Darklands

I've been playing this game since I was 12! Still playing it today, best RPG of all time. For those looking for a tool to read and track all your quests and much more, take a look at: https://github.com/ricardopinedathen/darklands-quest Its free and open source, my brother and I made it for ourselves and wanted to share it with everyone that's playing the game! Screenshot: https://darklands.blob.core.windows.net/images/screenshot-full.png Regards

I bought the original when it came in 7 (3.5) discs. Still have them (along with the original manual, spellbook and map) although I no longer have a machine that can load such an ancient format. I use the CD version I bought a few years later that contained the last patches. I still play the game today and I might have 3000 hours in by now. A lot of others have detailed the game so I won't add to those already excellent descriptions. Here;s the bottom line. The graphics are from 1992, the combat is less than ideal and the overall game is maybe the best of all time for its genre. This is worth buying...and in 25 years, you'll still be playing it too.

The two main aspects of this game, to me, are its unique setting (at least for a dark-fantasyish RPG) and the difficulty to master it. The game is set in medieval Germany where you can travel through its cities large and small and the countryside, talk to commoners, merchants, priests, nobles... There's plenty of games of different genres set in medieval Europe and even in Germany, but most picture it like the real world, while in Darklands, real magic rituals, curses and monsters exist (that's where the dark fantasy part comes in). You'll primarily work as a mercenary, looking for errands to do and bad guys to slay and loot. The game is VERY open and non-linear. There's no main course to follow. When you're not busy doing work for other people, feel free to roam the country and look for more work, because the game won't direct you to either way. So your aim is to run a group of adventurers in their path to becoming heroes. While I like open and non-linear, I think this game should handle missions more easily. The missions usually take you SO FAR AWAY they can take several gaming sessions to finish, so that you'll sometimes forget what you were trying to do in the first place or will perhaps come across the chance to do other things and this adds to you forgetting the missions you were doing before. Another problem of Darklands is the non-existent user interface, particularly in combat situations, in which you must memorize non-intuitive keyboard shortcuts for all actions. Again, takes some getting used to. Darklands is for die-hard RPG fans who like big challenges. It's unique too. People who like early-90s-era CRPGs are sure to be intrigued.

[review based on original, not GOG version] This game breaks many RPG rules and is all the better for it. Characters age, with physical potential greatest and knowledge weakest when young. Skills improve with use, but don't expect your battle-hardened character to become immune to swords as a result. The same number of hits will kill a hardened veteran. Armor deflects damage but weighs characters down. Equipment degrades. Primitive firearms take forever to reload. Danger can appear without warning, whether it's a robber ambush, a witch in the woods, or a secret cult controlling an entire town. There's no literal magic; alchemists craft potions, believers pray for miracles, both of which require a lifetime of research to be fully effective. There's little 3rd-person exploration outside of dungeons and combat. Instead, most towns and encounters consist of a series of multiple-choice text screens with beautiful watercolor backgrounds. This works quite well and sets the mood better than the primitive overhead graphics. Massive, complex, yet accessible, the game offers a sense of reality like few others. The scale is comparable to Daggerfall, but with more direction and better realized locations. The flavor of medieval Germany is everywhere. There is always a feeling that your party is alone against the encroaching darkness, even when you're at your most powerful. Equipment and skill can only get you so far. You have to keep your wits to survive. The game's art and interface have a pleasant medieval flavor, but the combat graphics were primitive even for their time and will hurt the experience for some players. The menus are clunky sometimes. Real-time combat with pause works well, but again the interface is lacking. The game shipped with a host of serious bugs. Many of them were thankfully ironed out, but save often and be prepared for unpleasant surprises. There's also a steep learning curve. Read the manual thoroughly.

This game is a masterpiece. It is non-linear, well researched, and unlike any other computer rpg ever made. It also runs sweetly on DOSBox now, and the horrible bugginess that helped make it a commercial failure way back in the day is gone.