Rating: 
Summary: Worst...game...ever!
Review: This game does NOT use the 3rd edition rules. Most of the races/classes are missing (no wizards!). You don't get to pick your feats or skills. Most of the feats and skills are even missing (Monks don't get flurry???)It is also very buggy. Stay away, this game is awful. It's not even a role-playing game. It's a simple dungeon hack. Buy Diablo 2, you'll be much happier.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing radiant about this
Review: PoR has to be the most disappointing CRPG release ever. I played the original gold box games when they were released, and this does not live up to the legacy. There are numerous crash bugs, a tendency for the save files to become corrupted and unusuable (wave goodbye to hours of play), a horrible user interface and the most unbelievably awful gameplay system I've ever had to slog through. I imagine that SSI, before starting development on PoR, had two folders available: one for the best features of the gold box games, one for the worst. The devs picked up the wrong folder before starting. The combat is terrible. It amounts to waiting (slowly, even with gamespeed set to max) for monsters to make their way towards your party and then, just as slowly, attacking them. And SSI brought in the 2-part turn method which was definitely NOT one of the endearing features of the gold box games. It makes for redundant effort and a great deal of wasted time. On the other hand, I *am* getting a good deal of reading done while waiting. People have complained that comparing PoR to the Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale/Planescape:Torment run is unfair. I agree. It's horrendously unfair to take a beta-code "game" which shows little to no knowledge of, to say nothing of love for, the D&D license and compare it to the magnificent efforts of Black Isle Studios' products. It's like setting a flea against Godzilla. PoR is the favoured acronym for this disastrous undertaking. Advance the last letter forward one letter in the alphabet and you'll have a better idea of what this game truly is.
Rating: 
Summary: Ignore the bad reviews!!
Review: I dont know what everyone is complaining about. i love this game. graphics rock, sound is cool, new 3E DND rocks, i love the gameplay. only two downsides ive found. both minor. one- tehre is no gnome, whats with this? 2- sometimes tehre is this invisible bar through the screen that makes my guys invisible in that line, but this is bein fixed by the patch i think. i say, GO GET THIS GAME NOW. if you like dnd, this game is for you. tehre is even a DM. if you are looking for a diablo esque clone, this is not for you. if you liked BG, well then i dunno, i loved Bg and i love this too. so id say find a demo or soemthing. but I LOVED IT!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Slow gameplay and Game crashes
Review: I am a huge fan of the original gold box games and was hoping this would be a revamp of those. Although the turn based combat is reminicent of those old beloved games that is where the simularities end. The navigation system is terrible and slow. The combat is slow, and there is not enough random action....
Rating:
Summary: Don't even think of buying this now...
Review: Game is loaded with bugs. After 5 hours of play can't save without being dropped to the desktop. Installer works only on it's C:\program files\... etc. installs only in the default dir no matter where you set it to. Unplayable at this point. I'm returning mine and wait for a stable release. Yes I would like to buy it again and play it once it's fixed.
Want more ? Go to www.poolofradiance.com "tech" forum and search for "roster". I can't even begin to describe the rest of the bugs, you have to visit their site before buying. That is the best $... advice I can give you all.
Piece of unfinished ....
I'm running AMD 1.33 Ghz ASUS A7MDDR 512mb U160 SCSI drives. Technical field as a profession.
This game is unfinished. UBI SOFT starts to give me a scary feeling whenever I see it on any game box. UNFINISHED!
Rating:
Summary: My opinion sinks ever the lower into the Pool of Radiance
Review: Those of you unfortunate enough to have bought this game will realize just how bad it is from the start. That is to say, you'll be just a bit perplexed when the autorun greets you with an unrecoverable crash. If you manage to get past that, then the installer will crash, causing you to repeat the 30-minute process (for a 'typical' install) over again. And then, when you load the game, it will crash once more, or if you're lucky it'll just dump you back out on the desktop. By this time you will be feeling ripped-off and disgusted. If that wasn't bad enough, the game has a nasty tendency of being uncannily stable during actual play, and then crashing once and for all- sort of like what SSI's stock must be doing now. Only a complete reinstallation will fix it once the thing goes. All right, so this is all fixable with patches, and I'm very optimistic about SSI and UBI-Soft getting those out (sheah, right). If you are a very, very patient player, then you will perhaps not break the discs over your knee and stomp on the remains in wanton rage. The game box proudly advertises 'over 100 hours of gameplay.' It delivers, and you'll be bored stone dead for the first fifty. I have seen exactly 4 kinds of monsters in the first 10 hours of game time. That would be orcs, skeletons, ghouls, and shadows (with various HP differences among them). Battling undead hordes was never this boring. I do believe I have lost a point of my IQ clicking on brainless skeletons. This is one of those titles where you will repeatedly shake your head and mutter 'what were those ... thinking?' The game seems to have a lot of features, but as to what you can actually use, there's just about nothing. You can't choose your feats, your racial enemy, change formations, dual wield, etc. The Dungeon Master is based on a real-life DM that nobody plays D&D with, and is often the target of rotten tomatoes when he ventures outdoors. It gives out experience so sparingly you'll beat the monitor and rip out your hair in fury. It won't let your party members get more than half a screen away from the leader (forget about scouting, thief boy) and it keeps saying you can't do things you should be able to do. So, if you haven't played a D&D CRPG yet, then you really should. Just make sure it isn't THIS one. Go get Baldur's Gate, or wait until Neverwinter Nights comes out. This is shaping up to be one of the biggest, most unexpected flops in CRPG history and you should avoid it like the plague.
