Darkstone

Made by French company; Delphine Software and published by Take 2 Interactive and Electronic Arts in 1999, Darkstone was one of those games that you probably never heard of until you just happened to see a copy sitting on the shelf of the local rental place or the discount bin at a gaming store or your best friend gave it to you for your birthday. It wasn't very highly publicized or very popular. However, that does not stop it from being one of my favorite Roleplaying Games of all time, coming in just behind the Final Fantasy series. It was a fun adventure through a mystical land exploiting the elements that Dungeons & Dragons made essential for any good RPG.

It’s easy to see just why this game was not widely popular beyond the lack of publicity. Just a few years earlier, Blizzard Entertainment and Ubisoft first released Diablo, a game with roughly the same gameplay mechanics and features that Darkstone would later use. Diablo was a major hit with many RPG fans and would spawn two sequels. So Darkstone appeared to just be riding its coattails.

However, I have played both (although Diablo only briefly) and I have to say I liked Darkstone better. Diablo was a little too dark for me and at the time I was easily frightened. Darkstone, while still dark, was not AS dark and not as HARD as Diablo was.

So without further ado, let us begin the:

REVIEW OF DARKSTONE

written by Ceara Ivory

Warning: This game is rated

And may not be suited for young audiences.

Storyline: 9/10

This lovely game is set in the fantasy world of Uma and spans 8 different boards, 8 different dungeons with a total of 31 levels to traverse.

Draak is an evil sorcerer who was once a follower of Kaliba (assumably a god or goddess but never really explained) and with his evil powers he had the power to become a dragon. He was apparently banished for a time, but now he has returned and vows to take over the world. Sebastian the Sage knows how to stop Draak and tells our hero(ine) that (s)he will need to collect 7 crystals, one from each of the lands of Ardyl; Terrnya, Marghor, Dywahd, Omar, Mothada, and Baasteehl. Sebastian will be able to use these crystals to create the Time Orb which the hero(ine) will need to use to defeat Draak, although he doesn’t tell us WHY exactly it is needed until the 8^th dungeon.

Gameplay: 9/10

So first, we have to create a character. We have four classes to choose from each with male and female roles. Each class has their pros and cons and their own skill sets to learn along with stat-caps.

Warrior/Amazon: This is a class mainly centered around strength and close-combat tactics. This class will use mainly heavy armor, shields and swords. In this class, the strength can be maxed out normally to 999. All classes can use spells but the Warrior class is better suited to melee attacks.

Wizard/Sorceress: Every good RPG has to have a black magic class. This class is best suited to casting offensive magic at their enemies and is thus able to max out their magic stat by simply leveling up. Their spells are AWESOME but their close-combat, melee attacks are pathetic. They equip capes and are mainly intended to use, scepters, staves, lances, and tridents. Although the weapons are better used for their stat boosting abilities than for their attack strength because again, for this class, offensive magic is the key to victory.

Assassin/Thief: Again, something else EVERY good RPG must have, the Thievery Class. This class however, despite its name is still better used for just wailing on the monsters rather than trying to steal from them. They are still my favorite class to use in this game though. Why? Because they are LONG-RANGE fighters. A lot of the enemies you encounter early on specialize in close-combat. Long-Range Fighters, specializing in bows, throwing knives, throwing daggers, throwing axes and shurikens are great for putting these losers in their place. The only real drawback to this class is that to really be useful you need to upgrade your dexterity a LOT early on in order for your character to actually hit something. However, since it is highly recommended that you level up ANYWAY before going to the first dungeon, this is not that bad a drawback. The preferred stat for the assassin/thief is dexterity. Dexterity helps your hit percentage and the attack power of your long-ranged attacks (if you can hit them from a larger distance, it’s going to do that much more damage, only makes sense).

Monk/Priestess: If you have to have the Black Magic Class than of course, it’s sister class, the White Magic Class is just as important. These guys specialize in healing spells and they are given a pretty interesting assortment of weapons to help them in the melee department (clubs, staves, halberds, hammers, scythes). Yeah, nothing says hero of the day than a giant 4ft long axe or a club with a huge pike on the end of it. They also wear robes. Unlike the Wizard/Sorceress class, these guys actually know what they’re doing with that giant 4ft long axe which means you can be kicking ass and taking names all day long with those babies. Their favored stat is vitality which determines your health. Wanna live through this game, you need HIGH HEALTH.

Once you’ve picked your class and named your hero(ine) it’s time to Begin a New Quest. At the next screen you are given a choice in the level of difficulty. If this is your first time playing, the only difficulty open to you is Novice, which is a good thing. You unlock the other difficulties by reaching set levels (you can see which levels you need to unlock which difficulty).

You begin in Town. Note, this town has no real name, it’s just Town. That’s probably an indicator that it’s the ONLY town, the only place where you can buy and sell equipment, buy and sell healing potions (Health and Mana), magical amulets, magic books, learn new skills and buy FOOD.

Yes, food. You need food in this game. You start with a hunger level of 100, meaning you are full. 

