Graphics and Sound

We don't need no stinkin' multiple resolutions!

Just like the Revenant demo, Darkstone is limited to playing in 640x480. Love it or leave it. It is 3D accelerated, though, and the game squeezes as much performance as it can out of those 307,200 pixels. Yes, it has the familiar jagged edges associated with 640x480. It also has some nifty 3D effects. The most notable of these is the way the game deals with objects in between the character and the camera - it makes them translucent. So, for example, if you're walking through the forest, and your character ducks behind some trees, they'll simply fade out, leaving just enough of a residue to remind you the trees are there, but fully enabling you to see your character.

Sure, the game has alpha filtering, and colored lighting, and several other 3D buzzwords. So what? The graphics are still fairly mediocre, and a large part of this is the game's 640x480 limitation. It's such a passé resolution. Some of the monsters look cool, some of the explosions look cheesy. It is an RPG, though, and so it's not as focused on graphics. Because of this, the generally uninspired (though not bad) levels and monsters are forgivable. Besides, that translucency thing is really neato.

Shadow Wraith

Watch out!

Sound?

Oh, yeah, sound. I guess there is some. Yup. Definitely sound in this game. Pre-recorded speech, too. It made such an impression on us, in fact, that we had to load the game back up just to confirm this. The people you meet in the game talk to you in digitized dialogue, although the voices sound like one person who tried to alter the pitch of their voice for different characters did all of them.

There's not really music so much as faint background flute-playing. Unfortunately, there isn't much going on in the foreground, either. You hear the constant pitter-patter of your character's feet, and basic battle sounds (POW! ZOT! BLAMMO!) when fighting, but that's about it. Unfortunately, the game offers no option to listen to your own music CD while playing, and the lack of subtitles during digitized speech prevents you from listening to a different audio source altogether. Darkstone's sound is a fairly large irritant.

Searching for loot

Kyra's Magic Door