黑暗纪元
Darklands

MicroProse, 1992
MS-DOS

MicroProse, 1992
MS-DOS

黑暗纪元(Darklands)以一纸压抑的警告——“在中世纪德国,现实比幻想恐怖的多”拉开序幕,而游戏也的确还原了这句话:不管恐怖的来源是一个吃小孩儿的撒旦教徒,还是只是要你拖着伤痕累累的身体,用勺子挖出一条越狱的路。虽然发行年代尚早,但《黑暗纪元》独特地将 CYOA 进度系统、庞大的历史背景和无职业区分的角色构筑混合在一起,带来了新鲜而原滋原味的游戏体验。

《黑暗纪元》的游戏故事发生在 15 世纪的神圣罗马帝国(Holy Roman Empire),其地域范围覆盖了中世纪欧洲的一大片区域,同时,生动地描绘了大德意志帝国全盛时严苛的日常生活、专制的执法者和猖獗而荒诞的迷信信仰。游戏世界本身就是活生生的历史教科书——对话项和探索的选择分支中充斥着日耳曼语言,而令人惊艳的像素画风精确且面面俱到地描述了中世纪的生活场景。

在如此丰富且细致的游戏背景帮衬下,《黑暗纪元》作为一款开放世界 RPG 便显得非常合适。它鼓励玩家在游戏序章就自由探索,直到慢慢地揭开游戏的终极目标:阻止一场天灾。

Ominously opening with a warning that “in Medieval Germany, reality is more horrifying that fantasy”, Darklands keeps its word, whether the horror is a child-gobbling Satanist or just the tedium of digging your scabbed and beaten body out of jail with a spoon. Despite its age, the unique mix of Choose Your Own Adventure progression, immersive historical setting and classless builds make Darklands a refreshing and original experience.

Set in the 15th-century Holy Roman Empire, Darklands covers a large swath of medieval Europe and portrays Greater Germany in the full glory of its grim day-to-day survival, arbitrary law enforcers and superstitious beliefs both rampant and fantastic. The game world itself is history come to life, thorough and well-researched. Dialogue and exploration choices are littered with Germanic linguistics, and beautiful pixel art depicts lush medieval scenes with accuracy and detail.

With a setting so rich and detailed, it is fitting that Darklands is an open-world RPG, encouraging free exploration from the start while you slowly unravel your ultimate goal: avert an apocalyptic disaster.

《黑暗纪元》随游戏附赠一本 110 页的手册,不仅提供了游玩要求,更包括了一份事无巨细的在神圣罗马帝国中生活的历史背景。

Darklands comes with an extensive 110-page manual that is required to play the game and even includes a detailed historical background on life in the Holy Roman Empire.

角色系统没有职业区分,非常复杂,由七种不同的武器技能和十二种非战斗技能组成,如潜行、炼金和宗教等。

The character system is classless and extensive, with seven different weapon skills and twelve non-combat ones, such as Stealth, Alchemy and Religion.

从角色创造系统开始,游戏便致力于还原中世纪风格,事无巨细地覆盖了角色从婴儿期到成年的人生,另外提供了许多中世纪常见的职业选择和生活背景,这些选择会略微调整角色的属性、状态和技能。如果你梦想扮演一个从平民摇身一变成为炼金术师,最后再化身隐者的角色,那这款游戏就非常适合你了。

在《黑暗纪元》中,你不会获得经验值或是升级。角色的成长取决于你的行动和胜败,这些事件会略微提高或降低你的属性。游戏中,你所选择的每种背景都会提供非常丰富的技能和属性。如此一来,角色可以拥有不止一种擅长的技能。比起传统的单一职业构筑,游戏得以打造出一个有活力的队伍。尽管这么多年来,无职业设定在 RPG 游戏中已经不算少见,但是在当年,这个设定还是非常特立独行的。另外,在没有预置职业的辅助下构筑角色也极富挑战性。

和传统奇幻类游戏不同的是,游戏内没有法师型角色——其中最接近于“奥术”的设定是一套由炼金术和祈祷组成的精妙系统。这项改变很受欢迎,毕竟构建角色时,你需要培养的属性本就在 RPG 游戏中颇为小众。这种角色在遇到许多社交上或是战斗上的麻烦时,可以叫来特定的圣人帮忙。

游戏准确还原了历史,增添了魅力与沉浸感,并且整个游玩过程都显得非常有趣。这也证明传统的噩梦、信仰以及民间传说也可以像常见的幻想要素一样让人爱不释手。同样地,游戏中的装备和战利品也都非常符合中世纪背景。玩家需要装备长矛,因为在 15 世纪,这是能让你手臂保持完好无损的同时刺穿一只狼的最好方法,而不是因为它能造成 +25 的火焰伤害,这点也令人耳目一新。

From character creation, the game is admirably committed to the time period, with a system that raises characters from infancy to adulthood with a multitude of options for occupations and backgrounds commonly found in medieval Europe, each adjusting the stats and skills in minor ways. If it's your dream to role-play a country commoner turned alchemist turned hermit, this is a game for you.

In Darklands you'll never gain experience points or level up. Progression is the result of your actions, successes and failures, increasing and decreasing your attributes in small increments. With a massive variety of skills and stats based on your chosen background, the game creates an interesting party dynamic where characters have a multitude of skills they are good at, instead of the more typical singular focus of classes. Although classless builds are not uncommon in RPGs through the years, it was a rarity at the time, and is still an exciting challenge to build a character without the crutch of a predefined class.

A diversion from typical fantasy, the game has no Mage character – the closest you'll get to the arcane arts is a brilliant system of alchemy and divine prayer. It's a welcome change, as your builds take on qualities not often seen in RPGs, most notably with characters that can call on specific saints to intervene in a myriad of social and hostile situations.

The historical accuracy is charming and immersive, all the while being consistently fun to play, proving that once-existing nightmares, beliefs and folklore can be just as entertaining as the usual fantasy genre tropes. Similarly, equipment and loot are wonderfully time period-appropriate. It's refreshing to equip a pike because in the 15th century it was the best way to skewer a wolf with your arm intact, not because it does +25 fire damage.

GameDB 相关游戏: 黑暗纪元

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