Stonekeep

I owned this game back in 1995 and tried it again recently. Does not age well: 1. Bugs/unbeatable game states = keeping an inventory of save games and/or clinging to walkthroughs. Essentially save before you fight, heal, test that button, or use that item. You never know what you'll ruin. 2. Inventory is slow and goofy. You never know which items are critical or junk so you have to keep it all. Randomized HP regen on items (will the potion restore 1 HP or 30?) Enemies and items are finite so it's possible to drain your entire regen inventory in one shot. Minimal gains + finite inventory makes this game work like a survival horror. Tack on unbeatable game states and you end up afraid to use your inventory. 3. Clues are too obscure with a ton of misleading junk/in-house jokes that add to the confusion (even authors of walkthroughs are confused). 4. No way to grind / enemies finite. If you invest in the wrong skills, be prepared to start at the beginning because there's no fixing it. 5. Ridiculous backtracking. Travel back a few levels to restore health or magic. One fight goes wrong with an enemy, and you get to do it again. 6. Way too many hidden walls / secret buttons that all blur with the redundant scenery. You'll spend hours trying to test every wall for buttons or walk-through. One-way illusory walls add insult to injury (more backtracking). 7. Poor graphics = item hunting pain. It's one thing to find a trapdoor to an item. It's another thing to stick it behind an undisposable corpse. Worst are a few rare items that only show up when you look at the same square from a different angle. 8. "I don't see, know, or care about who I'm helping or saving" story syndrome. Characters have virtually no backstory. So many opportunities missed. This was ok as a kid during summer break having tons of time to deal with bugs and issues. As an adult it's just not worth it. The only thing going for it was a neat FMV gimmick but it gets old fast.

I miss this game. So many Sunday mornings given in sacrifice to the tunnels of Stonekeep. I always loved the magic system in this game. Plus the idea of maintaining your own journal rocked! This is a must-play for anyone who has never had the pleasure of enjoying this CLASSIC dungeon-crawler. The End.

I have loved this game since I first played it with my dad when I was a teenager. I was so bummed when I couldn't play it anymore when we upgraded to Windows 98, BUT now I get to play it again and enjoy the story all over! This is a must play for RPG lovers!!

Have not played this game before= zero nostalgia. Wasnt a bad game, but i found it boring after a while. I like old rpgs etc, but this was to linear i guess.

I played this game a long time ago and for a long time, haven't bought it yet on GOG, so I don't know about how it runs. HOWEVER! First sentence is not a mistake, I've played this with my father from 1998 till 2008 (Or even beyond that), we kept getting stuck in the later levels, which are incredibly convoluted, like Fairy World (Though very satisfying once you figure it out). Regardless, I'd still give it a top rating, simply because it's a lot of fun, especially finding new weapons and spells, and IMO it holds up well today. It gives you a lot of flexibility in regards of how you want to play it and, from what I can tell, all of them are feasible. Even the graphics haven't dated that terribly, same goes for the voice acting. I usually pay a lot of attention to VO and a lot of games from that era are very stiff in that aspect, here it sounds rather natural. One last thing, don't be me, don't think less of yourself if you get stuck and have to look up a walkthrough, it's really hard at times. Unless you want to spend a lot of time on it : D