Given the dodgy development history of this game it is a miracle it was ever released at all.
This is the best looking "Pseudo 3d First Person Dungeon Crawl" game ever made using digitized puppets, costumed actors, and pre-rendered cgi for all the games enemy and character sprites.
It has everything a game of this type is expected to have. A high degree of difficulty and seemingly endless maze of 8 foot wide hallways that all have identical walls which makes getting lost a breeze.
There is a map that you can add highlights to and make notes on but you have to open your journal every time you need to look at it (and look at it you will.....many many times)
Don't get me wrong. At least there IS a map (some of these games force you to buy a pack of grid paper to draw your own map)
Miss something important several levels ago? Well you best start back tracking buddy boy! (even if you have NO CLUE what you are looking for because the game offers no hints (or at least a very vague one).
Then there is the inventory. Stonekeep has the absolute worst inventory system ever. It is a scroll that only shows 5 items at once even though you will end up picking up dozens of items. You have to scroll up and down one item at a time so if you need to use a key that is at the top of the list and you are currently at the bottom of the list you might as well tape your mouse button down and go make a sandwich because it takes ~half a second for each item to scroll up(or)down. Items can be stacked but it is never done automatically and most times need a special holder to enable stacking so if you pick up a new key you still need to scroll around until you find your keyring assuming you have found the keyring already (arrow quiver, dart basket, rock bag......)
The best way to deal with this is to not pick up everything in sight (of course you run a bad risk of passing up an important item)
Besides the terrible inventory , sloppy magic system, and vague quest directions that can lead to aimless backtracking this game kicks ass as long as you enjoy taking your time to explore EVERYTHING before moving on.

Well, I do remember owning the game. But I also remember I didnt get very far. Maybe I'll try again, now that I can :)

I had never heard of this game until recently. I tend to watch youtube videos called 'Let's Play' in which user play through a game providing commentary. One user, Kikoskia, is let's playing StoneKeep and despite it showing some of the bugs and flaws... it's shown the cool story, acting and how much he really loves this game. The enjoyment makes me interested in trying it myself :)
[url=]http://www.youtube.com/user/Kikoskia[/url]

I wasn't sure about this game when I got it all those years ago (mostly based on the box art!), and thought that although the intro movie was excellent and I was in love with Thela, it seemed very hard, with the ants right at the start killing me! But I preserved and got the the first floor having found some armour, a broadsword and my Journal! What made it for me was the time I died because the goblins threw rocks at me! Rocks for goodness sake - how cool is that?! I never finished it and now that G.O.G. is re-resurrecting this classic I may well have to dip my toes in again! :)

I never played this, but I do remember the great box art.

Yeah it had great boxart, but the best part was inside. I remember playing this game back in the late 90s and loving every bit of it. That was the days when I never used help because AOL cost money every hour and I was limited to using it so I never used it for walkthroughs. I wish I could go back to those days of doing everything myself. If anyone else can pick this game up, it has great moments.

tbh I don't mind getting out an ol' scrap of paper and writing my own map. It's a little archaic but I've done it for some crappy games (Crusaders of might and magic) and it makes them more fun :D

Slybo:
As usual I really enjoy reading your posts and replies. I apologize for replying so lately on this one but I could not access the site since last Friday no matter how much I tried......I finally figured it out! LOl!
I tend to agree with you on most of your comments on Stonekeep:
Remember, I have not played this game since it came out what in 1995? That was 13 years ago. I even have a copy of the game sitting right next to me but could never get it to work in Windows XP, Vista 32bit or even Vista 64bit, and believe me I have tried and searched everywhere on the Internet to no avail..
Anyhow, Also When the game came out the world of RPGs were something new to me, heck! Computer gaming was practically all new to me. So my replies to you here are solely based on what I remember from 13 years ago and again I was very newb when it came to RPGs....nonetheless I still have very fond memories of this game...now if I could only get it to work again?........hmmmmm
In no particular order:
1 - The inventory System was crappy but what I loved about it was that it was endless......no limit on what you can put in or carry.....to me as one of my first real RPGs, that was important, I did not have to spent countless time removing and adding and managing my inventory........
2 - The countless treks back and forth were a pain in the ass, I agree with you there, but how many games have had that same issue over the years.......But to me it gave my toon the chance to refill the water bag and refill his health meter at the Water Fountains......
3 - The Magic system or use of it was a little too fundamental but it served it purpose. I basically used as little magic as possible as I found it in some cases way too easy and in other way too hard.....enough said on that!
4 - The labyrinth of exact same walls from one level to another was a little boring but the map helped out. To me I was in a real dungeon and I did not care that it looked the same just that I was never sure what I would encounter at each turn or when I opened random doors and so on.
5 - The one thing that I was not pleased with was that some of the times the mobs in behind certain doors would not come out beyond the doors, so sending bombs in every once in a while would eliminate the threats. In other words that was a little boring.
6 - And yes, the quest line was very vague at times and I would have to login to Compuserver (yea I am that old) and peruse the boards as I would get lost in what I needed to do next...........A better Quest system would have made the game for a newb like me a little more adventuresome. Anyways, the very helpful forums there lead me in the right direction almost every time.
7 - The worst part for me was when I would capture those magical orbs, I would not know what to do with them until I had used up the magic it was intended for, hence making me load a save game and therefore know that this Orb can only heal you twice per floor kinda thing. Again, that may have been my newbyness there!
All and all, I would like to add that maybe now after all my experienced years of playing RPGs and MMOs, the game may not have the same appeal as a Baldur's Gate, NWN1 and 2, The Witcher etc...........but to me my first RPG will always remain my favorite.............and one day I will get the damn thing to run!!! LOL
Al the best Slybo and all for your comments here and everywhere on these Forums.
Cheers!

I've probably said it in another thread, but it's still worth mentioning that page up/down and home/end make the inventory scroll much faster and easier to use.

Yeah, the inventory and journal systems definitely became more manageable once I got the pgUp/pgDown Home and End keys to work....
About the graphics, I'd have to say that Lands of Lore 1 was better looking.....