Darklands

[Lazy Lion]

And here ya go:

Darkland_Ger ready to run in dosbox
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3Y9JCSAB

If you want to do it yourself: dark_ger._install_files.zip
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XHIWLDDQ
All *.ima files are extracted, mount the dark_ger folder as floppy drive in dosbox and install game on virtual C:\ .


Thank you very much http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=bowen0w.gif

I took the version I can use right away, but I downloaded both... I´ll really have to learn this myself some time. Or at least try it, this kinda stuff always gives me a headache :rolleyes: Oh well, baby steps...

And the atmosphere bonus is incredible! When you speak German and ingame you´re in German cities and they speak English the language feels so absolutely out of place...

[Dadsa]

After completing the knocker quest and destroying a tomb, the game dies and I get the message 'pics/xmobglad.pic No such file or directory'. Has anyone had the same problem or has any ideas on how to fix it?

[Japo]

Did you get the game from here (Abandonia), and when? I think I had a similar problem, but I think the archive currently hosted here is good.

Try re-downloading from here. To keep your saved games, backup the "saves" folder, and after extracting the archive, overwrite the extracted "saves" with the backed up one.

[Dadsa]

It was a while ago, but I have re-downloaded it and it works. Thanks!

[fo_daddy]

I have a problem during install where it wants you to insert the install disk from a b or other, Any comments?

[dosraider]

http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=26082

[Katana_Geldar]

Downloaded this game again, played it for ages on my old laptop before it died. Can't wait to play it again.

BTW, I was using "level" earlier in this thread as I'm a DM and used to such terms. Kind of a slip of the tongue.

[ol darklander]

I've been playing this game for a while (more when i was a wee lad) but I can't seem to remember or find out how to use the darn healing potions! I've tried double clicking, drag and dropping them shift, ctrl and alt clicking but I can't seem to get them to work. I remember back in '95ish I had an aha! moment and got them to work but I can't remember for the life of me what that revelation was. Anyone care to help?

tl:dr how to use essence o grace potions

[DarthHelmet86]

From what I have read in the manual to use a potion you select it then left click on it. Or select it and press the P key, however I have not played much of the game and am not too sure of the details. So give both a try and see what happens.

[Japo]

It's with the keys, I think P was for using potions. Read the manual.

[marko river]

Yeah, P key for sure. I remember playing this game in several turns with years long pauses. And every time I would go from the start. Few years ago I discovered accidentally that potions can be used and game became easy then. But I probably won't be able to beat it without potions...

[Aramazon]

Hey, so I'm playing Darklands again, and being wanted in a town has got to be totally bugged...cause I had low rep in one town for a bit...-17...suspected....and then I killed a bunch of muggers at night and took it down to -4....well anyways now when I try to get into like half the towns in Germany the guards freak out and attack me "Hey, he's wanted around here!" Is there a fix for this? If I could I would totally just get rid of guards at this point, they're not making the game fun at all, just HELLA annoying.

[Japo]

Simply staying out at night gives you bad reputation, because it's apparently illegal. You won't manage to be in good terms with the law if you like to roam the streets at night, even if it's to kill muggers, unless you pay the fine every time the guards catch you, which can be several times each night. Try going to a different city where you haven't been, and where your local reputation will be 0.

[Borodin]

Simply staying out at night gives you bad reputation, because it's apparently illegal. You won't manage to be in good terms with the law if you like to roam the streets at night, even if it's to kill muggers, unless you pay the fine every time the guards catch you, which can be several times each night.

Staying out at night in the city does not lower your reputation. I know: I've run numerous groups that actually built a positive reputation (as well as their fighting skills) up in a town by staying out at night.

Staying in unsavory areas of the city, even to wait a bit, will. Being caught by the law and fighting them will. Engaging in nefarious activities at night (such as burglarizing an office to get something for someone in another city) and being caught will. But staying out? No effect on your rep. Not only that, but it's almost essential at the start of the game, when your party has next to no skills. The fights you'll find outside a city are much harder.

I've generally found waiting a bit until after sunset by hanging around the city grove is best. Then move back and forth to the docks. You'll usually encounter some bandits. Note that if you do run into the law, you can also choose the option of running away when confronted by the law. It's good to have somebody in your party who's Streetwise. They'll lead your party in an effort to lose the law. If they're reasonably decent, you'll succeed. If you fail, though, your fine will be higher than it would have otherwise been. Not a great deal, but the choice of what to do is up to you.

