This is just a launcher for Dark Sun in the DOSBOX emulator. There's nothing changed or added to these compared to any other version. It's Dark Sun on steam, which is all I wanted. Dark Sun is underrated and should be in the zeitgeist of what has made modern CRPGs what they are, along with Fallout and Baldur's Gate. Time to log some hours.

The game launcher includes the Manual and Guide, but there is NO copy of the passwords required to get past the dragon's question in the sewers (old school piracy measures).

Word # Page # Line # Begins with Answer
-------------------------
1st 03 02 H honor
1st 04 13 S slaver
7th 07 03 G game
3rd 09 03 C choose
2nd 10 06 H humans
5th 12 04 B box
4th 13 04 L large
3rd 14 01 P pouches
2nd 15 02 P power
3rd 19 06 S stronger
5th 21 10 C class
2nd 26 04 A armor
3rd 27 03 W water
5th 27 08 S share
1st 28 14 L level
6th 29 01 E every
7th 33 05 F foes
8th 35 02 A agile

Shattered Land Tips:
- If you want to speed up the gameplay turn off animations (hotkey: "A")
- You can pre-buff area affect spells by having your full party visible (hotkey: "5")
- Thieves deal sneak attack damage when behind a creature (creature must be facing opposite direction)
- The game may try to force you to end your turn through a toggle (using all movement, being 'stuck' from a spell/effect), close the toggle and you can continue fighting (shoot, spell, attack adjacent enemies).
- You'll gain a lot of XP playing through the game so creating characters with at least 2 classes is definitely worth it (I beat the game with 3 characters with 3 classes, and one with 2 classes and they were all near max level by the end, so would definitely be max at 2 classes each)
- You can max your stats/hp by clicking the box next to the number during character creation (max constitution before maxing HP)
- There is a 'default' party by loading the game and pressing start game without creating any characters
- Money is nearly useless so don't worry about looting everything
- Haste is the best spell
- Dual wielding weapons gives no determinable penalty and you can attack more
- Some higher-end enemies can destroy your armour / weapons permanently, so keep an eye out for the text (it flashes quickly).
- Clerics are unique in Dark Sun; each elemental sphere of cleric has its own unique (and small selection) of spells. Clerics never learn healing spells or resurrections other than Cure Minor Wounds, while Druids get Cure Serious Wounds, and Cure Critical Wounds, as well as the Raise Dead spell. Clerics are seriously under powered/low-utility.

Wake of the Ravager Tips (adding as I play through):
- Left shift key skips the opening videos
- The default Half-Giant gladiator character (Gerakis) starts with a special weapon, so start with him and transfer the weapon over and drop/add a new character in his place if you want the weapon but not the character. (may also appear in inventory of new parties?)

Love Dark Sun, but want a new experience? Knights of the Chalice is heavily influenced by Shattered Lands: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1083760/Knights_of_the_Chalice/

It is just the games running in DOS Box. I was hoping it would have a bit of a graphics update, if you already have the game somewhere don't bother and install dos box on your own and tweak the settings.

but for the price, much less of an annoyance of messing with the settings.

i found messing with the settings too much just makes things worse. Just hit play. If you mess with the settings you can always hit the reset though.

Loving the throw back, hopefully enough younger players pick up this game and gets the whole series going again. Dark Sun was my favorite setting in AD&D and the novels were a+ too

One of the best games since the 90s, it beats many "modern" games.
I played Wake of the Ravager long ago (edit: not I did again :) ), but had never played Shattered Lands to the end, until today!

About Dark Sun in general:

• Turn based D&D with 2nd edition rules
  
• The world is not the classical Forgotten Realms, but Dark Sun, which gives you an opportunity to experience something very different when compared to most D&D games
  
• If you have a mantis in your party (the default party of DS 1 and 2 do) it will often make enemies difficult to hit by other players, as the mantis character will be covering the enemy. In those cases the enemy can be "selected" by moving your cursor further to the top right (the enemy is not there but you will see it blink)

About Shattered Lands:

• Very few bugs:
  
  • The first time you meet the dragon (a tool to avoid pirating, it asks questions from the manual) some of the text is missing. Not critical, the missing text is just some world building questions that you also get to ask other people during the game
    
  • In the lava region there is a place where NPCs constantly talk to you, this is somehow triggered when you get too close to the mine. Not critical, just move away when it happens
    
• The game starts just a bit difficult, as you may get killed quickly if you don't plan well. Then becomes super easy during 95% of the game. And then the final fight is just insane, you have to go prepared (go buffed and leverage web and free action to avoid getting swarmed)
  
• It's not a long game, which is great, there aren't infinite repetitive missions (aka Bethesda was not involved). I finished it in 30 hours, but I'm slow at playing as I want to be sure I did everything

About Wake of the Ravager:

• Buggier than Shattered Lands:
  
  • Again meeting the dragon involves missing text. It also happens on some other places, but nothing to bad...
    
