Darkest Dungeon®

I play difficult games for a living, not really but pretend I do. This game, out of all the ones I've played, is the most sphere twisting game I've played. Normal makes me cry (metaphorically, I'm a real man). VERY repetitive game loop, but very diverse in characters, items, skills, camp skills, and probably more stuff. So, the variety more so comes from how you do stuff rather than what stuff you do. Additionally, if you do somehow get bored of what there is, the game has a Steam Workshop, meaning you can easily add mods to get more bang for your buck. (The sequel is easier and roughly the same if that makes a difference) Highly Recommended

Ignore the narrative presented in the trailer. Ignore the crawling reaction you have to the game's overall aesthetic. Ignore what the steam page and startup screen tell you, ignore what the ending has to say. This is not a game about futility. This is a game about hope. I am, to my knowledge, the 128th person to ever acquire every single achievement in this brutal, sprawling game. 250 hours. It was entirely worth it! I first played Darkest Dungeon as it released, a decade ago, and it has remained a cornerstone of aesthetic inspiration for me since. I don't think I've played a game with design matching "dark fantasy" as well as this one; and this isn't even a dark fantasy game, it's eldritch fantasy! A first campaign - aptly-named - of Darkest Dungeon will make you feel as if you are slowly waging war against the tides of darkness, with only flawed and frightful soldiers under your command. But as you learn to brave deeper currents, your adventurers grow with you, until you're gazing into the maw of the abyss with tools entirely of your own making. Back then, this game was inscrutable and impossible for me to play. Now, I can consistently beat it with no character deaths. Even these foes have weaknesses, even these creatures can be felled. Ruin has come to their family. It will not come to ours. I cannot recommend a game more.