With a seemingly innocuous goal like “Burn three thronging hives,” and the fact that the mission pops up relatively early on in the game, there’s absolutely no indication that you have to fight an incredibly tough boss to beat it. In turn, Crimson Court’s first mission feels a little unfair. “How quickly the tide turns,” as the announcer would say. No matter how prepared you think you are, there’s always a chance that a boss fight could go horribly wrong because the RNG gods weren’t on your side that time around. Given how reliant on RNG the game’s turn-based combat is, this is a fair compromise. Boss levels in vanilla Darkest Dungeon typically warn you about the major threat ahead before you actually embark on the mission, giving you time to gear up and prepare. The first Courtyard mission ended up being one of the most difficult dungeon crawls I’d ever experienced in the entire game, and that’s in part due to the way the game eggs you on to go try it out, while also deliberately keeping the dungeon description vague and slightly misleading at the same time. His attacks and healing moves are all Bleed-based, so there’s a sort of risk-reward system involved when you try to recover health with him, not unlike the Occultist from the vanilla game. The expansion’s new hero class, the Flagellant, also fits perfectly with this bloody theme. They’ve all got Bleed attacks, along with a repertoire of moves that inflict Stress damage (everyone’s favorite), so just the new enemies alone are enough to up the already challenging difficulty level that Darkest Dungeon is known for. The new enemy types have impeccable design, ranging from more ‘normal’-looking ones like oversized mosquitoes to some seriously freaky ones like humanoid mosquito abominations, complete with terrifying feelers looking to suck some blood out of your heroes. The Crimson Court introduces a brand new area called the Courtyard, and as the expansion name and key art would suggest, it’s themed around the imagery of blood.

That time is finally here, and The Crimson Court has just been released as the first official expansion for the game. Darkest Dungeon is one of the most beloved success stories in video game Kickstarter history, and it’s absolutely no surprise that developer Red Hook would eventually release additional content for the brutally unforgiving permadeath turn-based RPG.

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