Need a new game to play for the next week.

Darkest Dungeon strike me as a mobile market game, I strongly advise against it after trying this one. Flat, repetitive, with many annoying time-wasting mechanics. Needs to be avoided or bought on sale.
 
Darkest Dungeon is a badly designed mess when it comes to its RNG mechanics. The game is designed to simply be infuriating.
Here: http://steamcommunity.com/stats/262060/achievements/
Look down at the bottom. How many people have actually 'finished' the damn game? Like, at all?
Complete the game - 1.4%
Complete the game with default options - 1.1%
Complete the game within 99 weeks - 0.6%
Complete the game on new game+ - 0.2%

If only 1.4% of the players actually finish the game 'at all' then clearly something is wrong. We're not talking about finishing some game on its highest difficulty or simply beating a game that is inherently difficult but with clearly defined mechanics that you have to work with and master in order to beat the challenges presented to you. We're talking about a rogue-like here. A game that relies completely on RNG. The success you see is not because of you, it is because the game decided to not curbstomp your ass for once. And the rest of the time? Enjoy losing because the game's RNG is completely unfair and poorly balanced.

Fuck Darkest Dungeon with a decaying squirrel impaled on a stick.

Avoid it, don't even waste money on the damn thing when it is on sale.

Just cause it got an amazing art-style, interesting setting and concept does not excuse how it is one of the worst rogue-likes out there. Here's a better game for you, get a dice and roll it, if you end up rolling a 1 then you get to award yourself by looking up some rule 34 for 1 minute. If you roll 2 or a 3 then just re-roll, if you roll a 4 or a 5 then pull up your shirt and slap your belly HARD and if you roll a 6? Slap your face, HARD.

Congrats, you just got a similar experience to Darkest Dungeon and you didn't need to waste any money either, unless you had to go and buy a dice, but at least a dice is actually useful for something. And take away the flare DD got and what is left? Well better open your jaw wide and bite that concrete cause it got a nice boot for the back of your head.
 
SaltyPasta said:
So my summer holidays are coming to a close, and I don't feel like replaying Fallout 1, 3 or New Vegas (and I won't even touch fallout 4). I haven't beaten f2 yet, but truth be told I just can't get into it. Any suggestions for a good rpg to play?..........................



That I can pirate ;)

Jokes, thanks in advance.

EDIT: Looking for older games, my pc is shit.
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Dwarf Fortress.

Absurd complexity, and its free.
 
To defend Darkest Dungeon, specifically the 1.4% figure on completion, I find the completion of the game to be more akin to something like getting the 100% completions in Isaac games. This applies even more to Darkest Dungeon's NG+. If you aren't okay with the roguelite possibility of getting screwed by RNG, then you will probably not like it. For some however, that's more of a draw than a deterrence. You can however do some manipulation to try and get the RNG to be more in your favor than it would be otherwise. The times when you get completely screwed over however, it is encouraged to cut your losses and run. Maybe that means that you don't complete the quest that was the reason for your going into that dungeon anyway, but you still get to keep anything you picked up along the way, which softens that blow.

The main issue is whether or not you can stomach the idea of losing being fun. If you can't, you're going to find something like Darkest Dungeon to be infuriating. Even more so with a game as long as Darkest Dungeon, which takes around 80 hours to beat. I myself am only about 40 hours in, and from the progress I've made in the game I can see that being a reasonable figure. In those 40 hours I've lost plenty of characters, but only once was that a full party wipe. That wipe was because I was too stubborn and pushed on when I was in no condition to do so. I would have been better off retreating with the loot I had already gathered which would have more than made up for the hit I would have taken from running away. In fact, it's a common strategy in Darkest Dungeon to take low-level characters into a dungeon with no intention of them seeing success just to make a smash-and-grab. You send them in and grab as much as you can, and just make sure at least one of them is alive before leaving with whatever they got and then getting rid of them yourself.

The game is meant to inflict losses, for there to be unwinnable situations. If you go into it with the idea of balance meaning that there should always be a way to win any given situation, then yes, from that perspective the game is horribly balanced. Hot garbage in fact. The point I would argue is that the balance of the game isn't in whether or not there is always going to be a winning solution to any given situation, the balance is that no loss you incur is something that you can't recover from in time. Sure, maybe you lost four high level heroes along with all their gear. Their deaths do not mean that your base has lost the upgrades that allowed those heroes to be effective in the first place, and there are always new characters to replace them with. If one considers that to be the balance, then it is a balance that is fitting to the Lovecraftian theme of the game.

As a personal preference, I don't mind a game that is willing to screw me over and kick my teeth in if the rest of it is something I find enjoyable. In fact, I get more enjoyment out of games like that than I do with almost any other genre. If there's a niche these sort of games appeal to, I'm definitely in it. Though that is probably clear from my avatar.
 
JO'Geran said:
Pillars of Eternity(It's the best game ever made, and anyone who says otherwise is wrong!)

