Darklands
Darklands takes you to medieval Germany around the 15th century. There is a short introduction which doesn’t show reveal anything about the plot, only a gargoyle coming to life and some kind of magician arriving to welcome you to Darklands.
At the start of the game you can select a pre-existing band of four adventurers, or you can create them yourself from scratch. The game starts at the local inn in a random city. Here your character decides to live the life of an adventurer and achieve fame through his/her deeds. In conversation with the rest of the bar's patrons you will get a few tips about interesting locations, but as soon as you leave the inn you are on your own. You will soon realize that the game really doesn’t have a plot! It doesn’t even have an ending! This is the main reason why I gave it a four. Of course, Germany is very big, so there are many quests, random events and lots of freedom, but it lacks plot. It isn’t as great as it may seem at first that you can go where you want and do what you want.
The gameplay is very simple. In each situation that arises you will be given a few options and then select what you wish to do next. In the world map you will have to click where you want to go and your band will start moving to that position. The world map is the main area where random events occur. Battles are also quite simple; the game will pause, allowing you to give orders to your characters, before you un-pause the game, sit back and enjoy the show. Dungeon mode is also very simple, very similar to the battle mode. The game's sounds are great! This was one of the few old games whose sounds I didn’t turn off after only a few game hours.
In Darklands it’s very easy to get yourself killed so you should save often. And here comes the main bug: you can only save while staying at a city inn, while camping in the countryside or while travelling on the German map. In other situations "save" will also be allowed, but then your game status could be a mixture of present and past situations. The game will still be completely playable, however.
Are you still reading? Enough reading; just push the download button because this game is a must for every RPG fan.
by sarua