Darkest Dungeon
Feb 1, 2015 10:09:42 GMT -5
Post by Garamoth on Feb 1, 2015 10:09:42 GMT -5
Gah, I've been binge playing this game pretty hard yesterday, and now I lost two of my best guys (forever!). I should probably give it a bit of a rest. Hard game is Hard! You don't know the things I've seen, man (God, not the vomit piggies NOOOO! AAAAAHHH!). So here's me writing about the game instead.
Status effects are everywhere. I don't think there's a single class or enemy that can't inflict at least one. But as far as combat is concerned, the game innovates in two aspects: party positions and stress.
Party positions are nothing new, but it's a bit more involved than Wizardry. Most skills can only be used in certain positions, which creates three archetypes. "Back" classes can take the last two spot, "Front" the two front ones and "Middle", well, the two spots in the middle. Enemies can mess with your positions (push/pull "debuffs") and an ambush scrambles your party. An ambushed party is often paralysed and can quickly become dead meat as you waste turns moving your guys around while being pummeled. The possible chaos every battle can bring does make enemy setups you've seen dozen of times still seem fresh, however.
Some classes are more flexible than others and you can select which 4 skills out of their repertoire each hero brings into combat. Do you want more skills to use from your preferred position or something in case of an emergency? Raw damage or buffs/debuffs? For example, the Vestal (cleric) can be tweaked for both the front and back row, although she's pretty squishy for the front lines. Some characters even move around when attacking, like the wildcard Jester. I find those annoying (I like my dudes to stay put), but I can see someone making a good party out of them, especially if it's less prone to paralysis when scrambled.
The real star is, of course, the stress system. Characters randomly pick up good and bad minor traits. Some are minor permanent buffs/debuffs, some force interaction with dangerous dungeon items (ooh, me wanna look at nice rusty iron maiden... OUCH!) and some make your dudes harder to treat. Bad quirks can be "treated" with some time off in the mental hospital.
The real deal is stress, a stat that goes from 0-100 and can mostly be reduced by giving your character a week off doing some (paid) activity. Once a character's stress level reaches 100, they are "tested". They usually get one super-debuff until they are treated: either they stress out the others, or they start skipping turns, or they run around the ranks, or refuse healing, etc. That's usually when all hell breaks loose. BUT WAIT, sometimes a max stress character rises up to the occasion and instead gets a super-buff. Seeing a character find courage under adversity is easily the best part of the game, in my opinion.
Juggling characters can become complicated: you need to build a party without the dudes relieving stress or having their head checked AND keep an eye on your finances. The ONLY stat experience levels directly influence is stress, which goes up more slowly for veterans. On the other hand, upgrades are level-dependant, which are the real stat increases, but it's still a nice touch.
The game is obviously not quite complete (10/16 classes available, 3/5 areas complete), but it's not particularly buggy and you can safely get 20 hours worth of content out of it. It does still need a bit of time in the oven, however, especially since everything seems a little bit too dependant on the Elder Gods of random number generation. Randomness is part of the formula, but some tweaks (less useless accessories, a better idea of the turn order and your chances to escape battle) would make good tactics more rewarding and give a bit more control over the proceedings... or at least the illusion of it. MWAHAHAHA!
Status effects are everywhere. I don't think there's a single class or enemy that can't inflict at least one. But as far as combat is concerned, the game innovates in two aspects: party positions and stress.
Party positions are nothing new, but it's a bit more involved than Wizardry. Most skills can only be used in certain positions, which creates three archetypes. "Back" classes can take the last two spot, "Front" the two front ones and "Middle", well, the two spots in the middle. Enemies can mess with your positions (push/pull "debuffs") and an ambush scrambles your party. An ambushed party is often paralysed and can quickly become dead meat as you waste turns moving your guys around while being pummeled. The possible chaos every battle can bring does make enemy setups you've seen dozen of times still seem fresh, however.
Some classes are more flexible than others and you can select which 4 skills out of their repertoire each hero brings into combat. Do you want more skills to use from your preferred position or something in case of an emergency? Raw damage or buffs/debuffs? For example, the Vestal (cleric) can be tweaked for both the front and back row, although she's pretty squishy for the front lines. Some characters even move around when attacking, like the wildcard Jester. I find those annoying (I like my dudes to stay put), but I can see someone making a good party out of them, especially if it's less prone to paralysis when scrambled.
The real star is, of course, the stress system. Characters randomly pick up good and bad minor traits. Some are minor permanent buffs/debuffs, some force interaction with dangerous dungeon items (ooh, me wanna look at nice rusty iron maiden... OUCH!) and some make your dudes harder to treat. Bad quirks can be "treated" with some time off in the mental hospital.
The real deal is stress, a stat that goes from 0-100 and can mostly be reduced by giving your character a week off doing some (paid) activity. Once a character's stress level reaches 100, they are "tested". They usually get one super-debuff until they are treated: either they stress out the others, or they start skipping turns, or they run around the ranks, or refuse healing, etc. That's usually when all hell breaks loose. BUT WAIT, sometimes a max stress character rises up to the occasion and instead gets a super-buff. Seeing a character find courage under adversity is easily the best part of the game, in my opinion.
Juggling characters can become complicated: you need to build a party without the dudes relieving stress or having their head checked AND keep an eye on your finances. The ONLY stat experience levels directly influence is stress, which goes up more slowly for veterans. On the other hand, upgrades are level-dependant, which are the real stat increases, but it's still a nice touch.
The game is obviously not quite complete (10/16 classes available, 3/5 areas complete), but it's not particularly buggy and you can safely get 20 hours worth of content out of it. It does still need a bit of time in the oven, however, especially since everything seems a little bit too dependant on the Elder Gods of random number generation. Randomness is part of the formula, but some tweaks (less useless accessories, a better idea of the turn order and your chances to escape battle) would make good tactics more rewarding and give a bit more control over the proceedings... or at least the illusion of it. MWAHAHAHA!