{"title":"Gothic","description":"\u003cp\u003eGothic is a mood before it is a mechanic. It arrived in fiction with Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto in 1764 and hardened over the following century into a recognisable set of furniture: crumbling architecture, a bloodline with something to answer for, faith turned first ornamental and then sinister, and a landscape that seems to be watching the people crossing it. Games inherited the whole apparatus. When a title carries the Gothic tag it is usually describing the world you are standing in rather than the verbs available to you, which is why the tag sits equally well on a turn-based RPG, a side-scrolling action game and a first-person immersive sim.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn practice the style does most of its work through architecture and light. Corridors are tall and narrow, the ceiling is somewhere above the reach of your torch, and the building itself is usually older than anyone still living in it. Castlevania built a long-running series out of a single cursed castle that rearranges itself between visits. Darkest Dungeon put a ruined family estate at the centre of a campaign about inherited guilt. Bloodborne took a city of cathedral spires and let its congregation rot in place. The distinction from horror is worth holding onto: horror is defined by what it does to you, gothic by where it puts you. Plenty of gothic games never try to frighten anyone, and their dread is a property of the setting rather than a threat aimed at the player.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs a filter the tag is most useful for tone. It gathers games that take decay seriously, that treat the past as something still active rather than as backstory, and that tend to be slower and more deliberate than their genre labels suggest. Expect ornate art direction, a soundtrack doing real narrative work, and stories about institutions and families that have outlived their own purpose. If that register appeals, the games below share it regardless of whether they play as an RPG, a platformer or a dungeon crawl.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"darkest-dungeon-pc-download","title":"Darkest Dungeon","description":"\u003cp class=\"lead\"\u003eDarkest Dungeon is a gothic turn-based RPG about the psychological cost of adventuring. Your ancestor's estate has been hollowed out by something old and patient, and the ragged heroes you recruit to reclaim it will be tested less by the monsters waiting below than by the dark, the hunger and their own unravelling minds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eReclaim Your Ancestor's Estate\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe campaign begins with a ruined hamlet and a coach road that keeps bringing you strangers. You recruit, train and equip a roster of flawed heroes, then send parties of four into twisted forests, forgotten warrens, ruined crypts and the black water of the Cove. Each region has its own monsters, its own hazards and its own way of grinding a party down before the boss ever appears.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Affliction System\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStress is the resource that really matters. It climbs when the torch burns low, when a critical hit lands, when a trap springs, and when a companion dies in front of your party. Push a hero past breaking point and one of two things happens.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n  \u003cdt\u003eAffliction\u003c\/dt\u003e\n  \u003cdd\u003eThe hero cracks into paranoia, masochism, irrationality, abusiveness or fear. They ignore your orders, refuse healing, wander out of position and drag the rest of the party's stress up with them.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n  \u003cdt\u003eVirtue\u003c\/dt\u003e\n  \u003cdd\u003eFar more rarely, the same pressure produces courage, focus, powerful resolve or vigour. A virtuous hero steadies the party, shrugs off stress and can turn a collapsing expedition back into a victory.\u003c\/dd\u003e\n\u003c\/dl\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eStrategic Turn-Based Combat\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePosition is everything. Every skill can only be used from certain ranks and can only reach certain targets, so a shuffle, a stun or a well-timed pull can dismantle an enemy formation as effectively as damage. Bleed, blight, marking and guarding all reward players who think two turns ahead, and the difference between a clean fight and a rout is usually a decision made before the first blow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eSixteen Heroes, None of Them Safe\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Plague Doctor, the Hellion, the Highwayman, the Leper and a dozen more each bring their own skills, quirks and diseases. Camping lets you patch wounds and deliver inspiring speeches on longer expeditions, while the Tavern and the Abbey back in the hamlet are where survivors drink, pray, gamble or brood their stress away. Permadeath applies throughout, so the veteran you have invested weeks in can be gone in a single unlucky round.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eA World Drawn in Ink and Shadow\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChris Bourassa's hand-drawn crowquill art style gives the game its unmistakable look, all heavy black lines and sickly colour, and Wayne June's narration threads dry, funereal commentary through every triumph and every disaster. Together they turn a difficult roguelike into something closer to a gothic novel you are slowly losing control of.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe estate has been waiting a long time for someone foolish enough to go back down. Gather your heroes, ration the torches, and see how far into the dark you can lead them before it leads them somewhere else.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Red Hook Studios","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47859610188,"sku":"PC_11814262924_DL_L_AE...ZA","price":8.29,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0875\/3268\/files\/card-Darkest-Dungeon-PC-steam-game.jpg?v=1788740141"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.pjsgames.com\/en-ie\/collections\/gothic.oembed","provider":"PJ's Games","version":"1.0","type":"link"}