Darkstone

This game was often called a Diablo clone, like so many other action rpg's of those days. Well, it is NOT a clone and while it absolutely has its similarities, it can stand on its own. Modern machines will allow you to really crank up some GPU settings to make this old school 3D engine look better but on its own, the ingame options and settings are very limited. Controls are simple enough but there is NO ingame page to see what they are let alone change them. Fortunatly there is the internet to search out and see what hotkeys do what and what mouse movements do what. You can rotate the camera 360 while playing or leave it at a default "isometric" view, a top down view and a "chase cam" view. No matter what you use, and you can switch at any time, you will need to manually rotate the camera sometimes in order to pick up items. Your sword shaped cursor is absolute when clicking an item, it must be directly over it on what seems like the smallest pixel, or it wont do anything. It will change color from white to red so at least you know you're on the item, but it is pretty sensitive. There is no crafting, there aren't many side quests and there are no seperate but related storylines to follow. You go down levels in a massive dungeon, level up, gain spells and better weapons, and then fight the main badguy. When you do get some side missions given by a random townsfolk, you would be best served by writting it down on paper because there is no real quest log to speak of, and giving the item to the person who gave you the quest is not identified on the map or a log. Fortunatly there aren't many people in town to click on to find the right person. This is a great game from 1999, but that's just it, it's from 1999. Action RPG's were in their infancy back in those days, so dont have expectaions to anything "modern". It is a great game and shouldn't be missed. Take a weekend and give it a run through, you wont be disapointed.

This is one of those games that you think about after you are done playing it, either planning out in your head what you are going to do next or managing your inventory, or remembering that wild battle where you were surrounded by 8 demons and had to think fast. It seems that whenever I want to come back to a game on GOG, this is the first one I come back to. About 20+ years ago, I played the Playstation version and loved it. But the PC version is that much better, and it is a truly wonderful game with one of the most immersive soundtracks ever put to a video game. A lot of people don't understand this game, and make comparisons to "Torchlight" and such, or calling it a "Diablo Clone". Darkstone does Diablo better than Diablo, and came before Titan Quest, Grim Dawn, and other games that the Diablo game engine spawned. The fact that Torchlight and other similar games exist does not negate this game one bit. You will have fun playing this game. A few things to consider: 1) Planning your adventure and taking the time to get your gear setteled will make for a more enjoyable game play. YES, there are tough monster out there, so use strategy and don't bum rush every boss because you will get smooshed in 2 seconds. 2) You have nearly endless storage in the town. Simply drop stuff you don't want to sell, and you will be able to recover it when you need it. 3) When setting up two characters, make one of them a ranged fighter. 4) Talk to everyone and enjoy the solid and classy voice over talent while getting side quest information. One cool aspect of this game is that much of the game is randomly generated, so each time you start up, its a totally different world. 5) There are some audio bugs where the background music skips...like a scratched CD. Just deal with it like we did back-in-the-day! 6) Set up your mouse sensitivity and get to know your hot keys. 7) Save often, carry a lot of potions, and check the blacksmith often for new gear.

I first played Darkstone on the Playstation way back but never really got into it on the console. I was preoccupied digging deep into the JRPG library for the PSX at that time and this game just ended up collecting dust. I do remember liking it while me and my brother played co-op but thinking it was just a Diablo knock off so I have no nostalgia for the game. Fast forward to today. I just purchased it a week ago and finished it today on normal for the first time and can tell I will play much more of it. I could not put it down. I loved every moment of it. Honestly, I really am surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did and feel I have no business loving it as much as I do now. ARPGS today give you so many options in customization and builds and in gear and it can be very overwhelming and and frustrating sometimes, building your character. Darkstone comes from a simpler time. A time where skill was measured more on how you handle a situation through action and less so with what gear you had equipped. You can have good gear and still die if your clumsy and are not paying attention. Games like Diablo III are afraid of killing you because then you might get frustrated and log off. This isnt a complicated game but there is enough depth in it to keep you going. Getting new loot is just as fun and rewarding and the pace of the game is just right. The graphics havnt aged well but I put some Reshade on my copy and some anti aliasing and I was stuck in. The music is nice in some aspects and the quests and dungeons are randomized which keep the game feeling fresh. The inclusion of running a 2 man singleplayer party is really nice as well. I really wish this game had some mods for it as I see some real potential there...or a remake would really do this game justice. Nonetheless I really enjoyed this game a lot and recommend it highly for people interested in a good dungeon crawl. Superb..really!

First off: the game delivers plenty of hack and slay gameplay for the money spent, even by today's standards. It's best to compare it to a retro mobile phone hack and slay for the big screen, sort of. Things you should know: - the camera rotation is happening on the arrow keys of the keyboard, as is the zoom level - looting stuff can be tedious. you *hear* the type of drop, but the rather random drop location around you can go through walls and the items are difficult to spot - there is plenty of loot - you can play two characters at once - there are classes, but any class can achieve almost everything of other classes - there is no character customization, other than armour levels and weaponry - the games' resolution is abysmal, but the graphic style is still very appealing (compare it to torchlight), although it looks like there are some hacks for that - it's very replayable, as it has randomization and difficulty levels - mouse pointer movement is a bit wonky - save at any time if you can get past the negatives, it can be a quite addicting game and only compares to diablo by the type of genre it belongs.

After having played Diablo I and II and gone the linear path of "do everything here, then go there" through 16 dungeon levels and 5 acts respectively in three difficulties, I decided to give this game a spin. I will admit that while the game has its shining points, there are also some things I found to be desired. As a result, I come to this section of my thoughts on the game and its features: Good points: -Randomization of quests and scenarios for replay value -Quests that actually challenged me to think and reason, instead of just mash buttons and kill stuff all the time, like other games do (like that puzzle with the statuettes). -Sticky situations that most action RPGs didn't really make use of (cursed items that actually do hurt a lot if you equip them). -Ability to export your characters and customize them in different ways from what the manual recommends (ie a wizard taking a sword and shield to battle due to higher than normal strength) -Somewhat decent soundtrack, with the one for the town and the first northern wilderness region shining brightest from all of those I've listened to so far Could be better (notice the wording): -Very boring loot system (nothing out of the ordinary, aside from just usual magic items. I have yet to see a single equivalent of a unique or set item from Diablo drop anywhere in the game) -Poor choices for text color of magic/normal/etc items (couldn't tell them apart just by looking at the text) -Graphics (not a big deal considering this was made in 1999, though). -Lacks subtitles for audio dialog, outside of the game's recap system (this is a big deal for me, since I'm used to the subtitle automatically being generated in Diablo I and II) Summary: Darkstone is not necessarily in my top 5 best titles, but its still a very decent title to check out, if you're into ARPGs that have an element of puzzle and strategy to them. I've never played Co-op multiplayer, but if you're lucky enough to know another person who owns a copy, give that a go and let the rest of us know how it works out for you.