Darkest Dungeon

Nintendo World ReportNeal Ronaghan

9/10

Even while wading through some minor issues, Darkest Dungeon is enthralling. Even if I crave sunshine and rainbows after spending too much time in this world, it sticks in the back of my mind and I idly think about what team I’ll put together to try to mount my next dungeon crawl. It’s a dark and gloomy game, but the overall blend of combat, exploration, and town management adds up to a fantastic gameplay loop that sucks away time as you try to outwit the deadly creatures and obstructions all around the darkest dungeon.

GameSpaceWilliam Murphy

9/10

I can’t recommend Darkest Dungeon enough. Its hallway crawling, madness suffering, darkness fighting, dungeon romping is some of the best RPG play I’ve had in recent years. The game shines on the Switch, despite a few minor setbacks in the font and controls. If you’re a veteran of the game or have never tried it, put it on your want list because Darkest Dungeon is very easily added to the Switch’s growing list of “Best Games”.

GameSpewMark Sammut

9/10

There is very little to criticise about Darkest Dungeon. It does lag at times, which can be frustrating, and the battle system could be a tad faster (although this would take away from the gruelling experience that they’re clearly meant to be). Perhaps the biggest problem for me is the RNG system, where too much of everything is influenced by a random invisible throw of the dice. Especially on harder levels, when suddenly your heroes seem to decide that actually getting a hit in is not all that important. It is a small nitpick, but it adds some artificial difficulty that the game really did no...

XboxEraJesse 'Doncabesa' Norris

8.4/10

Bug-wise I had only one, on Steam with cloud saves.  A few times the game simply would not cloud save after playing on Steam Deck, thankfully that never happened with the Xbox version even if I tried jumping between consoles to play it.  It runs great on Xbox and controls well with a pad.  You can play it entirely with your mouse or via touch on PC if you want as the team did a great job of making it feel right no matter what input you use.

RPGSiteElizabeth Henges

8/10

Darkest Dungeon is a tough turn-based RPG that does not pull its punches. However, its punishing gameplay has you coming back for more.

Nintendo LifeJon Mundy

8/10

Darkest Dungeon has always been an RPG that finds ways to make life uncomfortable for the player, and this Switch version manages to add a couple of usability issues to that list. However, this remains a dauntingly deep, thoroughly absorbing dungeon crawler that will swallow you up for hours at a time.

RPGamerZack Webster

The Darkest Dungeon may seem scary, but all the witnesses who say so are unreliably insane. The fact that these people were all perfectly sane before entering is surely just coincidence.

Playstation LifestyleKeri Honea

8/10

Many of us joke that what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger when it comes to stress. Darkest Dungeon actually incorporates that into every fiber of its being. When you send your chosen party of four to crawl through a dungeon, you may think of how they come out of the abysmal place with a limp who will never adventure again. But you’ve never had to think about the level of stress they’ve been put under. How a certain fight might have tested their resolve. How, perhaps, a dire situation changed them for the worse. Or on the flip-side, how a triumphant situation improved their morale to the...

Steam Deck HQNoah Kupetsky

7/10

Darkest Dungeon 2 is a fantastic roguelike that excels in a multitude of ways, but has some issues on the Steam Deck. I would hold off for a little, but if you can't wait, this is still playable with compromises!

COGConnectedRyan Tessier

70/100

Darkest Dungeon is a punishing experience, one that can be consumed for no more than a few hours at a time before an overwhelming sense of despair and loss takes over, much like the characters whose fates you control. I can’t think of a single game that has left me so utterly hopeless and defeated, and that includes any of the Dark Souls series.

TechRaptorJason English

6/10

Darkest Dungeon is hard. Very, very hard. As someone who rarely plays dungeon crawling games, it was quite difficult for myself to find enjoyment out of this. While there is a great deal of satisfaction to be had in defeating some of the more grueling battles, the amount of frustration had in its grueling difficulty spikes and random encounters does make it a difficult title to recommend.

StartMenuAngus Law

Unscored

I might sound negative in this critique, but that is only because I enjoy so much what the game was trying to do. In fact, I’ve really had a great time with Darkest Dungeon 2 so far, and will likely forge on to the end of the game. However, I do worry that once I have sunk to the depths of The Mountain for the last time, I won’t come back to it, or think about it as much as I did its predecessor. Darkest Dungeon 2 does not lack content or challenge though, so I guess I should keep my thoughts on the road, and the near-insurmountable tasks along it.