Once you get it working with fan made patches and adjustments, the game runs overall well on modern hardware. The biggest issue I experienced with Darkstone, if you tab out and tab back in, the games resolution may get miffed up. A simple exit and reload will address the problem - given the game gives you the luxury to save at anytime, this hardly poses a problem (just don't forget to save!).
The quest system is kinda odd as you don't really get a quest log, but a recording of all the important things side and otherwise. The unfortunate part is, once you complete said quest, it doesn't go away acts like it is still 'incompleted' (but the completed text will show as well). Your quest system is your run of the mill find said item, return to the main town, and trade in said item from the NPC that gave you. Even though it IS a retro game, more thought could have put into it. You get a stock reward of 10,000 gold and that's it.
As for gameplay it is overall solid, however, Darkstone suffers from one really bad mechanic and that is the inventory system! The inventory system is extremely limited, and eventually, and quick, you will find yourself hoofing back to town or town portal many many many many times. This becomes even more problematic when you start collecting the key items, which are crystals, and there are seven of them. You can dump your items all over town (there's no actual storage) this includes the seven crystals to save space as that is the games 'storage' system. However, while it did not happen in my playthrough, there have been reports the game can eat your items and they'll disappear forever. After reading about this, I decided to just hold onto the crystals as I gathered them. It would be nice if they were key items and didn't consume your already limited inventory space. Near the end, you trade in the seven crystals for a much smaller item and space opens up but this at the very last dungeon of the game.
The only other major problem this game suffers is the leveling system. Leveling up is standard as in getting experience points, however, your major skills are upgraded mostly through books if you play a spell caster route. Books are only obtained one of two ways, drops from enemies/book cases (though they can drop scroll) or they are occasionally sold through the vendor. Sadly, the vendor rarely spawned any books to sell so when I got near the end of the game, nearly all my skills were level 1. My playthrough was the cleric and not once or sold did the traditional healing spell appeared, so it was item spam playthrough. Due to a healing mechanic, if you cannot deal enough damage, the boss 100% heals itself each and everytime. Since my skills were too low and not enough damage could be mitigated; I had to cheese myself to winning the fight (no cheat codes). If you're struggling with the final, and do not want to deal with possible countless hours of RNG of HOPING the right skill books drop or spawn at the vendor, there are guides online that will tell you the cheese.
Beyond that, Darkstone is an overall solid game and has a lot of replay value to it and if you can get a friend to play with you, the more the merrier. For what it is, dispite its flaws, the game was very fun.
7.5/10
