So, what is Darkest Dungeon? If you haven’t heard of it during its craze, it’s a punishing dungeon crawler with an aesthetic and thematic that is very much influenced by lovecraftian fiction. That is a moment that will stay with me for a long time and one that describes how Darkest Dungeon feels for most of the time you’ll spend with it.

I took some time to let it sink in and glanced at my roster knowing I would soon have to pick four other unlucky souls to return to the place from which we had barely escaped. I was desperately clicking the retreat button only to manage to pull out with one remaining party member who, from that day onward, would refuse to step into an Abbey in order to relieve stress. A fourth member was bleeding intensely and I had run out of bandages. The two whose minds had been affected by what they had seen succumbed to heart attacks. Little did I know that two turns later, the Shambler’s attacks would cause a third member of my party to become abusive towards the others. Seeing it almost at half HP after the first round of combat strengthened my resolve. I had begun my journey in the Darkest Dungeon not so long before and in a moment of false courage, spurred on by naivety I decided to fight the being. Seconds later, my party, who had met bandits and skeletons as part of their very first combat experience were faced with the Shambler, an eldritch being from a different dimension. The thing offered the promise of the void to those who’d place a torch on it. My highwayman, who was least affected by stress, investigated it carefully. Advancing, I came up to a spike-covered tentacle gripping a red orb. Two members were halfway to feeling insanity’s touch, but there were few rooms left to clear before they could return to my hamlet with whatever spoils they were to find. Taking a while to bandage up wounds, eat something to restore a small portion of health and check on my party’s mental state was mandatory. I had just dispatched a pack of bandits that left their mark on my party of four.

Darkest dungeon affliction sound effect