This seems to be a common problem with Dark Legions.

If you skip the intro and start a new game "too fast" the game will freeze. A simple workaround is to wait for all the intro sounds to stop before continuing to the menu (wait at the closed double doors, the menu music should start playing).

Also, when you do continue to the main menu you'll hear the fire burning sound. When you click one of the menu items (e.g. start) the fire sound effect should stop. If it doesn't stop and you start a new game, the game will freeze when you try to move a character.

Can't believe anyone haven't made a patch yet, if it's a common issue :\

Now that the characters move, I notice that some move quite slowly, while at the same CPU speed, others are extremely fast (for example the Fire elemental)

I think that's just how the game was programmed. Fire elemental has the highest speed stat, therefore it moves very fast on the screen. On the other hand wizard, seer, conjuror, etc are physically weak and move slowly.

You can skip the movement animations by clicking the mouse (left or right button maybe either one will work, I don't remember) so it doesn't really matter.

Oh, I didn't know that I could skip the slow lame animations, thank you !!! 😁