Darkest Dungeon was launched last week supporting only Windows and Mac. However, as per their Kickstarter promise made in early 2014, Canadian developer Red Hook Studios has now outlined their intention to bring the title to Linux as a "short term goal".
Having spent just over a year in Steam's Early Access, the Steam reviews are swinging wildly from extremely positive to scathingly negative on this unusual roguelike-RPG. That said, its 1500 or so negative reviews are outnumbered nearly 10-1 by positive and if you factor in the near universal industry praise, we should definitely be looking forward to having this challenging game on Linux.
Hopefully this news also makes at least one GOL reader happy: Feist has commented on this title a few times over the months, most recently just before Christmas, expressing the hope that this would launch in time to make the Santa deadline! That wish didn't come true, but hopefully we won't have long to wait!
As always, the standard warning applies: If you game solely on Linux, then DO NOT buy this game until the Linux version is out. Plans change, bad things happen and you don't want to be left out in the cold. Wait until the official release!
About the game (Official – Steam)
Darkest Dungeon is a challenging gothic roguelike RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring. You will lead a band of heroes on a perilous side-scrolling descent, dealing with a prodigious number of threats to their bodily health, and worse, a relentless assault on their mental fortitude! Five hundred feet below the earth you will not only fight unimaginable foes, but famine, disease, and the stress of the ever-encroaching dark. Darkest Dungeon focuses on the humanity and psychological vulnerability of the heroes and asks: What emotional toll does a life of adventure take?
QuoteSHORT TERM ROADMAP
Aside from bug fixes, a bunch of other stuff is in the works for the near future:
Kickstarter Backer Trinkets: these are done and being QA’d. We expect them to deploy within a few days!
Gameplay tweaks: now that we’ve been able to watch and collect some data regarding the endgame, we have a few gameplay tweaks planned that should help reduce some of the grind that occurs in mid and late-game.
Credits: in addition to crediting ourselves for all of our hard work (har har), we will soon be adding the Kickstarter Backer credits in game ($20 tiers and higher).
Linux: This is in work and we’ll announce a date as soon as we know how long it will take.
March 8th Update: Town Events, the Merchant, and the Musketeer (Adventurer Tier Kickstarter reward class). Circle your calendar–these new features are planned for that day!
Having spent just over a year in Steam's Early Access, the Steam reviews are swinging wildly from extremely positive to scathingly negative on this unusual roguelike-RPG. That said, its 1500 or so negative reviews are outnumbered nearly 10-1 by positive and if you factor in the near universal industry praise, we should definitely be looking forward to having this challenging game on Linux.
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Hopefully this news also makes at least one GOL reader happy: Feist has commented on this title a few times over the months, most recently just before Christmas, expressing the hope that this would launch in time to make the Santa deadline! That wish didn't come true, but hopefully we won't have long to wait!
As always, the standard warning applies: If you game solely on Linux, then DO NOT buy this game until the Linux version is out. Plans change, bad things happen and you don't want to be left out in the cold. Wait until the official release!
About the game (Official – Steam)
Darkest Dungeon is a challenging gothic roguelike RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring. You will lead a band of heroes on a perilous side-scrolling descent, dealing with a prodigious number of threats to their bodily health, and worse, a relentless assault on their mental fortitude! Five hundred feet below the earth you will not only fight unimaginable foes, but famine, disease, and the stress of the ever-encroaching dark. Darkest Dungeon focuses on the humanity and psychological vulnerability of the heroes and asks: What emotional toll does a life of adventure take?
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15 comments
It up on GOG, so the DRM-free promise looks to already be covered.
http://www.gog.com/game/darkest_dungeon
http://www.gog.com/game/darkest_dungeon
2 Likes, Who?
It up on GOG, so the DRM-free promise looks to already be covered.
http://www.gog.com/game/darkest_dungeon
Great catch. In addition to the tweets and forums searches, I also visited their webpage where "Purchase" takes you directly to Steam and finally a Google search for "Darkest Dungeon DRM-free" which highlighted a wishlist item on GoG, but not the title!
I even searched Humble and found the title, but on Humble, it's just a link to a Steam key.
Very odd. Thanks for pointing that out though. The article's been updated to remove the DRM reference.
Last edited by scaine on 2 February 2016 at 12:44 am UTC
1 Likes, Who?
YES!!!!!!!!!!!! YESSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
best news of 2016! insta buy for me, i am after all a sucker for turn based strategy.
i can hardly contain my enthusiasm!
XCOM2... Darkest Dungeon... 2016 is gonna be a great year for Linux gaming
best news of 2016! insta buy for me, i am after all a sucker for turn based strategy.
i can hardly contain my enthusiasm!
XCOM2... Darkest Dungeon... 2016 is gonna be a great year for Linux gaming
3 Likes, Who?
Very odd. Thanks for pointing that out though. The article's been updated to remove the DRM reference.
No prob. :D
Though the same thing happened to me when I googled it up. The first link isn't to the game, but the wishlist. The only reason why I kept looking past that was because I vaguely recalled seeing it on GOG's front page back when it first came out.
