Recent reviews by Issy

Very high production value. Love everything about it.

Very impressive for a free game. I hope to see more from the developers.

I bought this when the Steam Summer 2016 sale was on however I had it in my wishlist for quite some time expecting to pay full price when things got calmer irl.

I bought it so my fiancee and I could play together and because I remember playing the arcade version and falling in love with it.

My fiancee doesn't play games at all other than a few Match-3s on her phone. She was hooked by Gauntlet and bugged me to play. We managed to get 6 hours in on one day and that is from a woman who doesn't really have much interest in games anymore.

If you have a friend to play with locally this game is absolutely amazing. The difficulty pushes the casual player to want to continue and kick some ass. The outcome from playing that impressed me the most is the drive from my fiancee to beat a failed stage even though we got our asses handed to us. This is often not the case with casual gamers who will generally quit once thing seem too difficult. She was determined to continue to finish a dungeon.

The graphics are amazing although if you're playing on a TV (Steam Link, as we were), it's incredibly easy to lose sight of your character. Your character is incredibly small when not playing solo in front of a PC screen which does unfortunately cause us to sit uncomfortably close to the TV screen and even then it is naturally hard to see where you character is in the midst of combat. Unfortunately changing the resolution of the game does not remedy this and will only scale down the entire image and not 'expand' like most games will.

If you are looking for a game you can play with someone sitting on your couch, this is most definately one of the best you'll ever find.

They have done the Gauntlet title well with the release of this game.

I recently purchased Darkest Dungeon and I haven't been able to stop playing it.

Before I write my review I wish to state that there are far too many negative reviews that are completely unjustified. Yes, the game is unforgiving however it is nothing like what the other reviewers have stated.

A lot of the people complaining are the same crowd as the 'casuals' you find in other games suggesting changes to allow them to 'win more often'. For example, "“Some traps for example are not visible and will just hit you without any counter option (but luck as in dodge)”. The traps become visible if you have 'scouted' the map. I have 112 hours at the moment and I do not lose any heroes at all (your heroes have permanent death) and I have a full roster of heroes of every class. I can only imagine that the people who are finding the game incredibly difficult are struggling to understand the mechanics of the game. You will see below as to why it is identical to the 'casuals' you often find in other games.

People are a complaining about balance changes. For example, "“The developers … seem to be haphazardly throwing illogical and badly though-out game altering patches (sometimes game breaking in terms of fun)”. People were just AoE'ing enemy characters to death, removing any skill from the game as players could kill the enemy characters before they could even react. This was changed so you couldn't just 'no skill' AoE mobs down and people are complaining about this. People were double and triple stacking classes because of this and just mindlessly using the same AoE abilities (You can see this in YouTube videos before the changes). Know the abilities, choose classes that compliment each other and play smartly; this is how the game should be, right?

The other complaints is that everything is too expensive. For example, "Players who came into this new update with their towns half finished and their parties mostly set up will be fine, but if you're just starting out, the unforgiving gold deficit will keep you in crippling poverty and grind progress to such a slow and repetitive crawl".

I started after the patch and although I dont have a huge amount of gold, my whole roster is upgraded to the max levels. Previously it was absolutely ridiculous and you never had to worry about how to spend your gold. It was just an unnecessary resource as you made an insane amount of gold and it cost nothing to upgrade skills/abilities, armour/weapons or use 'stress recovery' options for your heroes. Gold must be a reward for completing a dungeon and you should have to spend it wisely, not sit with it in thousands and never have to make a decision on how to spend it.

People in the Steam reviews have used the cliched "it is not polished enough" which is the complete opposite of the truth. I do not think you will find many games as polished as this where the passion of the developers shine in their work.
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Review:
Darkest Dungeon to me has been a refreshing experience. It features the narration of Wayne June in the most unique way I've ever encountered in a game. The narrator will essentially comment on the combat pushing the sound design from Darkest Dungeon to a new level. When you land a critical hit, Mr June will make you feel it.

Graphics:
The game has a very dark art style to it. Everything is very well drawn. The creatures are hideous (in a good way) which adds to the dark theme of the game.

Sound:
There has been no cost spared in sound design. As someone with a degree in Music Production, Sound Design and Music Business, I really have a lot of appreciation for what they have done here. As mentioned there is the narration of your combat, but the amount of sounds they have created for the skills, which sound really good, is unbelievable. They all sound like the ability should. They have even gone as far to make unique sounds for when the abilities fail. Monster sounds are just as scary as the monsters are gruesome, making it easy to immerse oneself.

Gameplay:
I see the Steam reviews are saying the game is unbalanced and too difficult. I find the game to be almost perfectly balanced, if not too easy. I have 2 final bosses to finish and I have not wiped or died on any of the final bosses so far. I find the AI is a bit too forgiving where it could have got a kill it instead attacked a hero with more health.

The game uses a unique system that when you get to 0 hp, you reach the status of 'Deaths Door'. You then do resist checks against attacks and if it fails, you receive a 'Deathblow' and that hero dies permanently. This is unforgiving however you have the option to retreat from combat and the dungeon if it is not going your way, which you should be as doing.

Overall:
One of the most unique games I've ever played and I only hope the developers look past the negative Steam reviews because this game is absolutely a diamond in the rough; a complete winner in my eyes.

It is being released in January 2016 I believe however I feel that the game is already complete and I have not once felt like it was an 'Early Access Game'

I'm not really into rogue-type games however FTL has me hooked.

I've got about 300+ hours in the game as I first bought it and started playing it on my fiance's account.

The soundtrack is amazing and it's easy to get lost in one's imagination as you jump from beacon to beacon.