Darkest Dungeon....

It's been a while since I last put in some serious time with the game. When the Circus came out it was interesting, if not fully my thing in the game. About this time last year I took a good stab at things(here and here); With last December being a good end of year review of my state of play. All PC based.

While I've not got the gameplay bug to plough back in I was curious to see it on Xbox. Darkest Dungeon recently became available on Xbox game pass so no better time to try it out for Xbox.

Like playing Star Trek Online, just getting a game on a different platform can be a 'different' experience. The same but different. Like STO, Darkest Dungeon on Xbox is the same game but changing a mouse and keyboard for a controller. Yea things do change and in turn the experience.

For STO the conversion/port made the version of the game on Xbox 'simpler'; Which can also be read as limiting or funneled into simplicity. It's still a great game but you'll never replace a keyboard with a controller and get the same results. Still fun and so is Darkest Dungeon.

Darkest Dungeon doesn't suffer form any keyboard pro/cons in the same way as the STO conversion; It's mainly a mouse operated game oon PC. So the game with a controller instead is so much more work to get the same results. So the DD on Xbox is the other side of the coin from STO. Controller = Conplex.

That's not to say it doesn't work. It's just work to get to remember what controls what. It reminds me of the old console cheats... UP, B, Down, right, A, ........ All to do 'simple' actions.

It makes me realise how good a job STO did on Xbox with the controller options. Darkest Dungeon by comparison is a lot more complex with controller button choices. It has to be to cover all the bases. While not un-intuitive, it is a learning curve for sure. 

Holding the trigger buttons for additional menu's, shoulder buttons to access the characters. Hopping in and out of map and inventory. BUT it's all mixed up with different options for those same buttons depending on your in game location. In a dungeon, in the Hamlet, in a hallway....

OK, it's not that bad but when in game and in dungeon there's enough stress(torches are burning!) without trying to mess about with controls.

It's still a great game to play. It's been an interesting look into the console version.

A Casual Carebear Gamer