Darkest Dungeon First Look!
Hello, Ability Powered Gamers! This week we are checking out a Role Play Game (RPG)/Dungeon Crawler called Darkest Dungeon. I was so excited when this game came out that I actually was playing it long before time to test it for you guys. I know, shame on me. I could set here and ramble on about my adventures, but I know you guys are here for one thing… Darkest Dungeon accessibility. Let’s take a look!
Game Start Up & Options
I honestly can’t remember if the game started in fullscreen mode or windowed, but it was easy to change it to windowed before you actually need to type in your game save name. You can name your estate easily with on-screen keyboard while in windowed mode. To access the options you can click on the candle in the lower right corner. There are options for “Graphics”, “Audio”, and “Other”.
Graphics
Graphics options are in-game for fullscreen versus window mode. This means you can easily access your desktop and on-screen keyboard. You can also put the game in various resolutions. One thing notably missing is any colorblind mode. This game is dominated by red so some way to change that would be nice.
Audio
Audio options include subtitles, hooray! There’s also options to mute all sounds and volume sliders for:
- Master Volume
- SFX Volume
- Music Volume
- Narration Volume
- Cinematic Volume
Other
Under the “Other” menu there’s options for things like data collection and language, but as far as accessibility is concerned I liked the bark options. The bark option has to do with the characters during the game. Occasionally when you are in your hamlet between dungeons, your characters will say different things to you. Some try to convince you to take them with you while others beg you to leave them behind.
Darkest Bark
The “bark” option let’s you toggle these interactions on and off. Being able to edit the bark time is what impressed me. You can make the chat bubble stay on-screen longer if you need a little extra time to read the bubbles. I thought it was a nice addition to the options.
Controls
There are a number of hotkeys you can use to play, but to the sadness of disabled gamers everywhere these are not remappable. The good news for mouse only gamers is you can play the game with only left and right clicking. Almost the entirety of the game is played through left clicking alone including movement and attacking enemies. Right clicking was only needed for things like accessing the character menu.
Final Thoughts: the Beginning
Darkest Dungeon has been crazy fun to play. It is difficult, so completing tasks fells extremely rewarding. Being able to give each character any name you want and characters having permanent death adds to the satisfaction you get from living to see another day. It is turned based, so fatigue from quick mouse movement or clicking isn’t a problem. You can take as much time as you need between turns.
Final Thoughts: Dipping the Toes
Subtitles are nice and big. They play during cinematics and at the hamlet anytime the narrator talks. I also loved the chat bubbles that pop up while you are in your hamlet. This makes characters more human and makes you be extra careful during dungeon runs since you legitimately care if they live or die.
Final Thoughts: Wants & Likes
One thing I wish would be included is colorblind options. As I said earlier this game is very
, very red. That combined with the darkness, I could see being a problem. In particular where traps are concerned. Traps are meant to be hard to see, I understand that’s what defines them as a trap. My concern is the indicator that the pile of debris is a trap and needs to be disarmed is a thin red line around it. Being able to change the color of life bars would also be helpful. Another helpful addition would have been remappable hotkeys. This can make a huge difference in the quantity of any game for disabled gamers.
Drudging Through the Dungeon
Other than those lacking features, I completely loved Darkest Dungeon. A dungeon crawling RPG that I could play only with a mouse was great. Windowed mode and on-screen keyboard made hotkeys accessible, but I didn’t need to use them. Sitting back and clicking my way through dungeons was fun and satisfying, but don’t take my word for it check out Darkest Dungeon on Steam! Do you have this game? If so, have you beat the Darkest Dungeon? What did you think about the game? Leave a comment and let me know. Also, if there’s a game you want to see on Accessibility First Look, let me know!
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