Also, try Tyranny

Arcanum has already be mentioned, but be warned it has lots of bugs and extremely unbalanced combat. That said, it probably has the best villain in video game history.
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Obsidian has never let me down. Unlike a certain developer I could think of *cough* fallout 4 *cough*. I played pillars of eternity awhile ago and it's an amazing game.
 
@Chromevod The problem with DD is that it is just constant losses. I go down with a party to a first tier dungeon and one of the members get some semi-permanent negative trait which I then need to spend money on back in town to fix and can only do that if I have the money to actually fix it. Then I go with another party to a first tier dungeon and something shitty happens and now I lost a newly recruited hero.

I just keep losing money, keep losing members, keep stacking up afflictions and shit faster than I can remove them. It is subtle at first but after a few hours in the game of just grinding the first tier dungeon 2 thirds of my characters got fucked up afflictions which I need to fix in the church thingie and I ain't got the money for it. And going in just trying to get a quick grab of shit? I did that a few times and grinded up some money. Then I realized how bored I was and I looked at how much of the game I had yet to finish and decided that this is not worth my time.

I'm fine with losing if it is because I fucked up. I am not okay with losing if the game just decided to use the RNG against me, something which is completely out of my control. And I especially loathe it when it is a constant. Same thing with FTL while we're at it, your chance of success against the final battle all relies on your luck at picking the right places to explore and get the kind of upgrades/crew members you need.

And of course I despise grinding. I can not stand game design that relies on you simply repeating the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. I'm fine with it being an 'option', not when it is mandatory.

So to be fair, I have an inherit bias against rogue-likes and forced grinding. To me the latter is simply badly designed. If the only way your game can get any kind of longevity is through a design that forces players to repeat the tiny amount of content it actually got because you've stacked so many odds against them that they will only inch forward ever so slightly with each hour then you ain't designed a good game.

Other rogue-likes out there also just tosses RNG at you but at least a lot of them relies on the players actual ability to play the game in order to succeed. Which brings me to a rogue-like I actually like, Nuclear Throne. I got 713 hours in that game. It is a game that hands me my ass constantly and I love it. I have no problem with games that are difficult where you 'will' lose 'a lot'. The problem I have is when those losses are out of my hands, and a lot of times in DD it is out of my hands. And I loathe that. Whereas in Nuclear Throne it is all about gitting gud.

@SaltyPasta
Oy, pretty boy, buy Nuclear Throne and loop with Melting without picking the health mutations.


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Then again, if Darkest Dungeon is meant to be completely unfair and force you to grind your ass off then I suppose it succeeded at that and it isn't badly designed at all. I just don't see how anyone would want to put themselves through that experience willingly when there are so many better things in life to waste your life away on.

Oh and Chromevod, if you do decide at some point to go "fuck it" and stop playing it before you finish it and get that achievement for completing the game then I'd like to know how you feel about the game at 'that' point, and if you do finish it feel free to tell me about that too and perhaps rub it in my face.
 
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I don't find FTL as bad as DD when it comes to the RNG. While in FTL most of the time it's my fault, be it becouse of forgetting the boarder squad on board of an enemy ship when blowing it up, being spendy or greedy in resource management, not looking the star map and getting cornered by the Rebel chase, etc.
Of course, you can get boned by the pickups or lack thereof, but 100 hours in that's below the 25% of times.
About the final boss, as well as combat, if you can get through shield barriers and deal damage in some way, it's completely up to you. Also to note is that there's always a quest to unlock the cruisers as an option to just win with the previous ship in the list. The first ship I unlocked was the last one of the list. In other rogue likes I'd have to almost complete the game for it.
Another Roguelike I love is Risk Of Rain, which similarly to Nuclear Throne, has a lot more "certain" elements to runs (namely levels, in each stage there can be two different levels which have respectively 2-3 layouts), player skill is a bigger influence as it's a Character-Skills instead of Template-Powerups (TBOI) or Character-Weapons (NT). There still are power ups, but here focus on stacking the effect and overall all are useful, especially with sinergies (explosions that spread into sticky bombs that make enemies explode on death, all hits with a big chance to proc guided missiles). While its development is mostly if not completely abandoned, it's still great.

Also, on rogue likes unlocks: Fuck you, Isaac. Besides not saying how to get and what do they do (FTL, RoR and NT do at different extents), they are so fucking obscure. The Lost, who holds some of the strongest item unlocks in the game? Die in different floors as different chars becouse of determined causes, IN SUCCESION. Yeah no. I can dodge any attack, but if I have no damage becouse I'm not Guppy this time or Cricket's head didn't spawn, I can't make it.
 
Yeah I just got a 100% save file for Afterbirth+ so I could get all the items, I don't give a shit about achievements but I wanted to use mods and if I do then items can't be unlocked. I just play it for fun at this point, I've beaten it enough times with enough charaters without cheats to feel like I've gitten gud. At this point I just play it for fun. BOI is a game where the RNG can just fuck you over though. If I start out as whatshisface, Cain or Judas who starts with Book Of Belial, an active item (you can only hold 1 active item) then I might get 3 active items in a row for 3 golden rooms and at that point my character is so crippled from lack of upgrades that I might as well just start over.