One note: if you stay in any city longer than 30 days, your reputation there will start to decline. You're not a resident, you haven't got a local invitation from someone who is, and people become more nervous at your presence. So be sure to move on before that point.

[Borodin]

Thought I'd post a few more things to keep in mind while playing:

Maximize your rewards. How do you do that? It's like the realtors always say, location, location, location. Once you have a reasonably experienced party, choose a group of cities that are relatively close together. Then hit up the marketplace on one, looking for raubritter quests. (Be sure to hit all the merchants who sell things, too. Once you build a local rep, they'll start handing out quests.) Then go to the other nearby cities, and repeat. With any luck, you'll get some similar quests for that same raubritter.

Avoid fulfilling quests that run a risk of putting you in bad with a city, such as robbing an office after dark. The rewards simply aren't worth the loss of access to the place for a good long time.

At the start of the game, I suggest selling your alchemical ingredients. You don't need them then, and the money you get can be put to good use buying better weapons (and better grade weapons) for your two best melee types.

As a rule, I try to have two weapons for each of two best fighters. One has excellent damage and so-so penetration, and one has excellent penetration and only fair damage. Being caught in a situation where none of your weapons will hurt that raubritter in plate (for example) is not a good thing.

Remember to set a party member on defensive if they're up against more than one opponent, or not very good yet at fighting. Watch them carefully, and use healing potions as required. If necessary, run and evade. Don't ever let their health drop so low that they can't move, because then you may have to drop inventory before they can run.

Don't let a novice party out of the city gates. The fighting encounters will all be much stronger than you'd find in the city at night. Even if it costs you some coins after being discovered roaming about at night by the city guards, it's worth it to build up your skills, armor, and weapons from defeating plenty of bandits. Plus, it gives you a better reputation in the city.

Check the churches in every city you enter for saints that give a boost to local or regional rep. These clerical prayers are the best you can ever buy, in my opinion.

[Japo]

Being caught by the law and fighting them will.

That's what I meant, my wording was poor. At any rate trying to get away from the guards is risky (in terms of reputation), only paying the fine every time is safe, but expensive. At the start of the game when I'm not rich, I run away every time, that way I also build up those skills. But later when I'm rich I pay those bastards every time they catch me.

I meant that what Aramazon saw as a probable bug, was probably due to his being caught at night by the guards, and he was probably unaware of its effect on reputation. Both killing muggers and being caught patrolling at night for them have effects on local reputation, mutually opposite.

Not only that, but it's almost essential at the start of the game, when your party has next to no skills. The fights you'll find outside a city are much harder.

True of course. The first hours of every game are vigilante work.

[Borodin]

That's what I meant, my wording was poor. At any rate trying to get away from the guards is risky (in terms of reputation), only paying the fine every time is safe, but expensive.

One point which still seems to need a bit of clarification: if you run from the guards, whether you escape or are caught, you don't lose any reputation. The only thing that happens if you're caught again is that the fine rises.

The only time you lose reputation through an interaction with the guards while being caught out innocently at night is if you try to fight them. Otherwise, your reputation's safe.

One additional note--no matter how much weaponry and armor you pick up from killing bandits, the guards will never take that. So if you start the night with no money and lose what little you find to the guards, you can still make a profit turning the armor and weapons around at a local shop.

I also find it useful to move between towns with no money in my party's pockets for that reason. Covetous bishops and false preachers can't get to you, that way. ;) Later on, paper notes serve the same purpose--only more so. My parties never carry large sums of money around between cities, since people like the bishops will ask for gold based on a percentage of your current funds. Paper escapes their notice.

[Pex]

I'm sure I posted this before, but since the thread is being revisited I thought to give my $0.02 again.

Although a very good game, I never managed to play it for too long, since it gets very repetitive. As you both pointed out, in every city/town you arrive to, you have to spend several nights killing bandits, to boost your reputation, before you can get some nice quests.

Next thing is, that although your skills increase from using them, there is no typical leveling up, so you most important traits (health and stamina) always remain the same, meaning that you can't put enough armour on your characters and your priest/alchemist or thug will always be a weak point due to limitted health.

