As a kid I remember seeing advertisements for this game in Microprose brochures and I even once saw the box in a store. But I must confess that I never played it at the time.
The boxart. Powerful but doesn't look extremely historically accurate.
Bandits. These guys wouldn't look very much out of place in 15th century Germany.
There are some things that do bother me, but are completely understandable considering when it was released. Mostly its the treatment of weapons and armour which is pretty much lifted from Dungeons & Dragons. The longsword is for example a single handed weapon in the game, whereas in history it was really a hand- and a half weapon and really only used one handed on horseback. The game also includes studded leather armour as well as brigandine armour, which in reality is the one and the same armour type.
Isometric real time battles.
Battles are exciting and fairly fast paced in real time and you can pause it with the spacebar to issue orders or to ponder the situation just like in Baldur's Gate.
Darklands does also have a fantastical element to it, at least according to modern science, since the game has saints to pray to and various monsters and creatures we wouldn't normally consider part of earth's fauna these days.
Germany is quite big.
The game is also quite mysterious. You gather a party of heroes to wander out and adventure all over medieval Germany. Fighting bandits, monsters, robber knights or city guards to gain fame or infamy, riches and equipment. There is probably some great plot going on, but it will take some time to uncover it. This is a thinking persons game in many ways.
Gameplay: 10
Story: 7-?
Mystery level: ?
