Darkstone

When Darkstone came out, it was marketed and reviewed as a game to play while you wait for Diablo 2. But I loved it so much more than any of the Diablos (I should note that that's not the normal experience, but I have spoken to many others that feel the same). You choose your gender and your class: Warrior, Rogue, Wizard, Cleric. The female wizard can become a werewolf, the male wizard gets a special detection spell. The rogue can shoot and steal (with a good enough pick-pocket, you can steal an egg from a chicken's bottom). The warrior is good at killing with a sword. The cleric has the only skills that can heal others. Each class has a few skills that only they know, but anyone can learn the spells in the game if they have the stats. So your leveling up can make your warrior into a spellsword or your werewolf-mage into a melee/magic/ranged combat jack-of-all-trades. You start the game at a town where you can go to school to learn new skills (or upgrade them), buy some food (you have to keep eating throughout the game), buy and sell gear and listen to a pretty song. From there, you'll go out into the wilderness and hit a bunch of dungeons that are 4 levels deep. Which dungeons you get and how the dungeons appear are randomly generated, but done very well. Each dungeon has a story and some clever but not terribly complicated puzzles. If you want to be brave (or stupid -- such a fine line), you can skip ahead, sneak past some overpowered villains and get into the more advanced dungeons. Steal some powerful loot there and then sneak back. The world is fairly open in that respect. In the end, you'll have to kill a powerful dragon and steal his massive horde of loot. And after that? The game starts over, everything harder than before. And you have a pile of loot. The next time you play the game, you'll probably only see a few dungeons you had completed before. Multiplayer is a blast. You can combat each other or go through the game together. The wizard's spells are amazing in PvP combat. You can go invisible and fire-bomb from a distance. Teleport to other locations. And blast with fireballs and lightning. But the warrior can always take a beating and get his hands around the little neck of the wizard. You should check this one out if you haven't already and you're looking for a fun hack-n-slash, light RPG game.

I remember when I first saw Darkstone! It was in a PC club near my school. At that time I instantly fell in love with the AWESOME graphics... Only later I was able to get a PC of my own and embark on the epic adventure offered by this game. The thing I like the most about Darkstone is that, although everyone thought it was another Diablo clone, it was much more. Deep story and quests which really make you think and explore everything! Dungeon randomization and many difficulty levels. Many spells offered different approach to any situation. This game is truly a gem in the crown of hack and slash RPGs! Oh, and it has DRAGONS!

One of the best co-op romps ever... really loved playing this and I still have it installed on my netbook, works a treat and runs very smooth. I'm downloaded GOG's version right now so I don't have to dig around for discs and patches... Thank you GOG for setting Darkstone free!!

Diablo, Dungeon Siege, Torchlight : We have all heard of these games in the past and virtually every PC gamer has owned one if not all these titles at somepoint. Darkstone is similar to these games, granted not as visually impressive as the above mentioned titles as it didnt have the backing of a HUGE software house. Thing is though, huge backing or not this game delivers what you would expect from an RPG. Long storyline, big dungeons and even bigger bosses! Another thing with this is that once you have done a playthrough there are other character types to get to grips with. RPG's today you can create hybrid characters that can be powerful equally in all aspects like warrior, healer, mage etc. Darkstone you pick a character class at the start and that is how you will play the entire game. This gives great replay value as different tactics are required for each class. Then you have the whole random Dungeons, similar to Diablo 1 & 2. Nothing worse than a linear RPG that once you have finished it you have seen it and it just gets put away to gather dust for years to come. Each randomly generated dungeon gives replay value once again as it mixes things up. If you love action RPG's then this is definately a game for you, at such a cheap price it deserves a place on your GOG shelf. Bit of luck we will eventually see Revenant and Silver also land here.