The two main aspects of this game, to me, are its unique setting (at least for a dark-fantasyish RPG) and the difficulty to master it. The game is set in medieval Germany where you can travel through its cities large and small and the countryside, talk to commoners, merchants, priests, nobles... There's plenty of games of different genres set in medieval Europe and even in Germany, but most picture it like the real world, while in Darklands, real magic rituals, curses and monsters exist (that's where the dark fantasy part comes in). You'll primarily work as a mercenary, looking for errands to do and bad guys to slay and loot. The game is VERY open and non-linear. There's no main course to follow. When you're not busy doing work for other people, feel free to roam the country and look for more work, because the game won't direct you to either way. So your aim is to run a group of adventurers in their path to becoming heroes. While I like open and non-linear, I think this game should handle missions more easily. The missions usually take you SO FAR AWAY they can take several gaming sessions to finish, so that you'll sometimes forget what you were trying to do in the first place or will perhaps come across the chance to do other things and this adds to you forgetting the missions you were doing before. Another problem of Darklands is the non-existent user interface, particularly in combat situations, in which you must memorize non-intuitive keyboard shortcuts for all actions. Again, takes some getting used to. Darklands is for die-hard RPG fans who like big challenges. It's unique too. People who like early-90s-era CRPGs are sure to be intrigued.
I bought this game several years ago in one of those discount packages and was surprised in a positive way. At 14 bucks or so the game was actually pretty good. It's quick-paced, challenging, it even reminds me of another great game of my youth, Megarace. Don't let the screenshots fool you: they look boxy and pixelated, while the game is dynamic and fast -- those pixelated scenes race past you faster than you can see. So it's been almost 15 years from the release of POD, but I still think the game is a good racing fix.
