It intended to be a 3-D Diablo for the PlayStation, it ended up being a $9.99 disappointment.
Forgive all the references to Diablo, but that is exactly what Darkstone borrows from heavily. Though you may not be out to confront the evil one himself, your inventory, class directions, props, and NPC (non-player character) interactions are in line with the template Blizzard put down. The NPCs were flat, quest providing people with modest deliveries. Opponents were creatures and people with health bars above their heads, just like games of this ilk.
I have a soft spot for carving my way through legions of enemies in the hopes of gaining levels in role-playing games. Unfortunately, after a while of doing that in Darkstone, I realized I could be doing that elsewhere with greater amounts of satisfaction.
The ability to pan around your avatar to see creatures buzzing about was a pleasant feat, but the character and creature details were very low. The scale of the areas in which you fought did not justify the loading times between locations.
By this time in the PlayStation's aging lifespan, other games were pushing the hardware capabilities a lot further than this game manages at any point. Details could have been higher, effects could have been more impressive, and generally sound could have been more epic. The crunching sounds of bashing enemies were solid, but ultimately the audio was mediocre to average.
Unfortunately for Darkstone, every step forward it made was compromised by not taking two more into the capabilities of the time. Even at $9.99 or $0.99, other games make a better case for being saved from the bargain bin than Darkstone.