A typical medieval RPG, Darkstone is similar to Baldur's Gate and Diablo in gameplay style and themes.
Gameplay revolves around improving the character stats of strength, magic, dexterity and vitality as well as the character's gear, weapons, magical knowledge, etc. The four lands of Uma increase in difficulty and are accessed sequentially, with different enemies patrolling the lands and dungeons beneath.
The village acts as an initial training area with firing ranges and example weapons, then subsequently as a trade base for adventurers to sell their loot, bank their cash, buy upgrades, repair armour and weaponry, buy new spellbooks and stock up on health and mana potions as well as food (characters can die from hunger). It is possible to pick up cursed items, such as a cloak that makes the player randomly drop items from their inventory, so a shopkeeper can remove these for you. Finally, if the player wants to hear a song about the Darkstone, they can toss a coin to the singer Audren.[3]
Magic can be learnt by all characters, via finding or buying spellbooks, with 32 potential spells of varying difficulty. A variety of skills can also be learnt, such as thieving from other characters, repairing your own gear, disarming traps, etc. Spells and skills can be acquired by all character types apart from lycanthropy, which can only be learnt by the sorceress. This allows her to change into a werewolf and converts all magic stat points to strength points.
Quests for each new game are randomly selected from 20 options, with different dungeon placement and land layouts, improving the game's replayability. The PC version allows the player to control two characters, switching between them at will, though the Playstation version only allowed for a single character.