Developer Red Hook Studios’ brilliant but punishing Lovecraft-inspired strategy RPG, Darkest Dungeon, is getting a brand-new chunk of DLC next month. It’s called The Butcher’s Circus and, rather unexpectedly, adds PvP arena battles to the previously single-player game.
Up until now, Darkest Dungeon, which initially launched in 2016, has remained a staunchly solo pursuit, tasking players with delving ever-deeper into the antediluvian corners of an ancient hamlet and its surrounding environs – seeking treasure, avoiding traps, and battling cosmic horrors in time-honoured turn-based fashion.
Its unquestionable allure was found in the sheer thrill of besting its cliff-like difficulty curve, which delighted in sending party members to the brink of madness, imbuing them with (usually) negative quirks and making already tough challenges even harder – in turn forcing a stressfully satisfying balancing act between deeper exploration and hero preservation.
All of which is to say that a PvP mode is about the last thing I would have expected to see in Darkest Dungeon, but here we are, well outside of April Fool’s Day. According to Red Hook, The Butcher’s Circus – which is the game’s fifth bit of DLC, following on from The Crimson Court, Shield Breaker, Color of Madness, and Musketeer – will introduce PvP arena battles “against your friends and enemies alike”.