Take a look at this scene, the drowned crew boss encounter from the game Darkest Dungeon
Compare that to this same encounter, but with added narration
That is the voice of Wayne June, the narrator of Darkest Dungeon.
In this video, I will break down the remarkable impact his voice has
on both the atmosphere and the gameplay of this brilliant and bleak game
When you ask people to name one thing they remember especially well about Darkest Dungeon
Most people will definitely answer the narrator
But did you know that he wasn't even planned to be in the full game
Before I dive deeper
I'll give a quick rundown of the game and its elements just to get a feel for what kind of game it is
Darkest dungeon is a turn-based dungeon crawler RPG by Red Hook Studios
It has strong roguelike elements such as perma death and a ruthless autosave system
It's both loved and hated for being a difficult and challenging game
The premise of the game is to explore the surrounding areas of your Hamlet
while slowly working your way to the darkest dungeon itself
Located beneath your ancestors old mansion
First you will assemble a team of heroes. They'll be delivered daily on a silver platter to you by a stagecoach
Then you'll go searching for loot in different areas
and you'll have to fight a lot of different Lovecraftian creatures
You'll meet everything from fanatic cultists and fish people to the grotesque swine king
And the loot hoarding corvid
When trekking through the maps you'll have a chance of encountering other horrifying mini-bosses
such as the cosmic Shambler
and The Collector - inspired by Lovecraft's Hastur Cthulu's half-brother
Once you think you're doing good. You'll probably meet one of these guys
The game is heavily Lovecraft inspired
Cosmic horror is a constant theme in the game and the further you progress in the game
the more the world around you starts to unravel and reveal itself
A staple of the game is the stress mechanic
your heroes are suspectible to the stress of delving into dungeons filled with monsters
And if you don't tend to heroes' well being
they will eventually get afflicted with different negative effects
these include paranoia
abusiveness
irrationality and many others
And now let's talk about the narrator
his deep and gritty voice is extremely memorable
Throughout the game he describes different happenings and events
for example when your heroes receives stress attacks
When the enemy lands a critical hit
or when setting off a trap
to a certain degree he dictates the mood of events happening in the game
I'm Tyler Sigmund. I'm the co-founder co-president design director
Trashman I don't know whatever. It's a small company so we all do a lot of things - of Red Hook studios
at a GDC Game Developers Conference
Red Hook studios Tyler Sigmund mentions how
they ended up with the voice of Wayne June in the game as a core element
They had heard his amazing audio book readings of the Lovecraft books
Which I will tell you how you can listen to for free later in the video
Originally, they only intended for him to star in a trailer for the game
but after hearing his readings
They quickly realized. How well his voice fit the game
And here's what Sigmund said after hearing June's readings
We brought this narrator in for our announcement trailer
I don't think at that point we had even thought about using one in the game
But he was so amazing Chris had found these Lovecraft audiobooks read by Wayne June
We contacted Wayne June got him to read for a trailer, and it was just like okay
He's in the - we have to put him in the game
There's there's no way we can't
And he is absolutely right
in a way June's lines also add to the gameplay elements
Having him give a short description of an event happening
when you return to the Hamlet makes for a more interesting bit of lore
Instead of the screen simply reading:
"this week you get a free upgrade"
This also goes for minor happenings in the dungeons
such as when looting a sack of food or when your torch gets extinguished
 
Instead of just getting the negative effects of exploring without a torchlight
you get an added layer of feel to the scene happening
Another good example of how the narrator is adding to the game's design is when you try to flee a battle
Which is something only done when things are going extremely bad
only to be denied and then hearing:
really accentuates the desperation you feel when
you realize you might lose all your heroes
Many of the examples shown so far have been either negative happenings or rather mundane events like
The Town Events, but in a game like this
where the lows are plentiful and often devastating
the highs are extremely rewarding
Having the narrator exclaim when you land that needed critical hit
which just saved your healer is exhilarating
But the absolute highest point in the game is undoubtedly when the run is going bad
and a Hero is about to be afflicted
dooming your run even more
and then turning out
Virtuous
See there's a small chance your hero will become virtuous
where they power on, even when reaching the stress threshold
where affliction it usually would set in
and this can turn the tide of a battle
The hero can no longer get afflicted
and they will boost your other party members in different ways
here you can see my man-at-arms
Resisting being dragged to the depths by the enemy because of him becoming stalwart
Giving me a great chance in this fight
and the booming voice which accompanies this
is absolutely thrilling and makes good gameplay shine even brighter
The narrator could be compared to a dungeon master in Dungeons and Dragons
Everything that's happening is being described by a person that has all the information
So even if we were to remove the interface showing the stress level and health of your heroes
you would still get a gauge on how they're doing
In the game you're getting the brunt of your information on-screen
Visually
All the extra depth comes from the narrations
You clearly understand that a hero becomes fearful or paranoid, but having the narrator say:
Adds another layer of information
and on how the hero is losing his or her mind
Other games have also used a voice-over like this
but not to the same extent that Darkest Dungeon utilizes it
For example classic FPS games such as Quake and Unreal Tournament
or Halo's killstreaks
However most games would not benefit much from a Darkest Dungeon-style narrator
It might even detract from the game experience
try to imagine Faster Than Light
which has an isolated atmosphere
with a narrator describing that hull breach which just happened
Even another game with a more similar tone to Darkest Dungeon
such as Dark Souls would suffer from having a narrator
Even while being in the same ballpark when it comes to atmosphere
a narrator is not at all needed here it feels out of place
in Darkest Dungeon however
the narration complements and
enriches the experience tenfolds
Red Hook Studios made in my opinion
one of the best design choices in the game
by adding the voice of Wayne June
Making it a gloomy, memorable
and just all-around amazing experience
The narrator is essentially
your only constant companion through the game
and when your heroes die time and again
the narrator will be there to make those losses
even more bitter and impactful
Thank you for watching this video essay
if you're interested in listening to the audio books
which got the Red Hook Studios into casting Wayne June
click on the Audible link in the description
*CHECK DESCRIPTION FOR CORRECTED DETAILS*
including The Dark Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft
read by of course Wayne June
I hope you enjoyed the video
if you did, feel free to like and subscribe
if people seem interested
I'll definitely keep making similar videos in the future