Another thing I mind is that you can't decide whether or not to accept a quest, they just get given to you. So, you often get one of those 'damn if you do and damn if you don't' quests where doing it would upset someone and not doing would upset the person who gave it to you.

Don't get me wrong, I really like the game and I played it for long - with breaks (even killed a dragon once), it's just that it could've been much better.

[Borodin]

Each to their own, Pex, and I mean that. Your opinion is as right as mine, since these are opinions, and not facts.

That said, I will note this:

The early game is slow, as your party builds a rep, but I expect that. I like games similar to the Ultimas, and the Magic Candles, where it takes quite a long time to make an impression on people. The sense of accomplishment, to me, is a lot more when my party carves out a regional rep. I've never been a fan of the idea that your newbie party, with cardboard weapons and armor, can be given plenty of quests right out of the character generator.

But yeah, the bandit killing can get damn redundant. I wish there had been one or two regular alternatives that offered more of the same, but under slightly different conditions, and with slightly different rewards. This was actually something the development team was working on at one point, according to Arnold Hendrick, when I spoke with him back in 1992. They did add in that spider quest on the bulletin board, but just ran out of time.

Right about no typical leveling up. It's a matter of taste. I've always liked games that buck the modern trend towards leveling systems in this respect. It's also one of the reasons I much preferred Betrayal at Krondor to Return to Krondor: the latter uses a traditional leveling method, while in the former, you improve your skills, find and buy better items. I'm not saying I want this for every game--I don't. But in Darklands, it just seems to make more sense to me that it's what you do through dealing with the environment that improves your party. You improve by fighting, praying, making potions, etc. They don't gain experience and level up. It feels more...interactive. Much as I love Planescape: Torment, for example (and it's my favorite RPG), it just doesn't have this.

The way I always took the quests was as if someone was saying, "This is what I have available right now. Interested?" If you weren't, you moved on and found others. What I don't like is the short, repetitive list of quest types. It makes perfect sense to me to have 6 different merchants in 3 cities complain about a single raubritter nearby, but none for 3 merchants to each want a different artifact that sounds identical, and is described in identical terms.

Don't get me wrong, I really like the game and I played it for long - with breaks (even killed a dragon once), it's just that it could've been much better.Agreed. And I do wish they'd had the chance to do a second version. But back in those days of Meier and "Wild Bill," Microprose never seemed to get the idea that putting out followups could make money. And Darklands, it has to be said, sold slowly, largely on account of all the bugs in the early releases. The PR rep I dealt with at the time actually didn't like the title at all, and was surprised when I did. But then, she never really was into the history or beliefs of the early Renaissance period in Europe, and I was. Spent quite a long, enjoyable time discussing these with Hendrick.

A shame the current license holders have no interest in letting a remake be made unless they have complete control of the product and a huge barrel of cash. They don't seem to realize that a followup is found money: they're not doing a cent for it. Ah, well.

[Japo]

Again my words were open to misunderstanding. :P Thanks Borodin for clarifying.

Pex, there are two kinds of reputation: local in every town, and global (or fame). Later when you're famous, you get the best quests everywhere where your local reputation is 0.

The procedure has been pointed out already: do some street vigilante work until you can hold your own and have minimum armor. Then start hunting raubritters, whom you can despoil of plate armor. Invest the money in studying to raise your skills. Later when you can make healing potions you can stash them and take on the longer quests (satanic covens and the main quest, or mines).

It's true that the lack of levels means that you won't get superhuman attributes, and precisely because of that you must choose your skill set wisely. It's true that in this game you can't play any character you want and survive. Precisely because you can raise your skills from 0 to 99 quite fast, but you can't raise your attributes (although there's one forest creature that can give you a fruit to raise your strength a little, if you're lucky to find him), my strategy is making all my four characters strong thugs who can wear plate armor. Skills such as alchemy don't need to be very high at the start, you don't have money for ingredients anyway, you raise it later by studying. At the start you may want it to be only high enough for town alchemists to talk to you and accept exchanging formulas, I think that minimum was (besides knowing one formula of course) 20--speak common is more important to raise your probability of the alchemist's accepting the exchange.

To each his own, it's true. People who like mainstream RPGs don't like this one, and think it's too hard (it's only so at the start). Myself, I dislike RPGs based on classes and levels, and I like skill-based ones. On pen-and-paper my favorite was RuneQuest, and D&D was my least favorite. Among CRPGs my favorites are The Elder Scrolls saga, even though it has (skill-based) levels and classes (I usually build a custom one), and you get insanely powerful and proficient at everything too fast. Darklands is simply my cup of tea, an exact match for my taste, also because of the historical setting.

