 No matter how hard you try to quit, it drags you back in. Again and again and again. You can do nothing but give in. At least for an hour or two until you realise the latest free DLC for Darker's Dungeon isn't all that great. And the Butch's Circus offers one thing I never thought to see in the Darker's Dungeon, a PvP mode. Huh? What? I cannot believe it! I thought when I first saw the announcement, but curiosity won out in the end and here I am, sharing with you my impressions, brief as they are. There's rungs, fancy customisation for your banners to show off and even seasonal content every six weeks. And again, it's continuously refreshing when we get all new modes for all the games free of charge. The narrator makes his return with a few blood-curdling lines. But I think voice actor Wayne Dune could have been commissioned to do some shout-crafting along the lines of, The Vestal Breeds Her Last under the eldritch horrors of The Occultist. That would have shown some extra commitment to the mode. It's not a bad piece of free content to dabble in. But it is also absolutely not the kind of content I expected to ever see from this game of all. At the foundation of Darker's Dungeon has always been a test of endurance. For the characters in their repeated attempts to map out the estate of the ancestor while surviving its untold horrors. And for the player, as he learns to cope with mechanics which often might leave him furious with the injustice of it all. The aspect that can honestly make this entire mode infuriating is the Death's Door mechanic, which logic dictates they should have removed or heavily modified. Death's Door, for those not in the know-how, is a last chance for your characters to survive at Zero HP. The name says it all. Your adventurer can die immediately on the first hit after they fall to Zero HP. Or they could take five or more hits and still miraculously be alive. Can you see the problem such a mechanic imposes on the game in a PvP setting? Yep, it's all about that sweet sweet RNG, which causes plenty of people to play with specific builds in mind, builds which rely on a surefire way to win. These builds are all about increasing the stress of your characters to 200, at which point they get a heart attack and die. This is the kind of meta born out of necessity and not particularly enjoyable to engage in at all. And I picked up on it after but a few matches. I've also heard about disconnect issues, and that whole menagerie of problems so common to many multiplayer modes of otherwise stellar single-player games. My advice, if you're a committed Darkest Dungeon fan, skip this mode and keep your eye on news for the release of the sequel. If you're brand new, just play the bloody game already. If I hear you complaining about having no games to play one more time, I'm gonna smack you. But there's more to the butchers' circus too. Maybe it's aimed at a different kind of player, the kind that enjoyed the combat of the game more than any other element, and that kind of player will find the testing of wits against living opponents a challenge worthy of sinking in a dozen hours or more. That said, the Red Hook Studios has always listened to their players. I'm curious to see if they will show the initiative to tackle the desk door issue at the very least. If something changes, I'll let you know. Thanks for watching, thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this video, please like it, or if you didn't, you might as well dislike it. It doesn't matter to me, I want you to be engaged, please be engaged! And of course, if you'd be so kind to subscribe, I'd appreciate it, is a lot. Got 126 of you. I've been doing all this for 126 subscribers. Maybe I do need a hobby. Oh wait, that's my hobby. Anyway, thank you guys for watching, and I'll see you next time. Bye!