Darklands

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Darklands
Studio United StatesUnited States MPS Labs
Publisher United StatesUnited States MicroProse
Senior Developer Arnold Hendrick (project management & concept)
Erstveröffent-
lichung
1992
platform DOS
genre Computer role playing game
Subject Holy Roman Empire , Fantasy
Game mode Single player
control Keyboard , mouse
system advantages
preconditions
medium Floppy disk , CD-ROM , download
language English German

Darklands is a computer role-playing game developed by MicroProse . It was first released for MS-DOS in 1992.

action

The game is set in Germany in the 15th century, at the time of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation . In contrast to most other fantasy role-playing games, it builds heavily on the historical background, but tries to convey to the player a worldview of that time including the prevailing superstition and thus justifies the use of fantastic design elements in the further course of the game, such as the appearance of mythical creatures like that Tatzelwurm or dragon. In the reception of the game, for example, Knights Templar are portrayed as providers of idols in accordance with the accusation of King Philip IV of France and the existence of witches in the sense of the Malleus Maleficarum ( witch's hammer ) published in 1486 is assumed. The belief in the miraculous effectiveness of relics is also accepted. Darklands uses historically accurate maps and reflects the most important problems and everyday occurrences of the time.

Darklands is non-linear and has an open end. The real goal of the game only crystallizes in the course of the adventure. The point in time at which the tasks that have to be fulfilled for the actual goal of the game appear varies from game to game and also changes in order. After successfully solving the main quest, you can continue to play freely. In this case, the program continues to generate random missions and tasks. The player is free to design his style of play. He can act both as a righteous fighter and as a robber baron .

Gameplay

The player controls a group of up to four characters that are created in a very complex character creation system. Each character goes through a series of trainings and periods of time that give them experience, knowledge and equipment in certain areas. He also ages, which sooner or later affects his physical condition. The equipment of the characters is historically quite accurate and ranges from everyday objects in a warrior's household at the time to church relics, which were thought to be particularly effective at the time.

The game is controlled mainly via menu-driven maps and still images in which you move from one point to the next or go about your everyday life in the cities. The trips between cities and the battles are presented on isometric maps and take place in real time. However, the player can pause the game at any time in combat to give his characters instructions. A special feature of combat is the stamina / death system for heavily armored characters. Instead of life energy, they lose stamina in a fight. If this drops to zero, they are incapable of fighting, but can be revived. If, on the other hand, the life energy drops to zero, the character dies permanently.

There is no traditional magic system in Darklands . Instead, one orientates oneself primarily to the religion of the time, and to alchemy . The latter is implemented as the mixing of potions from all kinds of ingredients and recipes that can be found in the game. Potions can be used as a weapon in combat, to improve character stats or in dialogues, among other things. Priests can summon the support of 137 saints, relics can be used as magical tools in battle. The time also has a noticeable influence on the course of the game. So characters age and have to be replaced by new ones.

Darklands expects the player to a high degree that he takes his own notes or works out problem solutions himself according to the principle of “ trial and error ”.

development

Microprose had previously earned a good reputation as a developer mainly through simulations and the strategy game Civilization . Darklands , on the other hand, was the American developer's first computer role-playing game. It was created on the initiative of the later project manager Arnold Hendrick and senior programmer Jim Synoski, who had wanted to develop a fantasy role-playing game for a long time and were finally able to get MicroProse boss Bill Stealey to approve such a project with reference to the successful Ultima series . However, there was no detailed design concept in advance, which corresponded to the design philosophy of MicroProse at the time, according to which projects should develop evolutionarily.

Hendrick's concept and design were influenced by several factors. On the one hand, Hendrick, as a historian specializing in military history, was always interested in providing certain historical insights in his games, if possible. Since no game with an earlier historical scenario than the Middle Ages was successful, this remained as the earliest conceivable age. In order to address fantasy fans with at least some familiar content, Hendrick saw the need for a certain range of typical equipment, such as certain armor, swords, axes, morning stars, crossbows and the like. This further narrowed the period to the 14th and 15th centuries. Since this period for the territory of France and Great Britain would inevitably overlap with the Hundred Years War , for which Hendrick did not have sufficient historical material, the regional focus was also limited. There was also the influence of various pen & paper role-playing games , including Traveler , RuneQuest and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons . However, the decisive factor was Warhammer Fantasy , which also relied on medieval German backgrounds and provided a decisive impetus for the choice of the scenario.

