Darklands

Darklands is a role-playing game set in an accurately depicted 15th-century Holy Roman Empire. The game combines historical geography, society, culture, establishments, and equipment with supernatural elements drawn from regional beliefs, including kobolds, dragons, witchcraft, curses, and effective alchemy.

Party and Character Development

Players control a party of four active characters, creating their own group or choosing a pre-made party. Characters are shaped by social background and career choices made from childhood onward. Careers can range from soldier and peasant to bandit, with later specialization such as alchemy. Experience gained through five-year career periods can be assigned to improve attributes and skills.

There are no fixed character classes. Characters can develop broadly across skills including weapon use, stealth, virtue, Latin, healing, riding, speech, and more. Skills also improve through repeated use. Religious characters can learn about saints and pray for benefits, while alchemists collect ingredients and use formulae to create potions.

Exploration and Reputation

The party can freely travel across the Empire, visiting towns, castles, villages, mines, and other locations. Settlements are presented through text menus and illustrated backgrounds, while travel takes place on a map. Local reputation and overall fame can be increased through virtuous actions, helping communities, and defeating enemies, while criminal actions can turn the party into outlaws.

Much of the game unfolds through town activities, wilderness travel, and random encounters. Players can often avoid combat through diplomacy or other approaches, with success determined by character abilities. The main objective is to build enough fame to access more prestigious quests and eventually discover the circumstances surrounding a powerful demon and its cult.

Combat and Longevity

Combat takes place on separate isometric screens in real time, with the action pausable for issuing orders. Characters can attack, search for vulnerabilities, and use items. Weapon effectiveness varies by enemy armor, with blunt weapons proving more useful against plate armor than swords.

Characters age over time, becoming weaker and eventually dying. Fallen characters cannot be resurrected, so the party must be replenished with new adventurers. Darklands was developed by MPS Labs and published by Ziggurat Interactive for DOS, Linux, Mac, and PC (Microsoft Windows).