Rating: 
Summary: Pen & Paper D&D returns to the Computer
Review: If you are a fan of the Pen and Paper style of D&D, this is it. The turn based style of the game, is a dream come true. I personally could care less about my own personal dexterity in combat. I'm more interested in stategizing what my characters can accomplish. If you were expecting Diablo, you are not a true D&D gamer. I have read a lot of complaints about the install and gameplay, and with the exception of the drive specification, I have not experienced the listed problems. If you think your characters move too slow, have you read the manual yet? Try using your left shift key to run. You can also change the mouse speed in the game options section. These tricks really do work. I personally feel, this game is true to D&D. My major gripes are the lack of some classes, and the limited number of player generated characters available. The dropdown menus were a bit tedious at first, but like any interface they soon become second nature.
Rating:
Summary: PoR Myth Drannor - a Return to the 'Old School'
Review: I am genuinely surprised by th other reviews I have read about this game. I suppose I might feel differently if I had experienced any of the technical issues some other posters have, but I have not. The technical issues aside, a number of people have expressed disappointment regarding the rules and the 'flow' of the game.
The best thing I can tell you is: If you are expecting Baldur's, you may be disappointed. If on the other hand you long for the RPG's of old, like the orignal Pool of Radiance, Bard's Tale....You will love this. This game has the feel of pen and paper gaming, and gives you a fair amount of control over what takes place. I think many people were disappointed in this game simply because they expected it to be something it is not. Overall I find this game to be pleasing visually, some entertaining points and quests, and nothing too in depth plot wise. Bottom Line: If you are the kind of person who owns any of the RPG archives, because you don't like the new RPG's as much, buy this product and you wll enjoy it. If you want an experience like Diablo 2 or Baldur's, don't buy this product.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Fear Change
Review: Don't buy this game if all you are looking for is another Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale. It isn't supposed to be like those games. It is similar to the original PoR. The action is slow, but you need to carefully think about the battles and strategize. The graphics are awesome...HUGE improvement over the original. The interfaces take some getting used to, but they're pretty nice . They don't cover up the graphics. I'm not done yet, but I haven't seen any bugs, glitches, etc. and I'm not on any sort of ubercomputer. Overall, it's a very fun game, just don't buy it with any expectations of what it was supposed to be. Very few things ever live up to their hype.
Rating:
Summary: The bigger the hype, the harder they fall
Review: There are some games that everyone has been waiting for that just don't quite meet expectations. Notables in this category are X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, Arcanum, and Dune 2000. Then there are titles that fall far short of what they were expected to be. Force Commander, for instance. And then you have the titles that are so sloppily done you run a virus check on the discs- just in case. Enter Pool of Radiance: The Ruins of Myth Drannor. Where to start... where to start. Well, I suppose we can talk about PoR's multiplay, which was supposed to be the next best thing in D&D. Random dungeons and plentiful treasure would make it as good as Diablo and Baldur's Gate combined. That would be all very wonderful, if it worked. Don't even try TCP/IP- it doesn't work at all. You also are unable to multitask, and the game has a habit of crashing violently when an instant message pops up. Immediately obvious game problems include an incredibly boring beginning. If you've played Baldur's Gate, imagine wandering around killing rats in Candlekeep for about 10 hours. That's basically how the first dungeon of PoR is like, except that the 'rats' often get lucky and kill you. The Dungeon Master in this game is someone that I would really like to punch, if he/she were corporeal. After clearing out the entire dungeon, be prepared for the shock of your life when you realize you've gained a total of 1,500 experience. Divide by 4 and nobody has gotten even close to a level. By this time, you've probably been hacked up any number of ways, since a critical hit by even a stupid orc will probably kill a character. There aren't enough classes in the game, and multiclassing is so unattractive as to be worthless. Just reading the manual can tell you that much- it's a choice between low levels all around or a character getting an experience percentage cut, as if the overall lack of available experience wasn't bad enough. The game screen is too small. Your vision is so impaired that you'll often discover enemies not by seeing them, but by entering combat mode. On that note, enemies from an extreme distance will often join a melee. This doesn't make it hard- just annoying as you have to wait for that squad of skeletons to hobble over and swing at air. Enemies have an odd ability to materialize out of thin air in plain sight. You also can't divide your party up, since they must remain a certain distance from the leader. This makes it hard to plan an ambush or scout an area with a hidden thief. Combat is both the best and worst aspect of this game. On one hand, you get to see some nice spells and full action swordplay. On the other hand, you can't retreat without letting your enemies put in a few extra swings (they get one no matter what), and the enemies you fight are boring and annoying. Since you'll be so low level for so long, you'll be missing left and right, so it'll take ages to end even an easy battle. The game's turn-based system makes this doubly tedious, and you'll find that battles that would be finished in seconds in Baldur's Gate can take minutes in Pool of Radiance. Okay, so after hearing all this bad stuff, you must think that at LEAST the music has to be good. Bad news. It's the most boringly repetitive game soundtrack since Pong. The sound effects in general are very few and unimpressive, and the combat music has a tendency to make you even more sleepy than you already are from clicking on all those stupid orcs. The only good thing about Pool of Radiance- and one that it really does shine at- is the graphics. They are on par with Baldur's Gate's artistically rendered backgrounds, except that these are 3-d. The miniatures and spells are quite impressive to look at, as are the enemies you meet. It's a pity there are so few of these, or the game might actually make it as a Diablo 2 wannabe. Bottom line: This is one for the bargain bin. SSI has a history of putting out sloppy D&D titles since the original Pool of Radiance, and this only adds a new number to that legacy.
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