Darkstone

I remember playing Darkstone back in the day and at that time it was quite a hit. 3D environments, classic ARPG interactions, random dungeons, etc. It was quite a sight to see. Playing this after 22 years really changes you perpesctive and you quicky realize thet the nostalgia googles were made on the wrong prescription. Playing this game nowadays feels like playing a very bad Diablo: Hellfire clone. Darkstone copies so many of Diablo's features and limitations that it feels like a total conversion mod rather than an original game. At the same time it adds aditional weird limitations and ballancing issues that make the game worse in many ways. I found a mage walkthrough to be very daunting and paved with a lot of backtracking to town to recharge mana and sell all the items just to move a bit forward. Vendors rarely change their stock. Rarely can you buy something worthwile. Equippment requirements are rather high and hard to fufill during an entire playthrough (I didn't reach 155 MAG, by the time I finished the game). Hunger and aging are additional annoyances that don't add anything to the game. And the list goes on. Also the difficulty is rather pumped up with spells targeting your next cursor movement position. The overall feel is ok. It's a decent ARPG but milage may vary based on what class do you choose and how are you playing the game. That being said, the GoG version solves a lot of the original problems associated with the game like unreadable text, glitches, sound issues (dialogue still skipps every now and then) and so on. It's a good version to try if you're willing to go back to a time where ARPG's wernt that streamlined.

One of mine if not mine favorite game of the Diablo/Baldur's Gates era. The game was rich and enticing and the multiplayer very nice. But the graphics and the audios were really good. The opening and ending credits song are still stuck in my head. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO4NDMT_l4c

I was looking through my older games and came across this one. What a blast I had when this first came out. I played it incessantly. Because you an replay the same character over and over, retaining all the levels from the previous game, I managed to get my character up to a ridiculous level 85. The exploring and combat are all fast-paced, and though the game has commonalities from one iteration to another (obviously the town setting and final boss fight are always the same) the dungeons themselves are randomly selected for each game. Sure, it's a Diablo-like game, but that's a good thing. Truly a good old game.

Boy I loved this game! "And the Darkstone will shine!" I remember playing this with 3D glasses (with artifacts, wasn't perfect) and having a whole new level of expectations for games from then on - still unmet, though I've not tried again recently. My 3D glasses phase didn't last, but this game was great with the real "3D tabletop figures" feel. I look forward to finding out if it will work with modern 3D monitors! I still have the disk, but will certainly love pick up a hassle free copy for a few bucks.

I have played most of the action RPGs that came along since Diablo, and Darkstone was one of my favorites. It allowed single player co-op where you could control two characters and switch between them with a single click, as well as true multiplayer co-op. I played it through once with just a single character to see what that was like - a bit tougher but I still completed it. The dungeons are randomized each time, so it has a lot of re-playability.