Darklands 1992

Is it still worth playing?

The Holy Roman Empire of the fifteenth century as its people believed it to be, with the monsters and magic real, is the setting of this 1992 MS-DOS role playing game. It took almost three years and three million dollars. It is a sandbox with no real goal except becoming famous through your adventures: the party starts in an inn in a randomly chosen city and travels an open map in which a reputation is kept region by region, and it can follow a long quest about cults trying to summon the demon Baphomet or ignore it. The characters are all human, told apart by occupation, and they age. Most problems can be solved in at least three ways, by fighting, alchemy or praying to the right saint. Todd Howard has named it an influence on The Elder Scrolls, and it directly inspired Pentiment. The open map is still a medieval Germany to wander in, where your name is different in every region.