I've had Darkest Dungeon for a while now and I'm pretty upset with the direction the developers have taken with it. DD has always been a somewhat difficult game that can be really cruel with RNG, especially as you frist start out. Many people say that there is no "fail state", but you feel like a failure when you lose about 10-20 hours of progress per character you lose. There have been ways to be careful, risky, and successful while mitigating the risk of horrible RNG; however, the developers have taken it upon themselves to not only patch out the clever ways you can make your characters not die, but also introduce new facets that screw you over more.

The reason I don't recommend this game is because I feel like the developers are heavy-handed with their patch fixes based on how players are deciding to play their game, rather than actually fixing the bugs and features that aren't working properly. Several trinkets simply don't work, several skills don't work as intended (looking at you, Man at Arms with Guard, thanks for getting my Arbalest one shot), several of the buffs and debuffs don't work as intended, and now the enemies and dungeons are for the most part broken. Since the patch, I've had to retreat from all 5 dungeons because of the new enemies, the limitations on items you can bring (for instance, there were 2 wall curios in the first 3 hallways in the Cove, and since I was on a scouting mission I ran out of shovels and couldn't complete the dungeon without clawing through the other 5 wall curious I saw).

In short, the game has always been hard. The game has always been out to get you, and set you back on time you've spent playing it (by getting your hard-earned heroes killed with crits). Just like the intro says, DD is about making the best out of difficult situations. The game in its current state, and with the way the developers have been taking it, is pure masochism. I'm not sure if the developers playtest their game, because if I were them I sure as hell wouldn't want to.

If you've made it through this wall of text to this far, please excuse me if I seem like I'm ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. I actually like rogue-likes, and I'm familiar with the concept of being set back in time and losing things permanently. Nobody likes being treated unfairly, and it feels like the game is a chore. If the idea was to make it stressful, it's just annoying. On the plus side, the developers ARE active and DO create new content frequently, but on the negative side a lot of the ideas they take from the community are pretty stupid.

All in all, if you're thinking of purchasing this game, it might be a good idea to wait until it's finished.

Edit for clarity:

After seeing the positive reviews that mostly knock players for not understanding the mechanics, I figured I'd approach those mechanics from a different angle than the positive reviews, since I do understand the mechanics.

The trinkets:
I feel like they simply aren't balanced. Most of the "Ancestral" (legendary trinkets) hurt more than they help. For instance, one gives 5% increased crit to melee, but adds 5% stress damage to your characters. That character will be targeted by stress attacks by the AI if he has the lowest stress resist and is in a position to be targeted, and you will be dished out more stress damage by the two to three enemies that deal stress damage than you will ever be able to recoup with your one turn and 5% increased crit. On the plus side, at least this trinket works as intended.

The increased prices:
Most people aren't complaining about the increased prices because it makes the game "harder", it just makes the grind longer and makes it more of a pain in the ass. Also, the sting of defeat hits a lot harder and your start is a lot rougher. Has this specific issue bugged me? No, not really.

Curios:
Honestly, they're not that big of a deal except for the item limitation imposed now. When you have a bank, you want to overprepare - now you can't. You can always just ignore curios and get rid of quirks that force you to interact with curios.

Healing:
The devs don't want you to faceroll everything with damage stacking, but they also don't want you to be able to heal your heroes against lone targets. So they add stun resistance to monsters for multiple stuns, then they add stress damage, then they add increased stress damage for stalling, then they add monster reinforcements. Has this ever affected me personally? No, because for the most part I manage my heals pretty well and bring balanced parties that are tailored to specific dungeons. Do I find it stupid that the developers are punishing people who ALREADY take a tedious and careful approach, gut it, and make the game even MORE tedious and punishing? Yeah, but for for the most part this facet also hasn't really affected me.

Facerolling:
Do you have Legendary heroes with max equipment and skills? Did they ever completely faceroll everything? Or do you still get your Occultist eldritch pulled into a treebrance smackdown from a giant? Yeah, same here. The game has never been "too easy" or "too hard", but as your heroes leveled and upgraded your start to reduce the variance which leads to a catastrophic collapse of your party. One bad move, one bad stress hit crit, one bad bleed stack, one bad smackdown crit could all lead to damage you cannot recoup in A SINGLE BATTLE. The recent patches have made even non-room battles more deadly.

Class choices:
Let's face it, some classes are just underpowered. I use the Grave Robber just because she's one of my favorites, and she's a great support unit. Depending on where you are, you can remove blight and bleed, make her a dodge tank, or turn her into a crit monster. The Jester and the Man at Arms are both great units to use in conjunction with her, but her low health has always made her vulnerable. Guarantee she's going to hit death's door at least once, maybe three or four times if you're taking her to a boss battle. I use her not always because she's the optimal choice, but I like the concept. With the new patch, I pretty much only want to use Bounty Hunter for my scouter. The Houndmaster is pretty cool, but again he's pretty underpowered as well. Weak 1-2 damage AOE hits with bleed only serve well against maybe one fight, and that's the formless flesh. In other words, there's cases where heroes have a skill that is useful in only ONE portion of the game - also looking at you, Man at Arms skill Guard - which doesn't always work by the way, especially against the Prophet. In a game where the developers nerf heroes that are being used to "faceroll" things and do large amounts of damage, the other heroes which are underpowered and suboptimal in pretty much every dungeon are left untouched. If anything, it shows a lack of focus and forward thinking on the developers part - flaws that will be fatal to you as the player in a dungeon, but compeltely acceptable for the game's creators...

For the most part, I tend to leave the game specific gripes out because people thinking about buying the game... haven't played it. But for those of you complainig about the negative reviews and saying "those who reveiew negatively just need to git gud and stop QQing", there are legimate reasons why people don't like DD. I've loved this game since the beginning, but l don't like the direction the developers are taking it.

If you enjoy the game as it is, please direct your butthurt elsewhere. By the way, nice job posting my review at the top of /r/DarkestDungeon and vote brigading the thumbs downs, Reddit.