Still, I enjoy it. Some of the achievements are nearly impossible to get and others rely completely on luck so I'd advice anyone who just want to get the upgrades to just get a 100% save file and then mod it.
 
Mr Fish said:
Yeah I just got a 100% save file for Afterbirth+ so I could get all the items, I don't give a shit about achievements but I wanted to use mods and if I do then items can't be unlocked. I just play it for fun at this point, I've beaten it enough times with enough charaters without cheats to feel like I've gitten gud. At this point I just play it for fun. BOI is a game where the RNG can just fuck you over though. If I start out as whatshisface, Cain or Judas who starts with Book Of Belial, an active item (you can only hold 1 active item) then I might get 3 active items in a row for 3 golden rooms and at that point my character is so crippled from lack of upgrades that I might as well just start over.

Still, I enjoy it. Some of the achievements are nearly impossible to get and others rely completely on luck so I'd advice anyone who just want to get the upgrades to just get a 100% save file and then mod it.
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Yup, got a 100% save to play Antibirth
 
Arnust said:
I don't find FTL as bad as DD when it comes to the RNG.
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True. Moreover, the enemies in FTL are better equipped with each sector passed and their tactics changes a lot. Darkest Dungeon apprentice tier boss is exactly the same as veteran tier boss or champion tier boss, so you're playing the same game for three times. Enjoyed it for first couple of hours, got very disappointed after finding that veteran tier is basically the same as apprentice tier with exception of bloated HP and gave up. (With full roster of well trained heroes, so this has nothing to do with „losing is fun”.)
 
valcik said:
True. Moreover, the enemies in FTL are better equipped with each sector passed and their tactics changes a lot. Darkest Dungeon apprentice tier boss is exactly the same as veteran tier boss or champion tier boss, so you're playing the same game for three times. Enjoyed it for first couple of hours, got very disappointed after finding that veteran tier is basically the same as apprentice tier with exception of bloated HP and gave up. (With full roster of well trained heroes, so this has nothing to do with „losing is fun”.)
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Oh yeah, Sectors can be different too; depending on your loadout you can totally wreck or get mauled by them. Rebel Stronghold is hell but rare and unlocks the Federation Cruiser
enterprise-star-trek-generations-ncc-1701a.jpg
 
@Mr Fish
I'll do that. I've passed the halfway point, and I still enjoy the game quite a bit. Right now Elite's got my attention with some of the more recent updates, but I fully intend to go back and finish DD. It's on the list of games to finish though.

I do also quite enjoy Nuclear Throne. I kind of stopped playing after Enter the Gungeon came out though.

... I've also gotten 100% completion on every version of Isaac that's come out just by playing it myself. Well, not every version because I'm still plugging away at reaching that point with Afterbirth+, but the point remains. If I can do it with Isaac though, I figure I can do it with Darkest Dungeon.
 
Chromevod said:
@Mr Fish
I'll do that. I've passed the halfway point, and I still enjoy the game quite a bit. Right now Elite's got my attention with some of the more recent updates, but I fully intend to go back and finish DD. It's on the list of games to finish though.

I do also quite enjoy Nuclear Throne. I kind of stopped playing after Enter the Gungeon came out though.

... I've also gotten 100% completion on every version of Isaac that's come out just by playing it myself. Well, not every version because I'm still plugging away at reaching that point with Afterbirth+, but the point remains. If I can do it with Isaac though, I figure I can do it with Darkest Dungeon.
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Wait, you seriously beat Hush as The Lost without cheating? O_O
...
Are you a korean/russian mix?
 
Mr Fish said:
Wait, you seriously beat Hush as The Lost without cheating? O_O
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Yes, I also beat Hush as the Keeper without cheating, which I think was a lot harder because the Keeper is ridiculous. Afterbirth also included a sticky note for beating Mega Satan as every single character, and an achievement for doing it with every character on hard mode. Hard mode is also the only mode I play besides when I was doing stuff for Greed mode. I have never modded, cheated, or save altered in any Isaac game I've played, and I've gotten the completions and the completion items completely legitimately. Afterbirth+ just came out this month though so I've not gotten through everything there yet, but it's just a matter of time.

44171DBBB9B55212D45EAD167F01A6C370B8DB01


German, actually.
 
I'm a fish though, what you expect from me with these flippers? It's a wonder I can even type.

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Oh and if no one's said it yet:
Dead State.
It's a combat and resource gathering focused turn-based cRPG set in a zombie setting where there's a surprising amount of choice and consequence for how you handle your fellow survivors.
but the endings are pretty weak
 
Okay, here's a lil list of games I like that you can play with what you have:

- Souls series: Namely on the PS4, there's the Bloodborne exclusive, which I've heard that got a lot of people reluctant to Dark Souls on the boat. DS2 SOTFS and 3 are also avaleible there.

- Tyranny, PoE and Wasteland 2 are pretty sweet. Enjoyed Tyranny the most out the bunch.

- Enderal, a "whole new game" kind of overhaul mod for Skyrim, great if you like Skyrim but not the story and setting.

- Borderlands is a pretty nice experience if you have a buddy or two to play it with
 
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