Game News Darklands is now available on GOG

[epikitscheesy]

I HATE THIS SHIT!!
Once again, suddenly, , presumably to absolutely no advantage for the original developers (correct me if possible), we're supposed to pay for what we downloaded from Abandonia aeons ago.

GOG make their money out of what's just 15 years old memory states long lost in the vastness of the net, i.e. nothing.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

if it's nothing then it shouldn't bother you that much, right

 

[Morkar Left]

I HATE THIS SHIT!!
Once again, suddenly, , presumably to absolutely no advantage for the original developers (correct me if possible), we're supposed to pay for what we downloaded from Abandonia aeons ago.

GOG make their money out of what's just 15 years old memory states long lost in the vastness of the net, i.e. nothing.

What's your problem if you already downloaded the game?

 

[epikitscheesy]

if it's nothing then it shouldn't bother you that much, right

Well, i'm not particularly bothered about me.
It bothers me that people are willing to pay for wild plants just because some seed company holds a patent.

 

[Ion Flux]

But... it does have dwarves, and magic, and moralism

It's not realistic, rather it's like being in medieval German folklore and religious belief instead of modern fantasy.

Whoever said that dwarves aren't real? This dwarf kicks some pretty serious ass.

 

[thesheeep]

if it's nothing then it shouldn't bother you that much, right

Well, i'm not particularly bothered about me.
It bothers me that people are willing to pay for wild plants just because some seed company holds a patent.

Deine Nachbarin hat Kohlmeisen, aber was macht ein Hahn auf deinem Esel?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I liked the combat system of Darklands - it allows choosing between aggressive and defensive fighting with some additional subtlety, it has a ranged weapons system that takes loading into account together with loading animations and has a good armour system. It's a RTwP system done right.

All the stuff that I have missed when playing IE games.

Too bad the combat interface is awful and that mode is unfit for exploration.

 

[Luzur]

if it's nothing then it shouldn't bother you that much, right

Well, i'm not particularly bothered about me.
It bothers me that people are willing to pay for wild plants just because some seed company holds a patent.

Deine Nachbarin hat Kohlmeisen, aber was macht ein Hahn auf deinem Esel?

vielleicht hat er einen hahn in den rücken, weil er grosse stöcke mag?

 

[Zomg]

It's got a lot of neat ideas; I especially like how brutal the penalty for fighting multiple opponents is. That sets up a unique dynamic. But the speed is painful and the eventual synthesis of all the rules is boring and broken. I don't think it's worse than other Rtw/P and Darklands makes it less painful by not making it the focus of the game and giving you ways to avoid it with other skills, but it's not good and not acknowledging that is bad RPG criticism.

 

[commie]

What made (and makes) this game so great is just how much there is to see and do and how many ways are open for you to try it. Sneak over the wall into a town, fight a satanical cultist village, escape the wild hunt, beseige a raubritter castle, fight river pirates, grovel to a traveling bishop and travel all over medieval Germany are just a few of the things to experience. Even now I sometimes run into stuff I never saw before. That said, the game is old, has bugs and for something as expansive as this does have some wierd lapses in content. Town missions for instance are always simply to eradicate some spiders.

Also do read the manual. It's from the time when microprose still shipped out boxes with an encyclopedia heavy load of content.

And hey, I always enjoyed the combat.

Hey I really like the 'choose your own adventure' style of presentation and decision making. Really fires the imagination. Don't know how useful the character skills are but enjoyed the creation. Manual is great, like most manuals of the age. Combat is quaint, but ok so far. Nothing too rage worthy. I'm beginning to see the limitations of the scale though in that for all the many places to visit, everything gets a bit samey after a while. Not really a criticism as Bethesda with a much smaller world and much newer technology can only shit out soulless cut pasta locations, but it does jar a bit. Would have benefited from a couple dozen fewer places and instead adding more unique things to those left.

 

[Skittles]

I liked the combat system of Darklands - it allows choosing between aggressive and defensive fighting with some additional subtlety, it has a ranged weapons system that takes loading into account together with loading animations and has a good armour system. It's a RTwP system done right.

All the stuff that I have missed when playing IE games.

Too bad the combat interface is awful and that mode is unfit for exploration.

You have reason, but there are some things that make it feel broken. It produces some retardedness with the lack of AoO/threat range which makes it a clusterfuck to try to do anything but surround your 'caster' or ranged characters with your tanks and pray for the best as the enemies walk straight through your fighters' swords and pikes towards your alchemist.

There's also not much depth to the character system when it comes to combat--changing one kind of weapon type for another type is just a matter of LARPing or getting bored dominating with a two handed sword. Otherwise, you just pick a weapon type and use it the whole game, because there doesn't seem to be much observable impact of changing weapon types. Endurance and Strength are basically the only attributes that will matter for three of your characters and the last one will be your spokesperson/priest-or-alchemist.

Lastly, the AI can be horrible. I have problems with characters pathfinding, with them forgetting orders, with them all trying to attack an enemy from the exact same direction when I order them to attack somebody... These things would be more manageable with a turn-based system.

Anyway, I love the game to death. People should probably know what they're getting into with the combat, though, which a) lacks basic tactical options, b) has little character/equipment depth and c) sometimes is just broken.

Oh, and I should also admit that I'm one of those people who played through Alpha Protocol three times on end when it came out despite the quite awful combat and stealth mechanics. So, YMMV depending on your stomach for bullshit in your gems.

 

[epikitscheesy]

if it's nothing then it shouldn't bother you that much, right

Well, i'm not particularly bothered about me.
It bothers me that people are willing to pay for wild plants just because some seed company holds a patent.

Deine Nachbarin hat Kohlmeisen, aber was macht ein Hahn auf deinem Esel?

Wie, ich soll das übersetzen lassen? Von Google?
Now tell me: why so counter-butthurt?

 

[SCO]

In this game, the longbow is king.

 

[PorkaMorka]

Another weird thing about Darklands is that the game was set in 15th century HRE and they supposedly did a lot of research but they completely omitted the poleaxe.

 

[BobtheTree]

I started getting into this the other day and I'm digging it. The combat doesn't bug me that much. I'm not a big fan of RTwP, but I don't see how this is any worse than infinity engine, which is the same system but without the berserk/parry options. Scrolling is slightly annoying, but whatever.


What I think makes the game compelling is how you're given a number of choices for most of the encounters you stumble across. So, for instance, when I came across a group of boars, I could just attack them or I could pray to some saint to calm them. It's being able to do little things like that which make the game cool and make mechanics I thought first might be negligible suddenly become problem solvers.

Or even when you come to a city gate and you can decide to slip in through the crowd, fight the guards, pay the fee, try to talk your way in or try to find a gap in the way.