

These are usually negative, resulting in a character becoming abusive to other party members, or unreliable in fights. First, in addition to a health level, your characters have a stress level – too much stress, and they’ll have a chance to develop a personality trait. So far, so standard, right? Well, there are some things going on that distinguish Darkest Dungeon from your standard evil labyrinth romp. You’ll outfit your party with food, torches, spades, and other tools to handle the dangers in the dungeons, which are procedurally generated and have objectives such as “explore 90 percent of rooms” or “kill all monsters.” Special dungeons will require you to slay a powerful boss creature. These you can rename, if you like, and over the course of the game it’s easy to become quite attached to them, as with veteran members of an XCOM squad. Instead, you’ll recruit traveling heroes that range from standard warriors (such as the crusader and hellion) to the weird and obscure (like the houndmaster or plague doctor).

Being the scion of the wealthy family that owned the estate, however, you’re not about to head into the caverns yourself.