Microprose advertised the game as the first "realistic fantasy role-playing game". However, an entertaining gameplay was always in the foreground during development. Occasionally, therefore, later representations and ideas such as those of the witch's hammer or Jean Bodin were projected back onto the period represented in the game, provided they seemed beneficial to the game concept. However, these were also based on the premise that they were at least widespread in parts of the population. The classless character system and character development on an application / talent basis is influenced by Traveler and similarly designed role-playing rules. Above all, this should increase the replayability and give the player the greatest possible freedom of choice when designing the characters. The decision for a real-time combat system with a pause function was made because most of the successful role-playing games during the development period also relied on real-time and several turn-based strategy games from MicroProse had previously proven unsuccessful.

From a project management standpoint, Hendrick later rated the game as "probably the greatest disaster" that he has ever managed. It took three years to develop and, with development costs of around three million dollars, it became MicroProse's most expensive project to date. The lack of a complete design document with specific requirements in advance in connection with the different ideas of the people involved led to the game being developed piece by piece. But towards the end of the development period, the company found itself in a difficult financial situation. For the last six months, the team worked under enormous time pressure to complete the game (crunch time). Therefore, the installation of further quest lines and additional activities fell victim to the scissors. The same applied to the representation of fights on horseback, as this would have more than doubled the effort for creating the necessary sprite graphics. More serious, however, were technical errors that could no longer be eliminated in good time before publication.

The game was first published in 1992 on both 5.25 "and 3.5" disks . In 1995 the game was released again on CD-ROM . On October 13, 2011, the game was republished by rights holder Atari via the online distribution platform GOG.com .

reception

In the run-up, Darklands received high criticism:

“What Hendrick and Petersen have done is create a world and a system within which computer gamers can adventure, rather than providing one quest to be solved. For the first time, this writer really believes that people will continue to play this game after it is won. The world is that palpable and that satisfying. "

“What Hendrick and Petersen have done is to create a world and a system in which computer gamers can have adventures instead of just delivering a quest to be solved. For the first time ever, this writer really believes that once it is won, people will keep playing this game. The world is so tangible and fulfilling. "

- Johnny L. Wilson : Computer Gaming World

Ultimately, the game only received average ratings. The extensive character system, the tactical battles and the clear menu control were praised. The elaboration of the historical background was also praised. At the same time, however, the game was labeled as too detailed and focused on special interests for a majority of players. The numerous character setting options can therefore easily lead to errors in the development of the heroes and thus lead to insurmountable problems in the further course of the game. The D&D fan magazine Dragon particularly emphasized the variable options for action and numerous freedoms of the player.

The game suffered from numerous bugs when it was released, which could only be partially corrected by subsequent updates. A bug that permanently changed the appearance of the characters became particularly well known. For example, after the error occurred, the character's previous hair color was often replaced by bright colors. This bug was irreversible and could not be fixed by the developers.

The German gaming magazine Playtime recorded Darklands with a simultaneous rating of 78% with their playtime Star from. The American Game Players Magazine gave the game a PC Special Achievement Award in 1992. In 2004, the American online game magazine GameSpot included Darklands in its list of the best games of all time.

In a historical genre overview for Gamasutra , author Matt Barton described Darklands as “ meticulously historical CRPG ” (German: “embarrassingly accurate computer role-playing game”), which was characterized by “a lot of substance and little hype”. He described the "intelligent character creation system" as one of the most outstanding points of the game, while he described the storage system as "at best irritating" and listed it as a main point of criticism alongside the numerous bugs.

