Darkest Dungeon: The Crimson Court DLC Review – Let Them Drink Blood

<p>The team at Red Hook Studios has blessed us with the first DLC for 2016&&num;8217&semi;s gothic Kickstarter success&comma; <em>Darkest Dungeon<&sol;em>&period; If you haven&&num;8217&semi;t played the oppressively difficult core game&comma; you can read Robert&&num;8217&semi;s <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;darkest-dungeon-review-stress-simulator-2016&sol;">PC review here<&sol;a> or Jerry&&num;8217&semi;s opinion on the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;darkest-dungeon-review-no-not-mom&sol;">PS Vita release here<&sol;a>&period; <em>The Crimson Court<&sol;em> DLC adds a sinister new campaign that takes place during the early years of the Hamlet&comma; complete with blood sucking&comma; powdered-wig-wearing courtesans and esquires&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;ve ever wondered what Marie Antoinette would&&num;8217&semi;ve looked like as a blood thirsty insect-human&comma; this is about as close as you will get&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129171" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129171" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-129171" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;26192559&sol;20170824230253&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Darkest Dungeon&colon; The Crimson Court&comma; Red Hook Studios" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129171" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Darkest Dungeon&colon; The Crimson Court&comma; Red Hook Studios<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>When activated&comma;<em> The Crimson Court <&sol;em>can be accessed through one of your previously saved games&comma; or you can start a brand new campaign&period;<em> <&sol;em>This DLC unlocks a new location to explore called The Courtyard&comma; providing gorgeous&comma; narrated cutscenes and hours of challenging gameplay&period; Once the site of elaborate parties and racy behavior&comma; The Courtyard is now a festering swampland&comma; littered with cartons of wine and infested with insects&period; There are grotesque bosses to defeat and huge maps to explore&period; Your torches are no longer useful at staving off stress in The Courtyard&comma; but they do provide an accuracy buff in combat&period; This helps to create a bit of variation in dungeon crawling&comma; which is welcomed after the hours and hours of continual grinding done in the base game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Crimson Court<&sol;em> also brings us a new hero called the Flagellant&period; He&&num;8217&semi;s a religious extremist whose combat skills revolve around bleeding and suffering&comma; buffs and debuffs&period; The Flagellant refuses to travel with others of his kind&comma; and he won&&num;8217&semi;t share a party with an Abomination either&period; His base equipment consists of a flail and his bare&comma; lacerated torso&comma; both of which can be upgraded in town&period; Unlike the other classes&comma; the Flagellant can only succumb to a single affliction&comma; Rapturous&comma; and it&&num;8217&semi;s exclusive to him&period; The affliction decreases his dodge drastically&comma; but increases his damage and causes him to attack himself and his own party at random&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s great that the DLC offers a new healing class&comma; as it gives fans some more variety while plundering The Courtyard&comma; but he doesn&&num;8217&semi;t seem as special as <em>The Crimson Court <&sol;em>enemies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129173" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129173" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-129173" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;26192931&sol;20170826161908&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Darkest Dungeon&colon; The Crimson Court&comma; Red Hook Studios" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129173" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Darkest Dungeon&colon; The Crimson Court&comma; Red Hook Studios<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>As you clear dungeons and return to the Hamlet&comma; <em>The Crimson Court<&sol;em> allows you to purchase Districts&period; These are additional buildings that become part of your village and add bonuses to your entire estate&period; Some of these buildings provide interest on saved gold&comma; increase loot chance with torchlight&comma; and increase idle stress relief in town&period; These are wonderful additions&comma; but ungodly expensive&period; It fits the <em>Darkest Dungeon<&sol;em> theme of hardcore difficulty&comma; but it seems like it would take hundreds of hours to unlock them all&period; Each of the 12 Districts requires a blueprint&comma; which only drop from bosses&colon; not mini-bosses&comma; just bosses&period; Once you&&num;8217&semi;ve acquired a blueprint&comma; it can cost up to 300 crests or 110 deeds&comma; in addition to a hefty pile of gold&comma; to build a useful District&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>To add to the difficulty&comma; heroes can acquire a curse called the Crimson Curse&period; It acts as a disease&comma; but the cure is only found by working your way through The Courtyard storyline&period; Afflicted heroes begin to crave blood&comma; and their stats change as the disease progresses&period; Sometimes they won&&num;8217&semi;t allow themselves to be healed and in other cases&comma; they attack other party members&period; Once your toughest heroes become infected&comma; it feels hopeless to try to push your way through the swamps of The Courtyard&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129172" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129172" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-129172" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;26192757&sol;20170824233711&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Darkest Dungeon&colon; The Crimson Court&comma; Red Hook Studios" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129172" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Darkest Dungeon&colon; The Crimson Court&comma; Red Hook Studios<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; <em>The Crimson Court<&sol;em> stays true to the <em>Darkest Dungeon<&sol;em> base game&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s unreasonably difficult but gruesome and thematic&period; If you liked <em>Darkest Dungeon<&sol;em> as it was&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll enjoy the DLC&period; The Districts help to provide some new goals&comma; and the bloody&comma; rococo Courtyard enemies are something to behold&period; If you were one of the many fans hoping this expansion would help to rebalance the game or decrease the amount of mindless grinding needed to complete the campaign&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll be disappointed with the epic maps and hardcore bosses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Darkest Dungeon&colon; The Crimson Court<&sol;em> is available on PC&comma; OS X&comma; Linux&comma; PS4 and PS Vita&period; The base game was just released on iOS 9&plus;&comma; and there are plans to release <em>The Crimson Court<&sol;em> for tablets soon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC review copy of <em>Darkest Dungeon&colon; The Crimson Court<&sol;em> was provided by Red Hook Studios for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;