Download Dark Designs I - Grelminars Staff

Dark Designs I - Grelminar's Staff is first-person four characters RPG in the style of the Wizardry games. 

Story:

The story isn't a whole lot to talk about. An evil warlord (are there any other kind) has made an evil portal where all kinds of Generally Nasty Creatures come from, who proceed to do Generally Nasty Things. 

 If you want to stop this mess, and while you're at it, Save The World, you'll need four guys to raid the dead wizard Gremlinar's ruined tower and get his staff from his laboratory on the third floor, the only thing that can close the gate, stop the Generally Nasty Creatures from appearing and win you the admiration of the wenches and the adoration of the peasants. (Or was it the other way around?) 

Graphics:

The game is in CGA, with a light blue, pink, and black color scheme. The action is seen from a little 3D window with an auto-map on the right side of the screen. In combat, your characters and monsters are seen from an overhead view as stick figures. 

Gameplay:

You start out in a town (read: menu), where you can create and manage characters and equip said characters with weapons, armor, and spells from the shops, and heal and resurrect them from the temple. 

You can either create a Fighter, a Wizard, or a Priest. Characters are assigned five stats: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Piety. On character creation, you get five random numbers each roll and can choose which number goes to each stat. 

The ultimate goal of the game is to find the wizard's staff on the third floor, while on the way, fighting many monsters and getting lots of cash. Armor, weapons, spells, and items, such as rings or healing potions can be purchased to increase your chances of survival. You always have an automap with you, which always make the game a lot less needlessly frustrating. 

The battles start out easy, with your usual goblins and kobolds. Survival becomes more difficult to achieve, however, when you begin to face fairies and unicorns. (Yes, fairies and unicorns are dangerous. Do not question this.) 

A good strategy to use in the beginning of the game when you are close to the tower's exit to town is to use your priest spells to heal everybody, and go to town, where your spell points will be restored, and then repeat if needed.

Overall, Dark Designs isn't the most complex RPG ever made, nor is it the prettiest (especially in 1990.), but it's a solid RPG for those who like dungeon crawlers such as Wizardry. And may you not be claimed yet another victim by the vicious unicorns!