When you see that matter-of-fact, red-text ‘You Died’ screen, naturally the first thing that comes to mind is Dark Souls, or any of FromSoftware’s punishing RPGs. Similarly, when you think pixel art and dungeon crawling, you think Darkest Dungeon, and all its macabre esotericisms – the slow descent in mental anguish and soul death. But there is a place more brutal, more terrifying, than even the world of Lordran or the bleakest depths of Red Hook’s ancestral manor: Reddit. Available to try right now, an experimental puzzle game is only playable via the internet’s infamous front page, and incorporates the social experience to both heighten and soften your struggle.
Dark Dungeon (that’s the actual name; I haven’t just forgotten to type the suffix) is a dungeon crawler, puzzle game, and quasi roguelike that feels mechanically inspired by Windows operating system classic Chip’s Challenge. It’s simple to play: as a small, pixelated knight, you navigate a series of chambers while dodging spike traps and trying to collect treasure.
You can only make a limited number of moves, but that number is replenished if you find food. There are multiple stages, varying in difficulty, and the goal, ideally, is to finish each one using the smallest amount of steps possible.
But remember, Dark Dungeon is only available to play within Reddit – it has its own dedicated subreddit, and you operate the game by clicking on it within a browser. Why? It seems like an attempt to aggregate or mechanize the group experience.
Similar to the messages left by other players in Dark Souls, in Dark Dungeon, there are footsteps that indicate the paths taken through levels by the majority of other Redditors. There are also skulls that show where players have been killed by a trap, and tombstones that indicate where someone has starved to death.
It’s a little basic, and not close to the encompassing Reddit experiment that is r/place, but as a proof of concept, Dark Dungeon is worth your attention. If you want to try it, just head here.
Otherwise, try some of the best RPGs, or maybe get the best roguelike games on PC.
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