Darklands

About Darklands

Darklands (1992) is MicroProse's historical fantasy RPG set in the 15th-century Holy Roman Empire, where witches, saints and alchemy are real, an early open-world game hampered by bugs that later inspired The Elder Scrolls and Pentiment.

Darklands in Depth

Every city in the game is a real place in the 15th-century Holy Roman Empire, mostly in modern Germany but also in Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland, named by their Old German names. Monsters and magic exist, but the geography is historically accurate. The world is open: players can earn a good reputation through quests or a bad one through evil deeds, and reputation varies by region, so a party can be hated in one place and exalted in another. The nonlinear main quest involves hunting witches and heretics and ends with a battle against the demon lord Baphomet in a castle found only after defeating the occupants of other fortresses, with some quest locations randomised each game.

All characters are human and defined by occupation rather than class; anyone can learn any skill, so a cleric is simply someone skilled in religion and healing. Age matters, since older characters start with more skills and better gear but begin to lose physical prowess. Most of the game uses text menus with hand-painted illustrations, while travel and real-time combat use a graphical interface, in which weapon type matters, so maces and hammers beat swords against plate armour.

Making Darklands

MicroProse developed and published Darklands for MS-DOS in 1992 with many bugs, including frequent crashes; most were fixed by patches, but without widespread internet access many players only had the original release, giving it a reputation for bugginess. Computer Gaming World was divided: Scorpia liked the historical setting and use of religion but criticised repetitive encounters, bugs and the inability to save in dungeons, later calling it "a perfect example of a fine idea ... gone wrong", while Johnny L. Wilson still liked its "open-ended feel and an element of free-will". Dragon gave it four stars, calling its detail "phenomenal", and Compute! praised its choices and historical accuracy. It was nominated for PC Games' best RPG of 1992, losing to Wizardry VII, and won Game Players' PC Special Achievement Award. Its reputation has since improved: GameSpot listed it among the greatest games, Todd Howard cited it as an influence on The Elder Scrolls, and it directly inspired Obsidian's Pentiment. It was re-released on GOG.com and Steam in 2014.