The little bits of room decor that are lying around – tables, chairs, shelves and chests – look like they were cut-and-pasted onto the backdrop by a not-especially-adroit elementary school student. The upper levels of the dungeon are a bland monochromatic yellow-brown and almost completely lacking in decoration. Stonekeep is an ugly game, and not just because it’s almost old enough to go to college. Now it’s ten years later, and you’re looking for some payback. The not-really-paying-attention version is that the mad god Khull-Khuum caused some trouble, imprisoned some gods, brought in a bunch of surly monsters and blah blah blah. You play as Drake (or, more accurately, his disembodied spirit), who as a young lad was rescued from a cataclysm that sucked the great castle of Stonekeep underground, or something like that, anyway. This isn’t to say it’s a bad game, really, but it had the misfortune of being surrounded by truly great ones, which only served to emphasize how unremarkable it was. This is relevant because it was four years after Eye of the Beholder II: Legend of Darkmoon, more than three-and-a-half years behind Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss and less than a year ahead of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, all of which were vastly superior to it in every meaningful way. Stonekeep, which can be purchased at GOG for $5.99, was originally released in late 1995. A relative latecomer to the classic age of dungeon crawlers, Stonekeep is a snoozefest that pales in comparison to other titles of the era. We continue our month of RPGs with Stonekeep.
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