  • Close to the end of the game, after entering the area that requires all 4 elemental items you will be main a place where there are niches in the walls (trying not to spoil). I'm not sure what triggers it, but at some point a UI glitch may come up, making the niches inaccessible . Only few are important to get down and up an area. TLDR, save before going in that area (the black door requiring all 4 elements), and when in it don't go around too much, there isn't much to do either anyways.
    
  • It does have some other bugs that I don't recall. DS 2 is clearly buggier than DS 1...
    
• When getting the fire ruby in the volcano area there is a mandatory puzzle you must solve, involving stones that move in the lava depending on where you stand. The whole are is time based and the UI of the game is just to inconvenient to solve it. Just go to the cloue-book and look for "Sinking Stones Maze". Whoever designed that section never really played it...
  
• On the mines of Tyr just make a map of your own
  
• The game difficulty is equal all along the game, the final fight is not a big problem either
  
• Also 30 hours like in Shattered Lands

It's the best of the 80s-90s SSI games hands down. The others are still good but this one and Wake of The Ravager have aged the best.

This review is for all of the "Gold Box' games recently released. all of them are classic, enjoyable games and a great addition to any library. I would have loved to get a graphic upgrade and achievements, but the games are good enough with the quality of life improvements they added that I am still happy with my purchase, especially the original Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, and Eye of the Beholder series. Some of the others did not hold up as well, Stronghold, Al-Qadim, and Menzoberranzan are a little harder to love.
Next I would love to see someone release the old Might and Magic series with these same QoL improvements and hopefully some achievements. :)

If I had a dime for every time I played Dark Sun: Shattered Lands when it came out.... I would have a lot of dimes. This was a feel good game for me back in the day, and I would play it just to relax. I loved the story, and the system. It was the first time I got a real good feel playing a "strategic" RPG like this, and this system wasn't surpassed until Baldur's Gate came around. That being said..... we live in a time AFTER Baldur's Gate has been released. Even the vanilla version of BG is very playable. Sadly, like many pioneering games, time has been unkind to engine. It's rough, even as someone who has played this game many times, it can be a chore just doing simple things.

Most actions require pulling up a wonky menu, or using a hotkey, or right clicking to get to the correct icon. As bad as that is, there's are many times when there's some weird lag and hiccups resulting in pauses and then catch-ups. This is not unique to this version, it was there in the original too. I still love it, but it's disappointing it's not as easy to play as it is in my mind.

On the (sort of) bright side, it's really easy to cheat in this game. When making your characters, you can make them godlike strong by default. There's nothing preventing you from changing your stats to make an impossible roll, which sounds kind of like it shouldn't be good.... but honestly, in this game I think it's best to play that way. This is not a game you want to struggle through.

I could go on and on with pros and cons about this game, but the bottom line is it's a mediocre release of a flawed game. As other reviewers have said, this game is lacking any kind of "gold box" extras that some of the other games in the "Gold Box Classics" line have, and that's a big flaw. I mean, at the very least it would be nice to have a reference card available. This is a game that would really benefit by a light overhauling to smooth out the rougher edges. It would be nice if an awesome company came along that really loved the property to give it a good re-master, but let's face it- Dark Sun has long been a redheaded stepchild of TSR, and this is not a game that has hordes of fans.

I still recommend this game, but know that it can be a labor, but an awesome labor giving you a glimpse into a really interesting setting that is unique to the fantasy realm.

A great old game, hours of fun

I've only played part one up to this point. The game is not as fun as I remember, as a kid playing this. It is not as much of a challenge either. It is as buggy as ever and crashes often. The race/class selection is also more limited than I recalled. The running back and forth all across the same 10 or so screens really limited what the game could have been.

That's the negative. The story is still fantastic - and simple enough that I remembered everything. The cool things you could do here and there really made this game amazing - like the teleporting obelisks and being able to fight/kill anyone and everyone. Looking back, this game is probably the game that got me into loving the tactical rpg genre. A full remake of this game with the ability to utilize the power our computers have now would likely be a best seller. The game had so much potential shoved onto a really low capacity CD.

One of my all time favourite games from when I was a kid. I always find myself going back to this game, regardless of how flawed it is, and loving it.

Blast from the distant past but caution those less than 50 years of age who may find the graphics off putting but I enjoyed reliving my early PC gaming years.