Rating: 
Summary: (Diablo +3D) - 99% fun = Darkstone
Review: 1 1/2 Stars. I bought this after reading PC Gamer's review that gave it a 90% and Editor's Choice award. After playing the game for several days, I went back to the review and saw that the reviewer was the magazine's wargames specialist, who probably never played Diablo and unfortunately has no good concept of how an action/RPG should play.This game is a tremendous disappointment. While it does contain 3D graphics, the modern 1999 display is actually inferior to the 2D 1996 game that inspired it. The display in Diablo is much easier to see and actually has a better, scarier atmosphere than Darkstone. The 3D effects in this game would be ok, but for an huge problem, which is that you lose your preset front-forward camera angle any time you change directions. The character ends up going sideways and the perspective is lousy and difficult to follow. I understand that Tomb Raider 2 had this same problem with the camera angles. In any event, it is so distracting that it takes much of the fun out of the game. Ditto with the label on your character - when scanning for treasure near your character after a fight with the cursor, it pulls up a little note with your character's name on it, which is very annoying and makes it much harder to find loot. The puzzles in this game are boring and the distance between receiving the clue and reaching a point in the game where you can actually solve the quest is far too long - often several different levels in the game. Diablo had atomosphere and was creepy; when stalkers suddenly appeared and attacked, I jumped. I cringed when the horned demons made a run at me. By contrast, there is little suspense in this game. Most of the early levels feature endless rat killing, which gets old quickly. By attempting to be realistic with the lighting, the display is harder to focus on; think permanent cursed Cap of Night: -75% light radius. Magic is trickier to use and less intuitive than in Diablo. Although I was focusing on archery more than anything else, I never could figure out precisely how to cast spells, based on the poor instructions in the manual. Although Darkstone allows for acquiring a broad range of skills, rather than just the one assigned to each character class in Diablo, most of the skills are neither interesting nor particularly useful. Magic items and loot are less interesting than in Diablo and are much more expensive. It takes a long while to be able to acquire enough gold to buy anything useful or powerful (which I never really did, as I got too bored with the game to stick with it long enough to acquire a Big Weapon). All in all, if you have Diablo, you will have more fun replaying it for the umpteenth time than trying to deal with this lousy clone, while waiting for Diablo II to arrive in February or June or October or Christmas 2001 or whenever. If you do not have Diablo, buy it - it is truly the most fun game ever made and despite the aging technology, is superior to this game in every way.
Rating: 
Summary: Darkstone for PC by gathering of Developers
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Good game with some flaws
Review: Darkstone is indeed a fine RPG game. Sadly, it was released with numerous bugs, only some of which are corrected by the game patch. I share most of the opinions of those who have extolled it virtues, and shall not repeat them. Instead I wish to point out two of the game's most irksome shortcomings. While it is nice to have the second character there to resurrect you, I have found that character #2 is much more proficient at getting himself killed. The AI controlling #2's actions is not the best. I recommend using #2 for his native skills and as a pack animal only. Also, the default graphical cursor is slow and laggy, making melee with a dozen or so critters very difficult. The game comes with the option of switching to a hardware-controlled cursor, but this option does not work with all video cards. In spite of all that, I have played through Darkstone many times already. The most fun I've had is picking the pockets of the dungeon creatures with my thief.
Rating:
Summary: The best Action/RPG this year!
Review: Darkstone is the best Action/RPG of 1999. The 3D graphics are absolutely great (Direct3D or compatible 3D accelerator card required), and the 3D special effects are stunning. The player interface is smooth and easy. You have full control of camera angle in 360 degrees. As you start to play Darkstone, you will have to complete a number of quests. You will have to find several crystals to form the Time Orb which will allow you to defeat the evil dragon Draak. The save/load feature is neat. By selecting a saved game, it shows you exactly where you were when you saved the game, so you can differentiate between different saved games. In Darkstone, to your advantage, you will have two characters to use. Each one you can command separately, or you can command one and have the other commanded by the computer. Its great to have one character able to resurrect the other if need be. Darkstone is a very fun game to play. There is a random quest generator which ensures you don't play the same game twice. The storyline is challenging enough so that you will want to play over and over. I highly recommend this wonderful game.
Rating: 
Summary: Why don't you have a 0 star rating? This game rates it.
Review: Here in Australia we pay big money for games. This one cost us $89, and it was barely worth $1. (It was a local impulse buy). Its as buggy as they come. It crashes between "cities" nearly every time. It only allows ONE person to have ONE save game. The interface is cludgy and despite its 3D the graphics are really sad. We are RPG game lovers from way back but this one was a big disappointment. The fact that its a diablo clone was actually a plus for us as we really enjoyed that game. Its just sad that instead of improving on diablo they went the other way. The font they use is too intricate and too small to read and I still dont know what half the buttons are as I cant make out the text! In RPG's I like to roll my own character. Here they do it for you and take away half the fun of the game for you. I am sad to say that there is nothing good to say about this game except that the box is pretty. Pretty enough to suck you into buying it and regretting it.
Rating:
Summary: Why bother?
Review: I have the same opinion about this game as I do the Hellfireexpansion for Diablo: If you are going to release an updated versionor expansion to something, it needs to be an improvement. This game isa Diablo clone with a few 3D tricks thrown in to make it shiny and new. There is nothing here that is worth wasting the price of entry. If you have Diablo already, dont bother with this. If you bought this and havent played Diablo, dont buy Diablo...
Rating:
Summary: Very nice game.
Review: I'm not a big fan of the Diablo/D&D typr game but this game is really neat. The one big advantage of this game over Diablo is the ability to control 2 characters in one game. Very high replay value also makes this game a winner. Pick up a copy if you can; I've seen it rather inexpensive at local retail store. For the price, you can't go wrong.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible game
Review: I've played a lot of games in the past few years, and Dark Stone has to be one of the most boring games in the world. When it was new it did have it's halfway decent (although a little too cartoonish) graphics. But now that the game is a few years old, it cannot even claim that. A bad attempt at a slightly more complicated Diablo, this game just doesn't cut it.
Rating:
Summary: great game
Review: If you like Diablo 1..... this is exactly the same game... only improved 300% percent. If not for Blizzards Bnet and all the multiplayer options I would say that this game is also better than Diablo2
Rating:
Summary: Addictive, with good graphics, but not much of a plot.
Review: If you want a basic hack and slash dungeon game, where the puzzles don't require much thought, then this game is for you. If, however, you're looking for a game with character development and a good story line with intricate details and subplots, then you probably won't enjoy this game very much. I've played all of the Might and Magic games, except for the first two, and even the earlier M&M games were better than this. The quests and storyline are very cliche'. Most of the skills you can train in aren't very useful. I have a fighter with 7th level repair and she still can't repair anything without breaking it. Trade and armsmaster are probably the most useful skills, as well as learning, which helps you level faster. One plus is that when you level, you can up your stats even if you can't afford to train. A huge improvement would be if we could edit our own levels and quests, but the game doesn't even include that. The 3D-graphics aren't too bad, once you get over the hilarious way the characters look (imagine a Barbie or Ken doll crossed with Japanese animation, and you'll get the idea.) Another plus is the hack and slash portions of the game are addictive. If only the plot was better.
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