Innovative mechanics, huge gameworld (for its time and age standards) and a great music score make AP a noteworthy RPG.
Abandoned Places is a classic CRPG in the line of Eye of the Beyolder or Bard's Tale (the original saga) in which you lead a squad of heroes with the classic array of specialized abilites (warrior, mage, cleric) throughout a vast world in search for a way of (guess what) saving their world.
You take the role of a 4-man party out of 12 heroes that were cast to stone and imprisoned in a dungeon. Much in the line of TES, first of all you must escape from your prison. Gameplay takes place in a subjective view of square-based 3D maps in the shape of labyrinths (hidden doors, fake walls and spinners included). After reaching the surface, you must navigate a huge, open world map (2D) on foot or (later on) on horseback, searching for your next advancement in the main quest (usually found in the lower levels of a dungeon).
The world map is what you mean by big, insomuch that it may be big even by today's standards, though its mechanics are not that of today. You navigate through the world map by dragging the mouse; the speed of your squad's movement depends on the terrain you are crossing, and whether or not you are riding a horse. Whenever you travel through the map there's a chance to get involved in random battles. Then the game switches to 3D subjective, square-based view again and your party must survive a battle in an environment befitting the time of day and the type of area you were travellling through in that moment.
Enemies are varied. The graphics are more serviceable than anything else. But what really shines is the soundtrack. The main title theme was not only a charming piece of music, but also it was the finest sound ever to emanate from a basic PC tweeter. If I recall correctly, the game supported only an AdLib sound card, which I didn't have, and therefore had no PC speakers at all. I don't know how they did it, but the tune sounded stunningly well.
Hardware requirements. Well, make sure you have enough EMS RAM, about 540 KB of spare base RAM, an VGA-compatible video card and that should make it. In case you are feeling confused, booting from an old MS-DOS disk with just an universal mouse driver loaded -as well as the mandatory extended/expanded memory managers- should do the trick, and so should any PC bought in the last 12 years.
Unless you are a hopeless nostalgic, there is probably no reason why you should play Abandoned Places in this time and age. Even if you are, there are probably more mainstream titles to give a try. But, if you like classic CRPGs, good music, and a huge open world, who knows, you may even like this ride into the past (but not for too long).