Life is stressful and sometimes even the bravest people shut down under too much trauma. Darkest Dungeon takes that emotional reality and weaves it into the game, giving players a band of warriors who can get so sick and tired of fighting all the damn time that they'll just quit or run away.
We're used to seeing stoic warriors in video games. The men and women players control tend to deal with adversity pretty well; they soldier on no matter how hurt or outnumbered they are. But let's face it: hours and hours of life-or-death battles would drive anybody to their breaking point. That's the main conceit in Darkest Dungeon, in development by Red Hook Studios. The rogues, crusaders and plague doctors in your party will doubt themselves, hurt each other and crack under the pressure of exploring massive underground labyrinths. As this preview from PAX East should show, it's a very different kind of dungeon crawler.