<p>Digitally Downloaded offer a <a href="http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/2011/05/greatest-forgotten-rpg-dark-sun-wake-of.html" target="_blank">retrospective review</a> on <strong>Darksun: Wake of the Ravager</strong>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Looking at the list of some of the greats, it could almost be a ‘best of’ list; there’s Death Knights of Krynn, Eye of the Beholder, Menzoberranzan, Pool of Radiance and the Ravenloft horror RPGs, Strahd’s Possession and Stone Prophet. These games were universally capable of bringing Dungeons and Dragons fans into their favourite game worlds at a time where the value of Dungeons and Dragons was peaking, and there were more game worlds then people were capable of following.
But the best of them is the lost-to-history Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager. It was a supremely detailed game that encouraged exploration and consequence before the likes of Baldur’s Gate had even been thought of. As such it was also endlessly replayable, and as it was set in a game world that goes against the grain for modern fantasy, it remains, even now, reasonably unique.
Dark Sun was a deeply unpleasant world, and the perfect example of low-powered fantasy. The starving and thirsty pockets of civilization groaned under the whip of supremely powerful tyrants. Resistance movements dug themselves so deeply underground that they were unable to achieve anything of note. Five steps outside of those pockets of life were cruel wastelands, ruled over by merciless thugs and weird, amoral creatures.
Just surviving under this sun was an achievement, which is precisely what made Wake of the Ravager such an intriguing concept – what you did, and what you tried to do, could have substantial consequences. It was entirely possibly to accidentally cause the death of the resistance movement by failing to come to its aid. It was all too easy to wander into a fight well beyond your character’s means. It wasn’t from a lack of raw power – the skills and abilities of the party were broad. It was just that the enemy was even more powerful.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They should have mentioned that the game likes to bug out.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Looking at the list of some of the greats, it could almost be a ‘best of’ list; there’s Death Knights of Krynn, Eye of the Beholder, Menzoberranzan, Pool of Radiance and the Ravenloft horror RPGs, Strahd’s Possession and Stone Prophet. These games were universally capable of bringing Dungeons and Dragons fans into their favourite game worlds at a time where the value of Dungeons and Dragons was peaking, and there were more game worlds then people were capable of following.
But the best of them is the lost-to-history Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager. It was a supremely detailed game that encouraged exploration and consequence before the likes of Baldur’s Gate had even been thought of. As such it was also endlessly replayable, and as it was set in a game world that goes against the grain for modern fantasy, it remains, even now, reasonably unique.
Dark Sun was a deeply unpleasant world, and the perfect example of low-powered fantasy. The starving and thirsty pockets of civilization groaned under the whip of supremely powerful tyrants. Resistance movements dug themselves so deeply underground that they were unable to achieve anything of note. Five steps outside of those pockets of life were cruel wastelands, ruled over by merciless thugs and weird, amoral creatures.
Just surviving under this sun was an achievement, which is precisely what made Wake of the Ravager such an intriguing concept – what you did, and what you tried to do, could have substantial consequences. It was entirely possibly to accidentally cause the death of the resistance movement by failing to come to its aid. It was all too easy to wander into a fight well beyond your character’s means. It wasn’t from a lack of raw power – the skills and abilities of the party were broad. It was just that the enemy was even more powerful.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They should have mentioned that the game likes to bug out.</p>
As if AD&D wasn't the most popular and well-known ruleset and BG 1/2 didn't sell millions of copies despite also using the same armor system. 
