Darkstone

Discount Price: $55.00

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Darkstone: Prima's Official Strategy Guide

Customer Reviews:

A derivative of Diablo, with some original touches [Posted on 2003-05-16]
System on which this was tried out: Pentium III 733 MHz, nVidia TNT 2 Pro, 128 MB RAM, Win98, with a monitor with 1024 x 768 resolution. Hardware acceleration is required.

In this review, I'll only consider Darkstone from the viewpoint of single-player. Darkstone is a fantasy action/adventure game, but along the lines of Diablo rather than Black Isle's AD&D-style Baldur's Gate. I consider Darkstone to be a Diablo derivative; Darkstone's release was after that of the original Diablo but long before that of Diablo II, so it has a different spin than that of Diablo II.

Graphics are much more cartoonlike than those of Diablo, but as a tradeoff the different kinds of monsters really *are* different, instead of just being a few basic types varying only by colour. Some of the monster types: skeletons with varying types of weapons and armour; giant insects (wasps, bees with electrical attacks); bats; rats; snakes; lizardmen; nosferatu/vampires; ratmen (cute, actually) of varying strengths and armament. Very occasionally a dungeon chamber will be full of vicious little chickens. :)

Quests come in two flavors, and each game has a different, random quest mix.
1) A minor quest consists of a townsperson walking up to the player and naming the item to be located (in an appropriate spiel). The quest-assigner exchanges a lump sum in gold for the item.
2) A major quest, on the other hand, has a plot and even a puzzle to solve, and ends with the award of one of the 7 crystals to the player.

Darkstone's graphics have less atmosphere than those of Diablo, but there are a greater variety of enemies and settings, and the player has more freedom to enter higher-level dungeons - of course, after that, it's the player's own fault if he/she is creamed for tackling high-level enemies before the character can cope with them. (On the flip side, the save mechanism allows multiple save files, unlike Diablo, and there's no penalty for dying, something Diablo II adjusted.)

Similar concepts to Diablo: health and mana potions and fountains; magic door spells that gate back to town; monsters can't follow you into town or between levels, and don't respawn once you've cleaned out an area (something Diablo II adjusted); ability to range the countryside rather than just having a dungeon crawl (something Diablo II also picked up); random quest mix (something Diablo II dropped, unfortunately), where the major quests have more eye candy and more mental challenges than Diablo's, at least on the first visit; characters have active and passive skills, something Diablo II also picked up; randomized dungeons, except for the set-piece areas specific to major quests.

Extra concepts: The character must eat and rest, but can pay for lessons in skills as well as practicing on the town training ground. While town is a safe zone, the player can pickpocket town characters - including stealing eggs from a chicken. Items and attacks have a more complex, Diablo II-ish flavor, including poison spells and cursed artifacts - things that can be fixed, for a price. The blacksmith can upgrade as well as repair, buy, and sell weapons. The town usurer is a good idea. Incidentally, as in Diablo II, the player may have a sidekick, but unlike D2, the player can fully control either player character at will.

As for the dungeons themselves, they're more elaborate than those of Diablo, or than several of those in Diablo II - not graphically, but in terms of content: pressure plates to open some doors, teleport pads, doors that open only when switches are thrown in specific sequences. Outside individual dungeons, the map can be used to direct the player character to a specific location.

Some poor play balance aspects: the player will amass HUGE amounts of money, and the usurer doesn't even charge a fee; AIs can't open doors, and hold still once a door closes between you and them, which leaves them at the mercy of a ranged attack.

Annoyances: voice acting ranges from OK to rotten; player can replay *everything* said by any NPC more than 'good morning', but can't sift out just the quests left open; those must be tracked on the player's own time. Consequently, for a game that's been underway for a while, the playback feature on NPC conversation isn't useful.

A pretty good game, clearly worth this price. [Posted on 2003-07-18]
It has some flaws, you will have to run around a bit between play areas, but it plays well enough. The price is right, and it is worth the time you will spend on it. The learning curve is small, and there are music sound tracks buried deep in the CD if you look for them (a neat extra). It has been around a couple of years and there is nothing new (though you do have a "partner" you can exploint during battle), but it is a good change of sceenary. I liked it enough to want to finish it; I think you will too.

You get what you pay for [Posted on 2003-09-30]
This game was originally released for 10 dollars. Almost everything about it is pulled straight from Diablo and is not quite as good. Though this game has a few things about it that are interesting, and can be enjoyable to some people, I would just skip this game and go for Diablo 2.

Darkstone for PC by gathering of Developers [Posted on 2003-12-01]
Darkstone is an excellent game. I've had it for about four months, and it has got increasingly difficult, but still a great game. I have all three of the patches for Darkstone, and it makes the game harder but more interesting. the game is based on gathering the seven crystals from their various keepers by helping the keepers. Then you assemble the Time Orb and defeat draak, a necromancer who has gained the ability to turn into a dragon. My friend has it too, and he's probably better at it but rushes into things too much. For example, he had six of the seven crystals, then he went and sold three items which would have made him extremely powerful. He realized his mistake and has started a new game, which means I've got more crystals than him. Yay! Great game.

Darkstone is a breath of fresh air. [Posted on 2007-12-01]
Well , to say that 'Nightstone' is graphically subpar to today's Act/Rpg's
would be a completely (unfair and also a idiotic) comparison.
What you have here is a game that was created during the 'Changing of the
gaurd' between Win98 and XP - high tech graphic engines did not exist as of this time and (3D graphics) were still in it's infantcy.
Ok, with that aside, i find 'Nightstone' to be a very enjoyable title.I was suprised to see that for an old title, the developers got the whole
control scheme and camera control down to a science, very easy to pick up
and play without tedium and the option to play (2 character's) at once and
switch between them with ease is something i don't see in even most of
Today's Multi-Million dollar titles. Game developers:TAKE NOTE; Want to
create a title that works, buy a copy of this game, study the animations,
the control scheme and use today's graphic resources and then maybe,just
maybe fans of the genre will get something worth $50.
The story is only slightly original, but for what it's worth, it works
and it does seem to rival most the 'Dribble' thrown in most modern RPG's
of this type. 5 Stars for getting right (back then); what most should have already perfected by now.
-holyknight8

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