaken/recommended/262060/

Heh.

 

[Mustawd]

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Areanynamesnottaken/recommended/262060/

Heh.

1,337 hours on record.

 

[Infinitron]

Wow, he's got an entire private discussion forum in there.

 

[Seethe]

Dankest Garbage

 

[Celerity]

Yooooooooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu rang?

What more even needs be added at that point? You want a review, someone's already linked it. The game is out from behind its Early Access shield and is getting roasted alive. People spiting themselves and buying worthless games doesn't change that and certainly does not hurt me. They're still corrupt, censoring, suicidal indie devs. Hell, they perma banned someone and deleted all of his posts like 2 hours after release. Go ahead, search for Steam user Naskoni. You won't find him outside of quotes.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=604393506

 

[Zombra]

Oh shit! I forgot all about this with all the Dragon's Dogma good times. Looking forward to hitting it again, I liked what I saw in EA.

 

[shadow9d9]

It's not rare for EA/Beta versions to be cheaper than release version.

Yes, but that was not my point.
It is yet another thread on steam with butthurt about price.

people are prepared to shell over 60 bucks for 7-15 hour games like Farcry 3 and Fallout 4, yet when an arcade SHMUP asks 40 bucks for a branching story mode that takes upwards to twenty hours+ to complete PLUS having an arcade mode you can 1cc in multiple routes all to your hearts' extent together with friends, it is overpriced
Anything that isn't AAA isn't worth over 15 bucks for these people. Cheap indie games on sales have ruined everyone's standards for the content-price ratio.

Also, why are we hating on Darkest Dungeon again? Fill me in on the circlejerk.

No game truly costs $60. Every game at that price has 20-25% off both preorders and early on via GMG. I hate when people repeat the $60 nonsense.

 

[Celerity]

Yeah and most drop 50% or more in the first 6 months anyways. Even Witcher 3 can be gotten 55% off very easily.

 

[Seethe]

It's not rare for EA/Beta versions to be cheaper than release version.

Yes, but that was not my point.
It is yet another thread on steam with butthurt about price.

people are prepared to shell over 60 bucks for 7-15 hour games like Farcry 3 and Fallout 4, yet when an arcade SHMUP asks 40 bucks for a branching story mode that takes upwards to twenty hours+ to complete PLUS having an arcade mode you can 1cc in multiple routes all to your hearts' extent together with friends, it is overpriced
Anything that isn't AAA isn't worth over 15 bucks for these people. Cheap indie games on sales have ruined everyone's standards for the content-price ratio.

Also, why are we hating on Darkest Dungeon again? Fill me in on the circlejerk.

No game truly costs $60. Every game at that price has 20-25% off both preorders and early on via GMG. I hate when people repeat the $60 nonsense.

"Buy our game before you realize it's crap." The game costs 60 bucks. It doesn't matter if it costed less before, the fact is that the game now costs 60$.

 

[duanth123]

Back in 2014, stylish dungeon crawling roguelite Darkest Dungeon was one of the Codex community's most anticipated titles. But after it was released on Early Access in February 2015, dissenting whispers began to be heard. Not enough content. Shallow, grindy mechanics. Too much randomness. And then there was that nonsense about corpses. Things really came to a head when disgruntled modder Celerity found his way to our forums in November, turning our Darkest Dungeon thread into his latest platform for crusading against the perfidious dev team. Some were convinced to abandon all hope in the game. For others, such zeal actually provoked a backlash. Whatever your opinion, the true test of Darkest Dungeon's worth begins today. Here's its release trailer and description:

This is embarrassing, even for you Infinitron. You just have to wedge in some pro-developer angle, even to the extent of attacking a forum member in an official news post and characterizing a reaction to a major dev decision as "nonsense". Why don't you let others make up their own minds? You should be posting news, asshole, not your opinions as some unofficial codex consensus

 

[commie]

Well it was recommended by the Watch. As good a reason to ignore it as any....

 

[CrustyBot]

So what exactly was the problem about corpses anyway? I haven't played since I think the corpse/houndmaster update. I never had a problem with the concept, just they were far too tanky in the version I played. I hated how corpses were sometimes more difficult to remove than the enemies they once were. They really should only have 1-3 HP and go down to almost any attack. But as a means of prolonging battles and helping enemy groups to hold formation for an extra turn or two, I don't mind the concept. Momentum swings in the game are pretty noticeable, so I would assume the idea is to stall the player's momentum temporarily and give enemy groups a better fighting chance. Was it that big of a deal, did they make it worse or something?

 

[Metro]

The game isn't that good. All polish and presentation and little substance to keep playing past the ten or so hour mark.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

Also please stop letting them pull that "roguelike" bullshit. Permadeath for party members is not roguelike. The random dungeon generation is the most superficial thing I've ever seen.

The affliction system is good on paper, but, like many things in the game, it becomes just a cosmetic applied to buffs and debuffs.

It's not a terrible game, just superficial. But it is certainly not a hardcore, roguelike rpg by any means.

 

[Celerity]

Back in 2014, stylish dungeon crawling roguelite Darkest Dungeon was one of the Codex community's most anticipated titles. But after it was released on Early Access in February 2015, dissenting whispers began to be heard. Not enough content. Shallow, grindy mechanics. Too much randomness. And then there was that nonsense about corpses. Things really came to a head when disgruntled modder Celerity found his way to our forums in November, turning our Darkest Dungeon thread into his latest platform for crusading against the perfidious dev team. Some were convinced to abandon all hope in the game. For others, such zeal actually provoked a backlash. Whatever your opinion, the true test of Darkest Dungeon's worth begins today. Here's its release trailer and description:

This is embarrassing, even for you Infinitron. You just have to wedge in some pro-developer angle, even to the extent of attacking a forum member in an official news post and characterizing a reaction to a major dev decision as "nonsense". Why don't you let others make up their own minds? You should be posting news, asshole, not your opinions as some unofficial codex consensus

So what exactly was the problem about corpses anyway? I haven't played since I think the corpse/houndmaster update. I never had a problem with the concept, just they were far too tanky in the version I played. I hated how corpses were sometimes more difficult to remove than the enemies they once were. They really should only have 1-3 HP and go down to almost any attack. But as a means of prolonging battles and helping enemy groups to hold formation for an extra turn or two, I don't mind the concept. Momentum swings in the game are pretty noticeable, so I would assume the idea is to stall the player's momentum temporarily and give enemy groups a better fighting chance. Was it that big of a deal, did they make it worse or something?

The meme about it is that streamers who weren't watching their screens would mindlessly attack whatever enemy was in front of them, so by adding corpses they'd be slowed down and take a bunch of extra damage. It worked - every formation ever is a front row that does nothing and a back row that does something, so the streamers were being idiots, but it worked.

Of course these devs are incompetent and do not foresee the actual impact of their design changes. The actual impact, for those with functioning minds was that damage spam was promoted as that was the quickest way of ending encounters and the best way around corpses (since the good damage classes also have relatively free targeting). So what should have been a balance fix became + tedium, + imbalance, and + strawman as well. Since now that corpses were a thing, they could say every problem with the game is corpses (even though it isn't) thereby dismissing critics. And once Jim made them make them optional, they changed the narrative so it was something like "Corpses are the only problem with the game, and are optional so all problems with the game are optional." Which isn't true either, but it cockblocks actual criticisms, as well as actual discussions about difficulty because instead of talking about actual difficulty changes it's just turn corpses on/off... Hello, they don't do anything? Common sense, calling Rekt Hook... come in Rekt Hook... Rekt Hook? Rekt Hook? REKT HOOK?!