It's true that the random generator of places, quests, etc. gets very repetitive, but that's because of hardware memory restrictions, you won't find a game from that age whose quests or missions aren't drawn from templates in the same way: not only the RPGs but flight simulators, anything. Even Daggerfall four years later is equally repetitive.

[Pex]

I agree with everything you guys said and to each his own is always my point of view when discussing games, or books or movies. There is no right and wrong. And like I said, I spent some great time with the game, especially when it first came out and then again when revisiting it a couple of years ago (I think I made quite a few posts about it at that time). I just can't help thinking how much better the game would've been with some improvements, but I do that with almost every game I play ;)

Just a few more thought that would've made a game more interesting (IMO):
- a few merchants wanting the same item and you can offer it to the highest bidder,
- haggling when buying/selling stuff
- some thievery (pickpocketing or burglary when you actually steal money)
- not having quests where you actually have to spend more money to do it than what the reward is.

As for favorite RPGs, mine is Realms of Arkania 2: Star Trail (Part one was ok, but not as good as 2 and part 3 didn't have such a big map to wander around, though much better graphics).

[Borodin]

Just a few more thought that would've made a game more interesting (IMO):
- a few merchants wanting the same item and you can offer it to the highest bidder,
- haggling when buying/selling stuff

I like both of these. I can see where those repetitive "bring me the holy mace" quests might actually *mean* something if you could bid it up over a limited time with competitors, and haggling could be tied to local rep to make it very interesting.

- some thievery (pickpocketing or burglary when you actually steal money)To be honest, I love the idea of burglary and pickpocketing in RPGs, but never seen an implementation I've liked. The problem is that it's so binary, from my perspective: you win, and get everything, or you lose, and logically get very angry marks and the guard after you--which leads to many players simply reloading. It might as well be a 100% success rate, since failure is either too wimpy to matter, or too realistic and not something anybody wants to accept. I've no answers for how this could be done in a way that makes failure acceptable, but still heavy enough to deter constant light-fingered activity.

- not having quests where you actually have to spend more money to do it than what the reward is.Heh! Yes, I agree. Though if you do the raubritters with a lot of merchants buying in, you end up coming out way ahead--and there's that one merchant option where you're offered an alchemist's kit: that alone is worth just about any quest. :)

You know, somebody should probably do a Darklands clone set in another part of Europe, perhaps France, with more activities, so that the current rights holder can't claim copyright infringement.

[Pex]

To be honest, I love the idea of burglary and pickpocketing in RPGs, but never seen an implementation I've liked. The problem is that it's so binary, from my perspective: you win, and get everything, or you lose, and logically get very angry marks and the guard after you--which leads to many players simply reloading. It might as well be a 100% success rate, since failure is either too wimpy to matter, to realistic and not something anybody wants to accept. I've no answers for how this could be done in a way that makes failure acceptable, but still heavy enough to deter constant light-fingered activity.

Yeah, you have a point there. I guess an alternative to getting caught, but failing burglary anyway is to have the lock jam (like in some games) so you can't keep atempting it, but that's a bit lame. As for pickpocketing, I have to admit that when playing above mentioned Star Trail, that was my main income and I would just reload the game if I got caught.


Heh! Yes, I agree. Though if you do the raubritters with a lot of merchants buying in, you end up coming out way ahead--and there's that one merchant option where you're offered an alchemist's kit: that alone is worth just about any quest. :)

From my memory, raubritters are the only quest that pays off well. Most of the others you either need to sacrify a treasure, or use a very expensive potion or fight a tough opponent (which again leads in having to pay to get healed or for new equoipment).

You know, somebody should probably do a Darklands clone set in another part of Europe, perhaps France, with more activities, so that the current rights holder can't claim copyright infringement.
Yeah, to be honest, I always thought the game was supposed to be over a bigger map, or at least have an expansion. After all, what's the point of having St. Patrick, if you can't go to Ireland and use his bonus?

But brand new game with similar gameplay would be great.

[Japo]

From my memory, raubritters are the only quest that pays off well. Most of the others you either need to sacrify a treasure, or use a very expensive potion or fight a tough opponent (which again leads in having to pay to get healed or for new equoipment).

