DARKSTONE

                 Reviewed by Stefan Herber

Will somebody please explain to me what persuades me to buy these
games and also have the patience to finish them? All the reviews
said that Darkstone was merely another Diablo clone and the less
said about that game the better.  To my cost I still haven't even
installed Baldur let alone Planescape Torment so what is it about
me that insists that I play these second raters in preference to
tried, tested and well regarded RPGs??

In all honesty Darkstone isn't too bad. It's best summed up - as
the recent Revenant - as an RPG for beginners. It steals a lot on
Revenant in that loading times don't take all night; it's
slightly longer with more challenging combat; it has replay value
in that missions are randomly selected (God forbid we should be
allowed to play them all without starting from scratch every time)
and it's pretty.  But is it compelling? Only if you're a sad

specimen like myself who feels that if they install a game they
have to do all they can to finish it.

I won't dwell too long on the negatives but the one that is most
annoying is the very poor magic system. Casting spells using the
keyboard or mouse is a major pain and very difficult in the real
time combat system. To make this even worse you only ever control
one of your two characters (although you can switch between them)
and the AI they display is worse than that of a cockroach. Your
archer will quite happily walk into the thick of things and never
use his healing potions/spells/or get out of the way of an enemy
firing magic missiles. I managed to finish the game without any
offensive spells - cut and thrust worked always. So forget about
strategy in taking on difficult enemies...

If this is really the future of RPG playing I think I'm going to
have to trade in my computer. And to think I once dared to
criticise Daggerfall..

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