However, when you use the “Rest” command in the Start Menu and over time, that level drops. If it 

reaches 0, and stays at 0 your hero(ine) will gradually lose health. Oh, no, you’re thinking, does this mean I’ll have to waste all kinds of money just to make sure I don’t starve. Well one, it’s not wasting money putting food in your belly. Secondly, it’s not that big a deal. Chances are you will NEVER drop to 0 because it takes so long to drop. Just keep one piece of food in your inventory at all times and when your inventory gets too full, eat the food. Also you will find all kinds of food throughout your journey through Uma. Trust me, you will not starve unless you really foolishly never feed you hero(ine) which is as easy as opening the menu, selecting the Bag>”Piece of Food”>Eat.

On the subject of your inventory. It is LIMITED. Your inventory will fill up at times meaning you will have to trek back to town in order to sell your excess equipment and items. Now, I can sense your dismay. You’re worried about trekking all the way back through the dungeons and fighting through hordes of baddies to get back to town. Don’t fret, it’s not as bad as it sounds. For starters, if there are no monsters nearby, you can hit the start button and hit the places visited icon and use it to warp to where you want to go in the current level. This means traveling from the Entrance to Level X and Exit Level is nothing. Next, you may also have picked up scrolls of magic called Magic Door. The Magic Door is your friend and you can cast in a level and a door will appear that you can take back to town and vice-versa. It is good for one round trip. There is also a Spell Book that you can find to learn Magic Door but you can only MAYBE get it early on in the game, it’s very chancy. The Magic Dealer may have it in his shop early on too and he will ALWAYS have Magic Door Scrolls. The Crystals you are supposed to be finding also take up space in your inventory. There’s a way around this too. Choose a safe spot in town and just drop those crystals right there. They will stay right there until you are ready to pick them up and take them to Sebastian.

Magic Spells, like in Diablo, are learned and upgraded through books. You can find these spell books at Master Elmeric’s Magic Shop or in dungeons on little pedestals. The spell books found in Master Elmeric’s and in the dungeons are very random. Spells require a certain level of Magic Stat in order to learn and of course cost Mana to cast. Mana is healed with blue medicine called simply Mana Potion. Spell Scrolls also exist which allow the player to cast a spell one time. Equipment can also have spells ingrained in them, which use a set amount of spell charges as opposed to Mana.

Skills are taught by level, for a fee, by Master Dalsin. Each class has a unique skill set combination. You may find certain skills repeating, but the combination per class is never exactly the same. As you go up in level the price to learn increases, what a shock.

What loses the gameplay some points is the navigation and the camera. The map is a progression map like what you see in The Legend of Zelda Gameboy games. However, this isn’t all that bad. What’s bad is that you have to keep hitting the select button to view it. In those Zelda games, there are obvious paths leading you where you need to go. That is not so in Darkstone and in conjuction with the camera system, it’s very easy to get turned around. If you’re playing on an emulator you don’t have the luxury of the right analog stick to move the camera around. Instead you’re stuck holding whatever button that you’ve made the triangle key and using the directional pad to turn the camera in the way you want to go. Also, if you just happen to simply tap this key it will change your view around and I’ve experienced being completely turned around from where I was originally facing. It’s a lot easier if you have a controller and thus use of the right analog stick but still. A better idea (with that camera setup) would be to have a mini version of the map at the bottom of the screen and the option of viewing a larger version with the select button.

Sound and Music: 7/10

When talking about the music, I have to show this.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/E1r-27R9Qko" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Audren, a French singer (fitting since the company who made this was French) sings this simple yet beguiling song about what your goal is in this game. You can first hear this song by putting a coin in the gypsy’s hat in town. Note, you have to sit there for a while to hear the whole thing. When you hit a button, the song will stop. You can also unlock this music video by beating the game.

The music score is intriguing and commands your attention however, it is so sporadic. It doesn’t play constantly through the game like in other games. It almost seems like it plays more often when enemies are around but that is not always the case like in Clock Tower.

The voice acting is not so much voice acting as it is sound effects. You only hear your character’s voice when he fails at a casting or skill, he is poisoned, he is injured, about to die, levels up, discovers a great magic weapon, etc. In other words, it’s a sound effect. There is voice acting in the beginning video but it’s all in some made up language and the guy doing the voice-over narration speaks mainly in monotone.

Graphics: 9/10

For being so simple and polygonal, I think that works FOR this game rather than against it. You can tell the game animators were trying to keep it just a game and not some spectacular film art. It’s not a movie, it’s a game. There doesn’t need to be incredible detail on every little thing. The stuff that they gave a lot of detail to was the weapons, the armor, the accessories, the monsters and the dungeons, the areas that mattered in the game. Not even the CGI was incredibly advanced. They were awesome don’t get me wrong, but they weren’t film worthy like most games are trying to do these days. And again, it works for the game because it doesn’t take away from the rest of the animation and programming.

Replay Value: 10/10

No bones about it, this game has amazing replay value. Each adventure is different, no two games are exactly alike. You may experience repeat quests but you will never have the same exact combination of quests in a game save for the last quest of defeating Draak. As you upgrade difficulty levels, you notice the change in difficulty, it is harder, it is more challenging. If the game was exactly the same on Expert as it was on Novice, there would be no point in playing on Expert at all.

Conclusion:

This game may never make it into any top tens, and will likely never win any prestigious awards but Darkstone is still a fun, amusing game. It doesn’t take you a week or two to complete it, no you can complete it in a couple of days.  If you really like RPGs and fantasy-based games, Darkstone is a worth-while rent or even buy (again it doesn’t cost that much). For PC gamers, there’s also a PC version of the game.

Total Score: 88% or 8.8/10