Certainly. No matter if other missions pay off, they cost in terms of missing the opportunity of doing several raubritter quests instead in the same time. Not only the reward and specially the loot of each single raubritter quest is much higher, but also you're always told about nearby raubritters, and you can claim rewards from several people over the same head, whereas those stupid quest givers send you from Bavaria to Poland and back in search of one worthless trinket.

Yeah, to be honest, I always thought the game was supposed to be over a bigger map, or at least have an expansion. After all, what's the point of having St. Patrick, if you can't go to Ireland and use his bonus?

I think I read something along those lines; at any rate it's obvious enough looking at those foreign saint bonuses.

If I really read it, it was probably in this website:

http://www.darklands.net/faq/faq.shtml

[Borodin]

Yeah, to be honest, I always thought the game was supposed to be over a bigger map, or at least have an expansion. After all, what's the point of having St. Patrick, if you can't go to Ireland and use his bonus?

Agreed. I never asked Hendrick about that, but then, this was Microprose. They didn't do sequels. Meier has certainly gotten more savvy about that, though I'm not terribly impressed these days with the obvious dumbing-down philosophy he espouses.

But brand new game with similar gameplay would be great.Makes you wonder why nobody's picked up that gauntlet, doesn't it? Even the obvious player-made ones (that probably would have been crushed by the rights holders) haven't gotten very far before falling apart.

[earty91]

I donwloaded the game, and besides having some minor graphical glitches, which aren't really that annoying, there's no sound. I tried dl'ing VDMSound, but i get a -Could not load 'VDDLoader.dll- error.

Is there a way to fix this? Or can i play it with sound without the use of VDMSound by doing somethilg else?


EDIT: Nevermind, i donwloaded the game from another website, and it works ok.

[Japo]

Thanks for reporting, I'm replacing the download. It was OK but the configuration wasn't ready to go.

[Borodin]

I'm seeing a couple of messages on the Yahoo Darklands group that Darklands is now on GOG. Shame really, since nobody involved with the actual creation of the game will profit from this. But it's the way the business works, and if it didn't, a lot of companies wouldn't be able to sell their assets when closing their doors--unacceptable. So there it is.

[nonregistred]

Man BSGOG (Blocking and Stealing Good Old Games) lose all my support after blocking the download to the games that they (re-launch) i even made a bad idea of buying a game there...

Im not against they making money when they upgrade and make the game compatible with actual systems, but blocking the old version and if i have understand Borodin post not sharing the money with the creators...

UNFORGIVABLE!!!

[DarthHelmet86]

The creators aren't getting any money cause their business either went bankrupt or they sold the games copyright to someone else. Who ever is holding the copyright for that game is getting money from GoG for it.

And about blocking the download, I assume you mean from this site is that correct? Cause if it is, we did that not them. Abandonia does not host games that are being sold legitimately and has nothing to do with the people at GoG. In fact if anyone else had picked up the game for sale we would link to them.

And now you know and knowing is half the battle.

[hunvagy]

Man BSGOG (Blocking and Stealing Good Old Games) lose all my support after blocking the download to the games that they (re-launch) i even made a bad idea of buying a game there...

Im not against they making money when they upgrade and make the game compatible with actual systems, but blocking the old version and if i have understand Borodin post not sharing the money with the creators...

UNFORGIVABLE!!!

Ignorance being a bliss I see. As Darth said, GoG always had and has made contracts with the IP holders of each title it puts out. In the case of Darklands, it is one of the many Interplay titles they acquired from Activision a long-long time ago. Not sharing the money with the creators is the same thing that Activision did, when it started re-selling Moo2 on their own distribution systems, so yeah. Interplay went belly up for various reasons, most of the people are either with InXile or with the small remaining part of Interplay. What GoG offers legally is your chance to relieve the golden age of gaming, and get games legally with all bells and whistles for reasonable prices. Oh and ofc support if any problem happens. And no DRM, no Steam connection or the likes. So yeah, the nerve of them trying to preserve games for posterity, right? Even if everyone points out that Abandonware is a grey area, it's still piracy, no matter how you sugarcoat it. And ragewhining about blocking illegal uploads is.. just lol.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Man BSGOG (Blocking and Stealing Good Old Games) lose all my support after blocking the download to the games that they (re-launch) i even made a bad idea of buying a game there...GOG did not have anything to do with the removal of the download from here - I doubt they were even aware we had it on Abandonia.
The removal was a standard procedure per our content policy: anything that is sold by a legit source is not abandonware (exception: if the game has been released as freeware, freeware status trumps sold status).
No, it's not something we do for fun. Ensuring Abandonia does not get into any trouble is a rather important principle for us.

