Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Sun Series

Dark Sun : Normal edition Dark Sun 2 : CD edition (animated cutscenes and tracks instead of midi music) The games are good, but there are some annoyances: - Skip intro is bound to 'shift' key (big problem until you realize this) - Animations slow down the screen scrolling. The more animations... the slower the game gets. Disable animations ASAP! - Pixel hunting! You'll need to check often pixel-by-pixel for items etc. You'll miss stuff very easily without a guide! The Good: - The configuration is good. I'm saying this 'cos I've attempted to make DS2 work on DosBox prior GOG's release and it was A.) good, but music failed with static noises B.) Crashed all the time. GOG's config looks solid - you just have to deal with the inherited issues present in the game - see above Recommended? Yes, but make sure you wear your nostaligia glasses. Note: games allows editing of attributes at character creation (left/ right hit the yellow dots next to them). This includes HP and Psi Power points - (max attributes first, then max HP & PP). Don't worry.. you'll die even like this.

I still have the original, in store copies of both these games, purchased from a Babbages store in the early 90s. Hell, I'm old enough to remember when Shattered Lands first came out, and then Wake Of The Ravager. Shattered Lands remains the better of these two; it's better paced, vast, and relatively bug free. It's a top-down, turn-based role-playing game that I daresay Baldur's Gate owes its life to and only perfected. The most positive thing you can say about this game is how exotic and unique it is. You really can't beat the world of Athas for creativity. This isn't Swords and Sorcerer, knights in shining armor, rescue the maiden middling tropes spread across a hundred stories you've ever heard. Athas is Darwinian philosophy as a world-view. Water and metal are scarce, sorcerer-kings rule as near literal gods over their city-states, and nothing is guaranteed. Honor is kept at a minimum. Altruism is near unheard of. You'll span a story from starting as a gladiator slave to leading an army, and make no mistake, this game is vast. Wake Of The Ravager, its sequel, often gets a bad rap. It was rushed, shipped out with bugs, and had an awkward CD audio rock soundtrack that, nonetheless, in my opinion, added to its appeal. I would like to add that the writing in this game is top-notch; really, the lore is superb and doesn't get enough credit. I'd even put it above Shattered Lands, quality wise, if you can navigate the interface. People comment on you barging into their rooms, there are dozens of colorful, engaging, and realistic NPCs that are a wonder to meet-- hell, most of the charm for me was the notion that two people in this world are having a lively dialogue. Matthias Morthen put it best when he said, "A cool drink of water and a good friend to chat with. What more could one ask for?"

Great game, great fun, but still, after 25 years, deeply flawed. At any point in the game, if you don't finish a quest, or quest chain, in quite the right way, the final sequence of battles won't trigger. Nothing like spending a few dozen hours playing a game, only to have it break at the last moment with no way of knowing exactly what broke it, or where you have to go back to to fix it.

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been waiting for these games to be on here since I joined. Dark Sun is an incredible setting which I first experienced through the books. It was sad when they decided to discontinue the series. Athas is a post-apocalyptic world in fantasy setting where magic has devastated the world instead of nukes. Based on memory,I think you can import your party from Shattered Lands into Wake of the Ravager. I suggest playing in that order even though the stories aren't connected.

I picked up Dark Sun in CNA (Mostly a book and stationary shop in South Africa) many years ago and was one of the few games I could not put down. I remember having a hard time with the Mind Flayers in the beginning. This game brought me hours of fun even though I prefer playing games like this in a LAN/Multi-player setting - I made an exception for this one. This was around the time I read Lord Of The Rings by JRR Tolkien, the Lone Wolf books from Joe Dever and started to play Dungeons and Dragons with friends. I remember how excited I was finding this title and it did not disappoint. I could not wait to get home from work to carry on playing or simply upgrading my party. The freedom of choice, the story that grabbed me, danger around every corner, amazing equipment and the reward of clever thinking. The Psionic class was pretty new to me at that stage and I think new to the 3rd edition rule set and you can play it in this game. This game will be worth playing if you are into D&D. A game should be fun no matter the graphics, else why play it? This game is a lot of fun.