An Indie Backlog curated overview. We round up the best indie roguelikes and how professional critics and players received each one — the scores below are theirs, linked to the source.
A gothic roguelike where stress, dread, and your heroes’ fraying sanity are as lethal as any monster. Brutal, atmospheric, unforgettable.
At a Glance
| Developer | Red Hook Studios |
| Release year | 2016 |
| Platforms | PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch |
| Subgenre | Gothic roguelike |
| Length | ~60 hours (main story) |
| Metacritic | 84 / 100 |
| Steam rating | Very Positive (~92%, 159,000+ reviews) |
| Steam Deck | Verified |
| Languages | 12 |
About the Game
Darkest Dungeon, from Red Hook Studios, is a punishing turn-based gothic roguelike about leading a roster of flawed adventurers into the cursed estate beneath your ancestral home. Its signature system is the Affliction meter: combat, darkness, hunger, and horror grind away at each hero’s sanity, and a cracked mind can turn paranoid, masochistic, or hopeless mid-fight.
It’s a game of grim resource management and hard choices. Heroes are expendable — they can die permanently, or come back so traumatized they need to be retired — and you’re constantly weighing whether to push deeper for loot or retreat to keep your party alive. A narrator’s gravelly, endlessly quotable voice underscores every triumph and disaster.
With its striking hand-drawn art, oppressive atmosphere, and a difficulty that punishes greed, it became a defining roguelike of its era. The DLC and its sequel expanded the formula, but the original remains a bleak, brilliant masterclass in tension.
Screenshots
Screenshots: official Steam media for Darkest Dungeon.
Why It Made the List
Darkest Dungeon makes the list as the roguelike that made stress itself a mechanic. Its grim atmosphere, permadeath stakes, and sanity system create tension few games match — it’s bleak, brutal, and brilliant.
What the Critics Say
Darkest Dungeon holds a Metacritic score of 84. Critics praised its atmosphere, art, and the novelty of its stress system; the main caveat is its punishing difficulty and reliance on grind.
What Players Say
On Steam it’s rated Very Positive across more than 159,000 reviews — about 92% positive. Players love the atmosphere and tension, while warning that it’s deliberately, sometimes cruelly, hard.
Praise & Criticism
Praise
- Striking hand-drawn gothic art
- Innovative stress/sanity system
- Oppressive, gripping atmosphere
- Iconic narrator
Criticism
- Punishing, sometimes grindy
- Heavy RNG can feel unfair
- Bleak tone isn’t for everyone
Games Like This
- FTL: Faster Than Light — tense, decision-heavy roguelike
- Slay the Spire — strategic, run-based depth
- Hades — a brighter take on roguelike death
Where to Buy
Plain store links for now — swap in your affiliate-tagged URLs once you’ve joined Amazon Associates and the eBay Partner Network. (Steam has no affiliate program; that link is for convenience.)
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