Last edited by Renzatic Gear on 2 February 2016 at 2:18 am UTC
0 Likes
All great news and so on but tbh the only game I want to play in 2016 is Street Fighter V and no news for it and not even a SteamOS/Linux icon on pre-orders yet..... Should I worry a bit :( ??
Is going to get released in 2 weeks
/pokes GamingOnLinux Detectives
Last edited by wolfyrion on 2 February 2016 at 8:11 am UTC
Is going to get released in 2 weeks
/pokes GamingOnLinux Detectives
Last edited by wolfyrion on 2 February 2016 at 8:11 am UTC
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I'm really looking forward to this game, played it already at my friend, but did not want to buy before actual Linux release. Hopefully they do not release it to soon, as I still grind through Diablo's Season 5 Journey ;)
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All great news and so on but tbh the only game I want to play in 2016 is Street Fighter V and no news for it and not even a SteamOS/Linux icon on pre-orders yet..... Should I worry a bit :( ??
Is going to get released in 2 weeks
/pokes GamingOnLinux Detectives
They never said it would be a day one release, it will come out later.
0 Likes
Hah, I was checking it out yesterday, thinking: "No Linux port... Odd." :)
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I binged on watching people stream this. It's so so so good. Can't wait. :D
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It´s great that we can finally see some movement on the Linux-front with this title.
Ever since the kickstarter for "Darkest Dungeon", I´ve been really eager to try this game and I hoped that it would become available in "early access" but that was a no go. If I dare to hope that it shows up during late february, then this would be a great month (with both XCOM2 and Dying Light:The Following soon to come). Still that might be a bit too optimistic but with the above mentioned titles (and the Agatha Christie adventure), March would be fine as a release month as well.
There has been a bit of negativity during the "ea" period for the game, I think the gist of it, is that the development has made the game more challenging/frustrating for players with a bit too much "grinding". Obviously, I don´t know how I´ll feel about that yet but everything I´ve seen from it makes me fairly certain that this game will be a lot of fun to play until the frustration (hypothetically) kicks in.
Sooo...still pretty hyped! :)
Last edited by Feist on 2 February 2016 at 9:37 am UTC
Ever since the kickstarter for "Darkest Dungeon", I´ve been really eager to try this game and I hoped that it would become available in "early access" but that was a no go. If I dare to hope that it shows up during late february, then this would be a great month (with both XCOM2 and Dying Light:The Following soon to come). Still that might be a bit too optimistic but with the above mentioned titles (and the Agatha Christie adventure), March would be fine as a release month as well.
There has been a bit of negativity during the "ea" period for the game, I think the gist of it, is that the development has made the game more challenging/frustrating for players with a bit too much "grinding". Obviously, I don´t know how I´ll feel about that yet but everything I´ve seen from it makes me fairly certain that this game will be a lot of fun to play until the frustration (hypothetically) kicks in.
Sooo...still pretty hyped! :)
Last edited by Feist on 2 February 2016 at 9:37 am UTC
1 Likes, Who?
it makes me fairly certain that this game will be a lot of fun to play until the frustration (hypothetically) kicks in.
It took me nearly 20 hours of frustration before I uninstalled it from my Macbook. I love the narrator and the lovecraftian theme, but the game mechanics need some serious rebalancing before this game becomes playable again.
I was already thinking about getting a refund on Steam after an hour of playtime, but decided not to since it's the only game I can play on my Macbook witch touchpad in bed before going to sleep. I wish I did get a refund though.
Don't buy this game unless you like to do a lot of grinding, planning and then still get screwed by RNG. If you want fun then go for FTL instead (too bad I finished it a dozen times already).
0 Likes
There has been a bit of negativity during the "ea" period for the game, I think the gist of it, is that the development has made the game more challenging/frustrating for players with a bit too much "grinding". Obviously, I don´t know how I´ll feel about that yet but everything I´ve seen from it makes me fairly certain that this game will be a lot of fun to play until the frustration (hypothetically) kicks in.
Sooo...still pretty hyped! :)
For the negativity, I think this review sums it up perfectly. Early Access might have great value for the developer, but it's still often hugely misunderstood by the "playtesters" themselves and in this case, it's caused a massive backlash in the form of negative reviews. Annoyingly, this causes so much noise, it's impossible to know if a negative review holds value or not. I wish they'd clear reviews after the EA period is complete. A game should be judged on the end result, not the journey it took to get there.
2 Likes, Who?
I think preventing reviews during Early Access makes even more sense. You can't really review a game properly if it's going to potentially change massively. It has absolutely no benefit to anyone, except in the case where the game is already really good. But if a game lacks polish and balancing, then those negative reviews are not going to go away, and could have done lasting damage in sales potential in the meantime.
The same is true for games which release proper, yet are still broken and unbalanced... But in those cases, the devs perhaps should have considered Early Access for final polishing and such.
Or just do away with Early Access altogether... Very few games ship complete these days anyhow.
The same is true for games which release proper, yet are still broken and unbalanced... But in those cases, the devs perhaps should have considered Early Access for final polishing and such.
Or just do away with Early Access altogether... Very few games ship complete these days anyhow.
2 Likes, Who?
I just sent them an email asking about a Linux version haha. Guess I know what their answer will be.
1 Likes, Who?
Looks like Red Hook at aiming at having Linux support out for their March update. Great news!
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