[Borodin]

Hunvagy, The Fifth Horseman--well said.

[Wicky]

http://www.upload-pictures.de/bild.php/2,43261,screen01WT569.jpg (http://www.upload-pictures.de/bild.php/43261,screen01WT569.jpg) http://www.upload-pictures.de/bild.php/2,43262,screen02R32DU.jpg (http://www.upload-pictures.de/bild.php/43262,screen02R32DU.jpg) http://www.upload-pictures.de/bild.php/2,43263,screen03J0JXR.jpg (http://www.upload-pictures.de/bild.php/43263,screen03J0JXR.jpg) http://www.upload-pictures.de/bild.php/2,43264,screen04EL1NC.jpg (http://www.upload-pictures.de/bild.php/43264,screen04EL1NC.jpg)

After over 100 hours of work i've come up with this:
This ultimate Darklands Excel-Sheet features an occupation progression chart (reach any profession in just 3x5 years), a City tracker (saints, plus premade armor/smith levels), a Potion Maker (see at a glance what you can brew in the city), and a Saints List (handmade, tons of typos from the manual fixed)

Darklands ultimate all-in-one Excel Chart by Wicky (https://mega.co.nz/#!AgdwVZCA!mXvXJsnkgB4d2l_3hj0DKaFHdm5hepTU8gMitWW sC-I)

So very happy but tired, now that I'm finished. Happy adventuring! :smile2:


[edit] updated with a working link

[dosraider]

That must have been a lot of work, THX, looks fine.

<- Impresssed !!!!

[marko river]

<- Impresssed !!!!

I second this :kosta:

[dosraider]

On second thought, and after taking a good look at the files, should be added to the game's 'extras', is very well done, really.
Would be a shame it gets buried here ................

Even if most won't have excel, you can get a free excel file viewer from MS.

[Wicky]

When the last part is polished, we can put it into "extras" section... ok?

That last part, which can only be done through adventuring yourself for many weeks, can be described as follows:
One must fall into an underground river, to see which saints can save from suffocation. And get captured by an evil dragon, to check which saints can help in desperate situations, etc. All saints must be found, to write down a clean copy.
this will take me a good while ! :lol:

[Japo]

OK let us know when it's ready and we'll add it :)

[marko river]

When the last part is polished, we can put it into "extras" section... ok?

Definitely. Or we can put it up right away and replace the file with new version once you are done :3:

[Wicky]

Yes you can have it, that would make me happy. :)

[Japo]

I agree, it's very valuable already, and you can take your time to add more stuff

[Wicky]

Japo pls wait a second I've changed my mind:

I have the original, and I want to share it with my fellow abandonian members.
What you have here, is a copy for your enjoyment and tampering around with it.
- but I didn't want everybody else to start sharing my table beside me, too!

[Japo]

No problem. I didn't really understand the difference between original and copy, but it will be uploaded only if and when you want.

[Ironbuket]

After over 100 hours of work lost forever

[Wicky]

https://mega.nz/#!I40njY4B!H-v41-A36TJZ3B0kZjL2eUmzc95VaWxFXwLPMNzP18g

Here you go :)

[edit] 2019-01 Link now permanent :)

[Ironbuket]

Thanks Wicky

[emanjonez]

I have fond memories of this game. The one thing I can't remember is.... have I ever finished it? Does anyone of you ever finished Darklands? How is the end?

[Japo]

I have finished it. I don't remember much, but I'm pretty sure it can't be more than a few "cutscenes" (slides) and then you're allowed to continue playing.

[marko river]

Wrong, actually it is pretty long animation, like a real reward for a long mission, although some parts I didn't really understand :)

To be precise, it is not real end of game, because you can continue to play eternally since game is sandbox, but there is one major mission like the main goal of the game, unlike other generic mission. After it is completed once it will not become playable again in the same game.

[Japo]

Thanks Marko. I finished it only once very long ago, but anyway I may have been playing a ripped version without animations or whatever :p