Darklands received mixed reviews upon release, with praise for its historical detail and open-ended gameplay, but criticism directed at its numerous bugs and repetitive nature.

Most are in modern-day Germany, but some are within the modern borders of other countries in Western and Central Europe, including Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.

[citation needed] However, there is a main quest to follow in order to finish the game, which involves hunting witches and heretics.

Baphomet can be found in a castle in an obscure location of the game which can only be discovered after finding and defeating the evil occupants of various other fortresses around the map.

Darklands took almost three years to make and cost three million dollars, which was a very large sum for video game development at the time.

Before ubiquitous Internet connectivity, such patches were typically only available through BBS downloads by modem owners and through informal person-to-person copying, and thus many people were only able to play the originally released version.

Scorpia liked the historical setting and use of religion but criticized Darklands' repetitive encounters and—more seriously—many bugs and missing features, such as the inability to save within dungeons, which, she reported, was a problem given the game's instability.

[10] Johnny L. Wilson acknowledged the bugs and repetitive nature but emphasized that "I still like the game", citing the importance of skills and an "open-ended feel and an element of free-will that I haven't previously experienced in a CRPG".

With well-drawn graphics, multiple quests, good character generation, and flexibility in play, the game's detail is phenomenal.

The review concluded "MicroProse should be congratulated for a truly heroic effort in creating a game for sword, sorcery and history buffs.

Jim Trunzo reviewed Darklands in White Wolf #34 (Jan./Feb., 1993), rating it a 4 out of 5 and stated that "the size of the gaming world, the myriad options, the huge numbers of character ratings, and the somewhat unusual terminology used to describe coinage, time and alchemy make Darklands a challenging and complex game in spite of its easy interface.

[17] Todd Howard cited the game as an influence on Bethesda Softworks' popular fantasy role-playing series The Elder Scrolls.