The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Pool of Radiance

For those of you who remember the ancient Pool of Radiance, the first CRPG in the “Gold Box” series, let’s just say the franchise had undergone an upgrade (one needing a beefy PII or better to play).

Should you buy this game? That depends on how much you love hack and slash gaming. Because this is a hackfest deluxe. Forgotton Realms players will identify with the setting of Myth Drannor. Almost the entire game is set within those ruins – and it’s a big place.

Those of you use who love CRPG’s like Baldur Gate, Baldur’s Gate 2, and Planescape: Torment for their detailed interactions with NPC’s will be crestfallen – there just ain’t much story here. If you’re big on alignment and role-playing, you need not apply.

On the other hand, PoR is the first computer game to incorporate 3rd edition rules. The combat is turn-based, and I must say, those rules make the combat much more interesting than the real time infinity engine games. Charging, flanking, and attacks of opportunity are all here. The spell casting effects are so graphically cool that they’re unbelievable, you get an “Ooooh yeah” when you blast away. The biggest disappointment with combat is that there just isn’t much creature variety. If you fight a critter once, you will fight it over 100 times. A bit of that freshness is lost. But in general, combat is fun.

It’s Monty Haul, too. You get a ton of gold an magic items, which is nice at first, but there’s nothing to sell or exchange it for. If you could take 10,000 gold and 10 magic swords and trade them in for an uber artifact, that would be different. But you can’t. You’ve got everything you need and then some, so the loot is just ridiculous. Sure, CRPG’s tend to be a bit Monty Haul, but few are as bad in this regard as PoR. This game starts tough, but you’ll quickly get on top of it.

Another curious thing is that you can rest anywhere for total recovery of hit points and spells. I seldom even used healing potions in this game, and I never had to worry about cracking off every spell in my arsenal. Sorcerers rule and I mean rule. They really should have balanced this better.

The rules adaptation was good in general, with the biggest nit being that you cannot choose your feats and skills. Alas, this is a pretty big nit, because this wipes out the nice character variations you can get in 3rd edition rules. This is especially true because they use a small subset of the feats and skills list. Too bad. And a few of the feats are worthless as implemented. So while it’s a 3rd edition game, the restrictiveness of the classes is reminiscent of old D&D. Wizards, Bards, and Druids are not allowed here, so if those are your classes, you’re out of luck. No gnomes either, but who gives a crap about gnomes anyway?

Bugs are that you sometimes don’t move where you click, and there’s a nasty bug if you save while invisible. There’s also an installation bug where it forces you to install to the C drive. And don’t uninstall this game until you’ve read the warning of the PoR web site – a few users have trashed their OS with a particularly nasty bug. Read the readme file on this game and don’t take the system requirements lightly. Patches are helping with some of these issues.

Overall, graphics and sounds are excellent, a shade under the Baldur’s Gate standard in some ways, a shade better in others. The multiplayer is kinda fun, but characters can’t really scout ahead in this style of game, so the “lead” character pretty much calls the tune.

Overall, a decent buy for the hackmasters among you, especially if you dig turn based carnage. For others, it’s a bit mixed. I’m sad that they missed so many things that would’ve vastly improved this title with a little effort. A few more skills and feats, let the players pick them, give the players something to spend their loot on, and make it tougher to recover hit points and spells, and you’ve got a first rate dungeon crawl that you could recommend to nearly anyone. A near miss.

Bonus: A promotion has a Player's Handbook included with some copies

Style: Good looking devil Substance: Critical omissions mar a promising hack n slasher

Pool of Radiance
Pool of Radiance Playtest Review by James Owens on 06/11/01 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 2 (Sparse) A near miss from the first 3rd Ed. CRPG Product: Pool of Radiance Author: Many Category: computer game Company/Publisher: SSI Line: Cost: Page count: Year published: ISBN: SKU: Comp copy?: no Playtest Review by James Owens on 06/11/01 Genre tags: Fantasy	Pool of Radiance For those of you who remember the ancient Pool of Radiance, the first CRPG in the “Gold Box” series, let’s just say the franchise had undergone an upgrade (one needing a beefy PII or better to play). Should you buy this game? That depends on how much you love hack and slash gaming. Because this is a hackfest deluxe. Forgotton Realms players will identify with the setting of Myth Drannor. Almost the entire game is set within those ruins – and it’s a big place. Those of you use who love CRPG’s like Baldur Gate, Baldur’s Gate 2, and Planescape: Torment for their detailed interactions with NPC’s will be crestfallen – there just ain’t much story here. If you’re big on alignment and role-playing, you need not apply. On the other hand, PoR is the first computer game to incorporate 3rd edition rules. The combat is turn-based, and I must say, those rules make the combat much more interesting than the real time infinity engine games. Charging, flanking, and attacks of opportunity are all here. The spell casting effects are so graphically cool that they’re unbelievable, you get an “Ooooh yeah” when you blast away. The biggest disappointment with combat is that there just isn’t much creature variety. If you fight a critter once, you will fight it over 100 times. A bit of that freshness is lost. But in general, combat is fun. It’s Monty Haul, too. You get a ton of gold an magic items, which is nice at first, but there’s nothing to sell or exchange it for. If you could take 10,000 gold and 10 magic swords and trade them in for an uber artifact, that would be different. But you can’t. You’ve got everything you need and then some, so the loot is just ridiculous. Sure, CRPG’s tend to be a bit Monty Haul, but few are as bad in this regard as PoR. This game starts tough, but you’ll quickly get on top of it. Another curious thing is that you can rest anywhere for total recovery of hit points and spells. I seldom even used healing potions in this game, and I never had to worry about cracking off every spell in my arsenal. Sorcerers rule and I mean rule. They really should have balanced this better. The rules adaptation was good in general, with the biggest nit being that you cannot choose your feats and skills. Alas, this is a pretty big nit, because this wipes out the nice character variations you can get in 3rd edition rules. This is especially true because they use a small subset of the feats and skills list. Too bad. And a few of the feats are worthless as implemented. So while it’s a 3rd edition game, the restrictiveness of the classes is reminiscent of old D&D. Wizards, Bards, and Druids are not allowed here, so if those are your classes, you’re out of luck. No gnomes either, but who gives a crap about gnomes anyway? Bugs are that you sometimes don’t move where you click, and there’s a nasty bug if you save while invisible. There’s also an installation bug where it forces you to install to the C drive. And don’t uninstall this game until you’ve read the warning of the PoR web site – a few users have trashed their OS with a particularly nasty bug. Read the readme file on this game and don’t take the system requirements lightly. Patches are helping with some of these issues. Overall, graphics and sounds are excellent, a shade under the Baldur’s Gate standard in some ways, a shade better in others. The multiplayer is kinda fun, but characters can’t really scout ahead in this style of game, so the “lead” character pretty much calls the tune. Overall, a decent buy for the hackmasters among you, especially if you dig turn based carnage. For others, it’s a bit mixed. I’m sad that they missed so many things that would’ve vastly improved this title with a little effort. A few more skills and feats, let the players pick them, give the players something to spend their loot on, and make it tougher to recover hit points and spells, and you’ve got a first rate dungeon crawl that you could recommend to nearly anyone. A near miss. Bonus: A promotion has a Player's Handbook included with some copies Style: Good looking devil Substance: Critical omissions mar a promising hack n slasher