There are a lot of hard games out there, and they have existed for a very long time. Being ‘hard’ is the sole basis of some games which make you learn the rigid, immovable rules provided, punishing you for every indiscretion. Darkest Dungeon is one of these games, and believe me when I say it is infuriatingly difficult. I have been punished for my curiosity more times than I care to mention, populating the in-game graveyard with heroes and heroines as quick as I hire them.

 

Darkest Dungeon is a turn based RPG, tasking you with ridding a haunted mansion of its ghouls and monsters. Heroes and Heroines of various classes volunteer to help, usually succumbing to the dark void of perma-death, leaving space for some new fresh faced maniacs to dive head first into death. You take four heroes from your roster of 20 on each quest to rid a section of the mansion of evil, kitting them out with latest and greatest weaponry with gold looted from previous ventures.

 

What sets this apart from other games of its difficult ilk is the bleak, soul destroying pessimism surrounding it. You will fail, and Darkest Dungeon will actively promote that. Most challenging games offer some kind of silver lining, trying to push you on before bringing the hammer down. Not in Darkest Dungeon. From the moment you set off on a quest, death, pain, and mental illness grasp at your gang of heroes desperate to kill them and crush your spirit.

 

And I love it.

 

Darkest Dungeon isn’t about the repetitive nature of failure in order to succeed. Well, it is. Just like Dark Souls, you learn something from every loss and you use your new knowledge to turn the tide in your favour. Darkest Dungeon, however, is also about the gentle (or sometimes sudden) descent into disaster.

 

Whilst you venture through the grounds of a forgotten and haunted mansion with the aim to rid the place of evil, your four chosen adventurers will undergo battles with monsters, traps, and hunger. Your job is to guide them through their adventures safely without letting them die or losing their minds. Alongside physical health, your heroes rock a stress meter, which once maxed out renders them with one of a selection of mental afflictions, causing them to abuse their counterparts, attack them, or even self-harm. If you max it out a second time, they will take their own life.

 

This soul destroying mechanic introduces a damage minimisation method of questing. You can’t just barrel your way through your enemies, succeeding by the skin of your teeth and wander home to heal. Quests mentally scar your heroes in horrific ways, so second to second management is sorely required for victory. On the other hand, ferocity is required when questing. Enemies are more than evenly matched for you and they will show very little in the way of mercy. Monsters need to be dispatched quickly and efficiently, in order to preserve your health and sanity.

 

To go back to the Dark Souls comparison, Darkest Dungeon is even MORE bleak than From Software’s cult success. Dark Souls keeps throwing, for a lack of a better term, shit at you left, right, and centre. But there is still a defiant bravado that carries you through. As you approach a boss that has killed you before, you still believe that this effort will be successful. In Darkest Dungeon, that confidence is butchered from the moment you start your adventure. As you move through the grounds of the haunted castle you hope to restore, hunger weakens you, your torch fades, and your heroes stress.

 

Even walking adds to your heroes stress bar, constantly hinting to the fact that this could be their last journey through the halls of the haunted crypt. As your torch fades, more powerful monsters emerge from the dark, fully intent on eating your heroes’ face. And the darker it gets, the more stress walking does. It’s a draining and demented circle of misery.

 

It is an absolute certainty that the developers, Red Hook Studios, have completed their goal of making a hard game; there is no denying that. It could also be said, however, that the difficulty may have crossed the line for most to handle. I love a hard game, but Darkest Dungeon takes it to the extreme. I have made very little progress in the hours I have delved into it, and have little to show for it, apart from a virtual and overflowing graveyard for my fallen. Everyone loves a challenge, but it feels a bit too challenging for my liking. Heroes die like death is going out of fashion, and if you lose your strongest heroes mid-game, you might as well start again. Quests become too hard to train new heroes from level one, and you become stuck.

 

I am sure there will be people out there who the unforgiving difficulty. I can see past it, as the game is pretty much built around it, and it no doubt adds to the theme of desolate, horrific, and impending doom. It’s like if Final Fantasy had a low budget baby with Dark Souls. There is plenty of promise in this Steam Early access game, and I do highly recommend checking it out before its release in January. And if you do, good luck. You will most certainly need it.