Darklands' character system was pretty deep.

As ambitious and complex as it was, Darklands, unsurprisingly, had more than a few bugs when it shipped. In fact, it even carried some bugs that could damage system files. At the time, getting patches wasn't as simple as loading up your favorite game Web site, but MicroProse did distribute several versions, right up to the final official release (v7). This is the version that, until recently, was available on CD-ROM from an online distributor. The Darklands manual mentioned plans to expand the game to include other parts of medieval Europe, but no sequel came to pass.

Treacherous forests were among the many locales you could explore.

As dominant as the Dungeons & Dragon formula of swords-and-sorcery role-playing has been for decades of medieval-fantasy-computer RPGs--with its Tolkien-inspired worlds of elves, dwarves, and wizards--at least one game has focused on the "medieval" as much as the "fantasy." Darklands practically stands alone in spinning adventures straight from the yarn of history--and from myths.

The game dropped your small band of career adventurers right into 15th-century Germany, which appeared as the people of the time might have seen it--a dangerous land where wolves, witches, and bandits owned the darkness, the woods, and the back alleys. Superstitions could appear as serious threats, but, fortunately, you had alchemy and saint worship to turn to when a sword wouldn't do. In fact, while real-time isometric combat was a big part of the game, nearly all events could be sidestepped with the right talent. Getting past guards to enter a town that was closed to you could involve anything from disguises to scaling the walls, to prayer, to a little fireworks distraction. Most events popped up an illustrated multiple choice dialogue, and choices really did have long-term consequences, especially in affecting your local reputation and fame across the land.

Darklands' real-time combat was highly tactical, perhaps drawing upon MicroProse's background in strategy and simulation games. The pausable action could make even fighting off bandits an interesting affair, since you moved knights and heavy fighters around the front lines while sneaking potion- and dart-throwing characters around at a safe distance. The isometric-combat view also let you explore the interiors of castles and dungeons in some detail--and things really did veer from the ordinary when you were taken to dark locales.

With a large range of skills to develop through use and training, Darklands featured a remarkably flexible character-creation and development system. Just creating a party could be an incredibly involving process, because you stepped each individual through careers paths, trading off maturity for youthful potential. Real time passed as you wandered from town to town and from castle to castle while pursuing quests and fame. The passing years could seriously affect your characters, even sapping the strength of a grizzled veteran. This was an ambitious, open-ended game. In fact, it was quite literally "open-ended," so it didn't end after the story's final battle. However, as great as it was, Darklands didn't quite reach the level of commercial success that MicroProse had hoped it would, and it remained one of the publisher's only RPG efforts.

Darklands was one of the first games that I got really excited about because of preview coverage. The concept itself was cool, and as a dedicated fan of the Ultima games, I was way into being able to find my own way through a gameworld. I enjoyed trying out different parties so that I could experiment with all the different available character skills, which kept me delving into subquest after subquest for months. And somehow, I lucked out in not hitting too many of the bugs that could kill the gameplay experience.