According to game developer Joshua E. Sawyer ( Icewind Dale II , Fallout: New Vegas ) in a 2012 retrospective for RPGCodex, the game defied genre conventions at the time. Instead of relying on a character creation with different races and classes that was common at the time, the characters were developed on the basis of life paths. Instead of experience points, character attitudes and level advancement, it relied on character development based on the principle of learning by doing . Furthermore, the game played a pioneering role in the role-playing genre in some areas. Almost 20 years before The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim it already had a quest system similar to the Radiant Story developed by Bethesda Game Studios , and six years before Baldur's Gate it had a real-time combat system with a pause function. Through the skillful use of historical information, it was able to increase the appreciation for historical backgrounds. For all these reasons, Darklands was able to give a new perspective on the design of computer role-playing games. In a 2011 interview, Sawyer described the game world exploration and game mechanics of Darklands as a major influence on his design work.

In the game's manual, developer Arnold Hendrick indicated the possibility of a continuation, which was ultimately not implemented. According to Hedricks later, Darklands had not proven to be a great success, so the plans were abandoned again. While the sales figures were still very good in the first month, they continued to decline in the following months. The number of returns exceeded the number of new sales. In particular, a serious memory bug prevented the game from being ended. It took MicroProse six months to correct the problem. As a result of this failure, MicroProse refrained from further attempts in the role-playing genre. However, Darklands significantly influenced Bethesda Softworks in the development of the Elder Scrolls series.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arnold Hendrick (1992), Darklands-Handbuch (English), p. 96. MicroProse. “Unlike any other game in this genre, Darklands is set in a real time and place. Darklands is fantasy because whatever people of the era imagined was possible, now really is possible. Then we took .a few additional liberties for the sake of gaming and playability. However, much care was taken to make this world be the real 15th Century, as perceived by its inhabitants. "
  2. a b c Volker Weitz: In German Lands - Darklands . (Article scan) In: Power Play . No. 10, 1992, p. 129. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  3. a b c Matt Chat 78: Arnold Hendrick Interview Pt. 3 on YouTube
  4. a b c d e f g h RPG Codex Retrospective Interview: Arnold Hendrick on Darklands (with Retrospective by Josh Sawyer) ( English ) In: RPGCodex . June 13, 2012. Retrieved February 17, 2013.
  5. ^ A b Andy Chalk: Adventuring in the World of Mundane Magic ( English ) In: The Escapist . April 5, 2011. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  6. ^ Matt Chat 78: Arnold Hendrick Interview Pt. 1 on YouTube
  7. ^ Matt Chat 78: Arnold Hendrick Interview Pt. 2 on YouTube
  8. GOG.com : New release: Darklands (October 13, 2011). Last accessed on February 17, 2013.
  9. Johnny L. Wilson: Also Speech Heroic Legend: Early Explorations in Darkland . (Article scan) In: Computer Gaming World . No. 94, May 1992, pp. 30-32.
  10. a b Alexander Geltenpoth: Darklands . (Article scan) In: Play Time . No. 10, 1992. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  11. Alfred C. Giovetti: Darklands. (computer adventure game) (software review) (evaluation) . (Article scan) In: Compute! . 152, May 1993, p. 102. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  12. Patricia Lesser, Hartley Lesser, Kirk Lesser: The Role of Computers . In: Dragon . No. 190, February 1993, pp. 55-60.
  13. Darklands.net: Files & Downloads - MLQ Neon-hair Bug . Fan site and documentation about Darklands. Last accessed on September 30, 2011.
  14. Sam Parker: Gamespot Presents The Greatest Games of All Time ( English ) In: GameSpot . CNET . April 9, 2004. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  15. ^ Matt Barton: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part III: The Platinum and Modern Ages (1994-2004) ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM plc . April 11, 2007. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
  16. Will Ooi: An Interview with JE Sawyer - game developer, biker, and cat lover ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM plc . September 25, 2011. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
  17. ^ Arnold Hendrick (1992), Darklands-Handbuch (English), p. 99. MicroProse.
  18. Alexander "Ghostfig101" Belfiglio: 15 Years of The Elder Scrolls Series ( English ) In: Planet Elder Scrolls . IGN . July 9th, 2009. Archived from the original on December 28th, 2013. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 28, 2011: “ The main inspiration for The Elder Scrolls comes from games like Ultima Underworld, Darklands, and Legends of Valor. And of course, D&D. The whole idea was to do a grand RPG, where you could do pretty much whatever you wanted. " @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com