Darkstone

"Great game for the price($10)"

Introduction- This game is very good for the very cheap price. There are a lot of things to do but not being able to have a friend play with you is a huge drawback.

Concept (5)-Very similar to Diablo but not multi-player. This game tries to give a lot of replay value but it doesn’t hold up because you do the same thing over and over.

Sound (3)-The sound of slaying goblins or metal on metal is nice but other than that this doesn’t shine. The sound effects when you use magic or when explosions happen are very poor quality.

Graphics (4)-The graphics for this game are fine, a little jagged but that can\'t be helped since its on ps1. It\'s easy to ignore the graphics and just concentrate on other things but when you stop and look at them...its disappointing. And there are very few cinematic scenes.

Story (1)-I just want to say...What story? You’re supposed to go kill a dragon but the only way you could tell that’s the objective is if you watch the opening cinematic. Other than that no one really tells you your objective.

Game-play (6)-Your basic \'\'dungeon crawler\'\' but it can be interesting with all the spells you will acquire. It\'s nice to have different skins for male/female and the four types of characters. Lots of things to explore and items to find.

Bugs/Glitches (3)-There aren’t very many but when they do happen it is very annoying. There is glitch where you can walk through two sections of wood inside the town, which is a nice trick but shouldn\'t be there. And every so often I would encounter a bug where I got only a top down view and you couldn\'t shake it, this was very annoying and the only way to get rid of it was to reset.

Control (7)-The controls are very simple and you will get use to them within the first 10 min. And it is nice to be able to control the camera. Also the ability to use mana potions and health potions at the press of a button is nice so you don’t have to go through a bunch of screens to heal.

Replay Value (5)-Even though you might want to spend the time getting all the best weapons, armor, and spells it\'s not worth doing. Again even though you can raise the difficulty one you reach certain levels it wont hold your interest because its just repetitive. Final time...even though you there are more than just a few scenarios that alternate each time you play its not worth doing because it doesn’t add much to the game-play.

Overall Rank: 4(but if you add up all my scores and divide by eight you will get 4.25 but the .25 isn’t enough to change anything)

Rent or Buy-Buy because it is so cheap. It would only be a few dollars less to rent it.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 08/06/03