Dark Heart of Uukrul Download (1989 Role playing Game)

Four adventurers are sent by the Western Council to defeat out Uukrul, a great evil that once defeated the Ancients, thought to be destroyed, to possible invasion to the Western Lands. The last party sent by the council was lead by Mara, and it has been 18 months since they have sent word. The council assumes the worst. Now these adventurers must infiltrate the underground city of Eriosthe, and continue to the eastern end of Eriosthe, the heart of Uukrul's stronghold and destroy the evil once and for all.

The Dark Heart of Uukrul is a 1st Person Perspective, turned-based RPG, where the player takes control of a party of four specifically classed adventurers: a Fighter, a Paladin, a Priest, and a Magician. The player may use a pre-generated party or create an entirely new party.

Being an evil mastermind is easy for one like me, but choosing good and challenging games for my genius, well that isn't easy. Especially when many of them are rehashes of the same-old same-old. Not this one, however. With a nice combat system, intriguing puzzles, and a plot good enough even for one as clever as myself, The Dark Heart of Uukrul is one heck of a good game.

So, what is it about? Well, basically your party is sent on a mission to destroy Uukrul, the evil lord of an underground land. You are NOT the first to try this, as a whole army was sent against him before you are sent. But, in typical hero fashion, they failed. MISERABLY. All that remains of them is the diary of one of the warriors. Heh, typical heroes, always failing. Oh yeah, the review. So now it is up to your band of warriors (four in all - why do they always come in fours?), each a different class, to succeed where a whole army of heroes failed. Of course, being a bad guy myself, you know who I am rooting for.

So you take your heroes, their little soul gems (more on those later) and their basic equipment and you set them in the underground world. Unlike in most RPGs, you cannot choose the classes of your team in this game. No, you have a set foursome: one Fighter (wields all the heavy weapons and armor), one Paladin (able to fight well and lay on hands for healing), one Priest (who can pray to various incredible deities), and one Wizard (if you do not know what a Wizard does, you are really out of it!). This may seem to take away from the game as a whole, but in the end, this is all part of the magic. See, you need this exact team in order to solve each puzzle, and there are a lot of those! The game is loaded with puzzles, and each of them is unique. Even the copy protection, which can be defeated with the printout of the soul gems, is a puzzle! In order to use the sanctuaries, which heal characters and allow game saving, you must use the gems to decode the language of each sanctuary. How exactly is this done? Well, I'm evil, so I am not telling. You have to look at the instructions on the gems to find out.

But that is only the beginning. One rule of thumb in this game: ALMOST NOTHING IN THE GAME IS USELESS! You may even have to retrieve items which you've thrown away because they seemed useless. And that is not good, considering how many of Uukrul's minions there are just waiting for a hero sandwich.

This happens to be another of the strengths of this diabolical game: the combat. Through the majority of the game you are playing from a first-person perspective, but the combat is much more strategic, similar to Ultima IV in appearance and execution. Not only that, but the animation of movement, spells, and attacks is well done, considering when the game was made. On the downside, prayers and spells require the user to spell their titles correctly. Not easy, considering these are not in a language I ever heard of - except maybe ancient Demonic script...

Of course, combat and puzzles may be the main joys of the game, but there are others. One is that the characters need food and water to survive, another being that, when one dies, a character has to be revived quickly, or else it will not work and a new partner will have to take their place. Personally, I like that part. After all, heroes can be easily replaced, like most of my minons.

Overall, The Dark Heart of Uukrul is a unique RPG experience that gamers should try at least once. It has it all: incredible difficulty, well-made combat system, unique puzzles, and a storyline that is very well thought out. I give this game a 4 out of 5. Anyone who says otherwise will meet the wrath of Uukrul!

Arguably one of the best RPGs ever, this game has managed to somehow be excluded from every single Hall of Fame lists. Dark Heart of Uukrul rivals the best RPGs out there! Turn-based combat with great (albeit difficult) puzzles and original spells are only the beginning. Your mission is to collect all fragments of the evil Uukrul's heart in order to destroy him.

There are many innovations in the game that sadly aren't well known since the game did poorly in stores. For starter, the writings, although few and far between, are excellent. You'll periodically find clues or magical writings by the late sorceress Mara, which are crucial to solving puzzles and measuring your progress. And what puzzles there are! To illustrate how original and unique puzzles in Uukrul are, let me just give one example: in one area, you'll come across strange riddles on different walls. After looking at the automap and matching riddle positions to the map, you'll realize that the area is one giant crossword puzzle, and the riddles are clues to each word in the puzzle! When I discovered this, I shook my head in amazement at how ingenious the designers are. Typical dungeon riddles, move over :)

The game also shines in every other respect-- many spells and prayers for your wizard and cleric to cast, a lot of tough monsters and loot, and excellent automap and teleporter features. The only disappointment I had with the game was the fact that character creation was somewhat weak. But given how difficult the game gets in later stages, perhaps it's all for the best. Uukrul is a definite must-play for any dungeon master or anyone remotely interested in the genre.

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

People who downloaded Dark Heart of Uukrul have also downloaded:
Dark Phear, Death Knights of Krynn, Darklands, Dark Designs II: Closing The Gate, Challenge of The Five Realms, Dark Disciples, Dark Queen of Krynn, The, Dink Smallwood