Darklands, again

After I mentioned not playing much in the way of video games, I decided to make a concerted effort to finish Darklands.



The big issue with completion, for me, was the fact that 90s video games track what you did or didn't do internally, but not in a player-accessible way.

In other words, I'd have to find my map and myself on the map, I'd have to determine what quests I hadn't finished, what needed doing, etc. and go.

I solved this conundrum by just chucking out all of my notes, grabbing my last save game, and starting up. My characters were quite advanced so this wasn't a huge problem. Missing some cash here or there wasn't going to be an issue.


Spoiler alert!


I'd slain a dragon, I'd freed some mines from dark forces, and I'd done a lot of general fighting of raubritters (robber knights) and bandits.

But what next?

I knew I needed to hunt down the Satanic forces, and thus villages that had succumbed to witchcraft. So I went around to village after village and investigated. I fought (and easily defeated) the cultists, and started followed their blatant hints of where to go next.

From there I eventually reached the High Sabbat, infiltrated it and defeated it, and found out where the Satan-worshipping Templars have their base. I'm now working my way through that.


Darklands really does do mood well. My characters really do make decisions based on right and wrong and holiness. We seek out knowledge of saints, donate money to pilgrims, give away mounts to the needy, pray and call on saints, study Latin, and more. I have found almost no relics, and I'm not sure where I could find them, but they don't seem to be required.

What it annoyingly does is have bad pathfinding, some annoying navigation issues, and plenty of monsters with stuff that destroys equipment quality (which can't be fixed, only replaced.) I've actually fought evil alchemists with my armor off to spare it from Eater Water (a nasty acid) - healing being a lot less annoying than going all the way to southern Germany to get another suit of good armor.

Still, it's a fun game, and I'm hoping to finish it - in fits and starts, around work - in the next month or so. Full speed ahead, no side quests.